Credit: Morgan Fargo
Beauty
“I was always sceptical of fake freckles until I tried this unbelievably simple hack”
By Morgan Fargo
3 years ago
1 min read
Seen on social media, I couldn’t not try it.
It seems we never really grow out of the childhood adage: you always want what others have. Whether it’s hair texture, colour or volume, where we carry birthmarks, the length of our eyelashes – as a young person, it all seems to be an unfair shake of fate’s lottery. Then if we’re lucky and as we age, a glorious wash of self-acceptance coats us and thoughts of changing almost everything about ourselves fade. Though, the one piece of the puzzle I have always lamented though is being born without freckles.
A quick reminder of what freckles actually are: “a freckle is an isolated small spot in the skin where melanocytes (pigment-producing skin cells) have produced more melanin than usual as a normal result of sun exposure,” Dr Alexis Granite previously shared with Stylist, consultant dermatologist at the Cadogan Clinic in London. “They differ from moles, which are like little nests of melanocytes. A freckle is just the pigment itself, and doesn’t necessarily signal serious sun damage.”
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Despite being blessed with a network of moles, including a beauty spot that identically mirrors my mum’s, my face is freckle-free. So, when I stumbled across a make-up technique to create natural-looking freckles, I jumped at the chance.
Incredibly simple, the video was initially shared by TikTok user and make-up artist @frenchtouchofmakeup, who shows how a brown liquid eyeliner, a little setting spray and some careful dabbing can create easy freckles.
First, you use liquid eyeliner (in whichever colour you would like your freckles to be), to create small freckle-shaped flecks on your fingertips. Then, spritz a little make-up setting spray on the “freckles”. Finally, use your fingers to place the freckles across the bridge of your nose and across the tops of the cheeks. Of course, you can place your freckles wherever you’d like; across the entire face, down the neck or on your collarbone and décolleté area. Using your fingers, rather than a liquid pen straight onto the face, helps to create a realistic dispersion of freckles.
Simple and effective, the technique takes less than a minute to do and lasts all day. I applied a couple of layers of freckles to create a natural smattering and then used a clean foundation brush to gently blur them into the skin – it helped knock the brightness from the colour and create a softer, matte effect. Efficient and easy, it’s a hack I’ll be repeating, without a shadow of a doubt.
Main image: Morgan Fargo
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