Camouflage makeup, or any make-up for that matter, is intended to bring the best out in you and make you feel your most confident. In my mind it is intended to allow you to focus on your life rather than your appearance. It allows you to not have to worry about that *thing* you don’t like the look of, or your skin not looking great today.
As a make-up artist I love making peoples’ skin look lovely and radiant. I am not a fan of the recent trend of piling on layers of make-up and contouring and highlighting and strobing in order to completely change one’s features. My style is and always will be more naturally beautiful – I want people to be in love with their features as they are. The make-up I do should allow them to see their own features in the best possible way rather than trying to change them.
So what about camouflage, you ask? That, surely, is changing a feature of somebody’s appearance. And that is of course true. But my philosophy is simple: I want to give people the best possible quality of life and confidence possible. I do not prescribe that anyone should use camouflage make-up, nor think that certain things should be covered with make-up. However, I also don’t believe in forcing people to suffer. We do not tell women not to cover up their under-eye bags or spots so that our superficial society becomes more accepting of them. We are perfectly understanding of women who want to wear cosmetic make-up to feel better, so why should we not do the same for someone with vitiligo, or rosacea, or a scar?
I applaud with all my heart people who are strong and confident and happy in themselves. As you can see from all my social media feeds I love diversity and think that there is beauty in all skins. But if someone would rather be able to hide something I fully understand that and want to be able to help.
A filmmaker who was run over by a bicycle and whose entire face is covered in black bruises. She has film screenings and an awards ceremony coming up and wants to make sure that the conversations she has with people are centred around her work and not her face or her accident.
A young woman who doesn’t normally wear short-sleeved tops because of a hypertrophic scar on her arm who wants to wear a dress for her birthday party.
A young mother who suffers from social anxiety and strong flushing to the neck and chest. She wants to be able to feel more confident in social situations by not having to worry about her redness.
As you can see in all of these varied examples, to me the answer is a resounding YES – sometimes, wearing camouflage make-up can make you feel more confident be a great tool for allowing people to be themselves rather than having people react to something superficial.