Your Guide to Photo-Friendly Cosmetics

Dear Amalah,
Oh my holy hell. I look like washed-up crap in photographs. Why is this? Why can’t I have skin-colored skin? I didn’t used to be so ghostly whiiiiiite!
Okay, background: I am a natural strawberry-blond (glad you didn’t take the fake red route with your hair, which looks fab, BTW), pale-ish skin, some light freckles, blue-green eyes. It seems that every photograph taken of me in at least the past five (okay, ten) years makes my face look like a big, white blob. Also! I have no neck, it appears.
Now, I saw in one of the MamaPop posts about Kelly Ripa that they said she had the ghost face (so not true) and someone in the comments said it was because of SPF products reflecting the light from the camera flash. Is this true?
I use SPF 30 moisturizer, then Smashbox Dermaxxxxyl SPF 15 primer (because you said so) and L’Oreal True Blend foundation (no SPF). Am I over-SPF-ing? My skin looks normal in real life, but photos are a disaster. I went to a series of events last weekend at which WAY too many photos were taken, and I used non-SPF moisturizer, but it didn’t seem to help. I’m thinking it might be my foundation, although I have used a variety of them over these past years.
What say you and your minions, Oh Holy Queen of Makeup? Am I destined to wear a bag over my head every time someone pulls out a camera?
signed,
Just Call Me Casper
I’d honestly never heard the thing about SPF products reflecting the camera flash, so I conducted one of the highly -scientific and well-funded experiments that you can only get here at the Advice Smackdown: I aimed the camera and flash at my naked and make-up free face and snapped a picture. Then I slathered on some sunscreen and took another.
The photos looked exactly the same. No difference. And yes, I was completely blindingly white in both. And no, you don’t get to see either. I do still have some dignity around here, mmmkay?
Since clearly this is not my area of expertise, I sent your question on to an actual photojournalist-type person who has personally removed the blinding glare of oil off my very own forehead in many, many photos. She has also contoured my upper arm, while insisting that NO, YOUR ARM IS NOT FAT AND FLABBY, IT’S JUST THE ANGLE. TOTALLY THE FAULT OF THE ANGLE.
In short, I heart her, and I figured she was the best person to ask. She’d never heard of the SPF thing either, but thought it might make sense, HOWEVER, please read on for her list of photo-friendly cosmetic tips. It’s good stuff, y’all, and I fully intend to take her advice before the next photo-happy event I attend. (I interrupt her once or twice, as I am wont to do, so my comments are in bold.)
***
Ah yes, the dreaded Casper the Friendly Ghost Face phenomenon. It usually results from a combination of poor use of flash photography and less-than-ideal foundation choices. Unfortunately we can’t always prevent good people from using bad cameras, but the good news is that there are a few tricks of the trade that can help a lot.
Here’s why it happens:
The majority of point-and-shoot cameras have the flash mounted on the front of the camera. When the picture is taken, the light essentially punches the subject directly in the face. If you think about it, we are usually lit from above by sunlight or ceiling lights, or from the side by a window or lamp light. A bright, pre-set camera flash is an unnatural light source hitting you at an unnatural angle, so naturally you’re going to look, um, unnatural in the photograph.
In short, when the flash hits you directly, your skin’s natural oils reflect directly back at the camera. That’s why you sometimes see the shiny forehead effect in photographs when in fact the person wasn’t visibly shiny at all. (Amy: YES! I SWEAR I DON’T REALLY LOOK THAT GREASY!)
“Ghost face” is the exact opposite of shiny forehead syndrome. In this case, the subject appears unusually pale and washed out in the photo, even though they don’t look that way in real life. Lighter liquid foundations that claim to “boost your natural radiance” can be some of the worst culprits. The full-on Casper the Friendly Ghost effect usually results when a photo subject is wearing a shade of foundation that is too light for her complexion. It’s worse when the person is also wearing a lot of pressed powder.
While the proper selection of tinted foundation is definitely an Amalah area of expertise, I CAN say that the best way I’ve found to find a good foundation color for me is to go directly to a certain high-end boutique here in Stepford and have a makeup artist there help me. They converted me to Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer instead of an over-the-counter liquid base, and I’ve found it makes all the difference.
So here’s what you can do:
1. Make sure you’re using a foundation that matches your skin exactly and blend it well.
2. Don’t be afraid to play up your cheekbones and contours of your face with a well-chosen blush. (Amy: For those of us without prominent cheekbones, the best and easiest way to apply blush is to smile ridiculously and stupidly big. Now feel your cheeks. Find the most fleshy part, which is right where you should start applying the blush. Sweep up and out, towards your temples. And if you’re worried about looking like Raggety Ann, try NARS blush in Orgasm. It looks good on EVERYBODY.)
3. If you know you’re going somewhere where a lot of photographs will be taken, i.e. a wedding, set your makeup with a decent pressed powder (I like Benefit) when you’re getting ready. Do NOT keep powdering throughout the day. Maybe once or twice after you’ve been dancing a
while. You’ll just keep caking the stuff on and risk getting the ghost-face effect.
4. Instead, keep oil-absorbing blotting papers handy, especially those that claim to leave your makeup in place while absorbing oil and perspiration. BLOT. DON’T WIPE. If you don’t have a Sephora near you, Victoria’s Secret sells them. (Amy: And Clean & Clear makes a good version too.) They keep them by the cash register. I keep them in my camera bag next to my emergency tampon and the sheriff-issued press pass that gives me permission to cross police lines at spot news situations. Um, TMI? Probably.
5. If you’ve moved beyond point-and-shoot cameras, and you have a camera with a separate flash, point it straight up *instead of right at* your subjects. The light will bounce off the ceiling, spread out and illuminate them in a way that mimics sunlight. If the ceiling is painted a bold color, it might cast a weird hue as the flash bounces off the paint. Instead, point it at a nearby light colored wall, which will bounce light on your subject from the side and mimic the effect of
window light.
Finally, if I could just proselytize for one minute… When Just Call Me Casper said she was somewhere last weekend where “WAY too many photos were taken,” my heart creaked a little bit. There’s no such thing as too many photos! Everyone has taken at least one picture in their lifetime that they absolutely love, so everyone has the ability to be a great photographer.
You deserve to have beautiful photographs of yourself and your loved ones. Pay someone else to take them and/or invest in a good camera, one that appeals to you in size and style so that you WANT to take it with you. Pick one that can keep up with your toddler and actually takes the damn photo when you push the button. (That weird delay is called “shutter lag,” by the way. It sucks.) Buy a separate rotatable flash that you can use to your advantage. Have patience with yourself as you learn.
No one ever said, “There are just WAY too many photos of Nana before she died. If I have to look at ONE more picture of her laughing while she danced around the kitchen with Pop Pop, I’ll scream… ” They say, “I wish I had just *one” picture of her smiling. She hated having her picture taken.”
Photographs are the way you remain immortal to your family. Don’t cringe and pull away when someone wants to photograph you. (THAT’S what gives you the appearance of a double chin, by the way, the cringing and pulling back. No one is as fat as she imagines herself to be. Your chin is lovely, I promise. ) Photograph everyone you cherish, and let them cherish you the same way. If you happen to make good foundation choices that counteract the ghost face effect and BLOT. NOT WIPE. the shiny forehead syndrome away first, more power to you. Thus endeth the sermon.