What's the deal with color correcting?

Okay, is it just me, or did I blink and miss LITERALLY EVERY BRAND launching color correctors?

I hate to put on my tin foil hat for this, but I feel like it's one of those trends they "create" to make money. And you know if Alina sees a flaw in the beauty industry, it's real.

Seriously though, usually one brand starts the trend and they all follow, but this trend? Maybe in the last month, brands as different as tarte, Urban Decay, Wet 'n' Wild and YSL have launched color-correcting products all at once.

Maybe I'm a total conspiracy theorist, but something about this trend is fishy. It's also never quite worked for me, so I could just be bitter, but anyways...what is color correcting?

Color correcting is a method used to even out your skintone which uses the concept of a color wheel. You've seen a color wheel before, right? Looks like this?

Yeah, you got it. So color correcting is most often used to correct redness in the skin or darkness under the eyes. You're meant to use the opposite color of the one you want to correct to cancel it out, and follow up with your normal base routine to conceal more fully. 

Example: if you have redness in your skin, rather through rosacea, irritation, or acne (literally welcome to my life), using a green concealer (green is the opposite of red on the color wheel) can dull the redness, making it easier to cover. Just remember, less is more! You don't want to end up like I did in 7th grade when I thought you applied it everywhere. I came downstairs for school and my mom told me you just use it to spot treat...after asking if I was nauseous. I stubbornly went to school anyways. Yes, I've always been that stubborn, but hey -- look at me now! Still stubborn, and it still kicks my ass.

Another common example: undereye circles usually have bluish or purplish undertones. Using a salmon-y concealer can help hide those! In fact, some girl on buzzfeed went viral last year for using red lipstick as a color corrector under her concealer, and it worked! If you have a fairer skintone, pastel colors would work much better, but on a darker skintone, more pronounced colors will give you more coverage and be a lot more beneficial to you in the color-correcting process.

WHERE'D THOSE UNDEREYE CIRCLES GO?? Magic.

As with all makeup, practice definitely makes perfect. My advice to you is as follows:

1. Don't get caught up in trends. If you want to color correct, great! But don't do what I always do, where I see a new launch and immediately buy the world. Color correct if you want or feel you need to. If not, don't worry about it!
2. When color correcting, dab a little bit of the product on your skin first, and then blend, blend, blend! You can always add more if you need to. Learn from 12-year-old Alina -- less is more. Also, why does she love those damn American Eagle stretchy brown gaucho pants so much? ICK! If you can't trust her with athleisure, what CAN you trust her with?
3. And finally (since every list needs a third), if you can't get it right, don't worry about it. All makeup takes time to get right, and if you're a perfectionist to the point where its practically a handicap (like me), it can be frustrating and you sometimes want to throw everything out and start over. Don't do that! It's a waste of money and a waste of throwing. Take your time, start with a little and add more, and practice, practice, practice.

Good luck! 

-Alina