I’ve been very curious about green tinted products to mask facial redness, although not curious enough to actually try one until recently. I somewhat expected that they would leave me looking like a person with red undertones and green slop lathered on my face. Don’t get me wrong; rosy red skin can be nice, but not so much when it isn’t from a healthy glow but more from eczema and rosacea. I think the key with green toned products is whether or not they blend in to give your skin a natural looking complexion. Il Makiage makes a product called even tones that is not just a green tint for red skin but also comes in four different shades depending on how your skin hue needs to be balanced. They have white to lighten skin-tone and cover blemishes, violet to balance out sallow, green toned skin and a pink to add a rosy tone to green skin undertones or sallow skin (and of course the green for red skin). The great thing about even tones is that it blends in like a dream. It looks like you have nothing on and is not like a foundation in any sense; that is, it isn’t a thick paste of colour that sits on the skin like I feared; it actually blends into the skin like a moisturizer. I can almost not describe how well this evened out my skin tone. I will say, it made my skin tone look as good as it does with make-up on without looking like I was wearing any. In fact I don’t need to use make-up when using this at all. The instructions do state to apply this underneath your foundation, however it worked so well on it’s own for me that I didn’t feel the need to put any on. For extra coverage of spots or blemishes you may wish to add a foundation though. The only downside is that it doesn’t contain a sunblock which is one of the main reasons I wear foundations and mineral make-ups as my skin burns very easily. This has been easily solved by using my new UV block from Clarins underneath, but make sure to reapply your sun block throughout the day if you expect to be in the sun a lot. However if you are going to use a light mineral make up powder (or other SPF containing foundation) that provides a physical sun block on top, this shouldn’t be an issue. That aside, this is also a very kind product on sensitive skin. No sting, no dryness, or itch at all. Even tones seemed to provide a good level of hydration too, and I didn’t need to apply any other moisturizer with it. It also passed my ‘after cleansing test’ in that i could use it on freshly cleansed skin without any irritation which is a good sign. Although I still love my mineral and liquid foundations for providing sun protection and protecting my skin from environmental pollution, this is one product i am going to use more often when I want my skin to look natural and make-up free. Any kind of make-up can look cakey, especially if you have a tendency for dry skin, and this definitely doesn’t. I am so chuffed that this is going into my eczema favorites pile. Not because it would be good to use on active eczema (as it isn’t designed for that) but because it effectively and gently conceals the redness that can be a bi-product of eczema. This stuff is almost magical, I’m not surprised that professional make-up artists use it to even out skin tones that are less than picture-perfect. Even tones is available from the Il Makiage website: www.ilmakiage.com.au 

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