How many minutes (or even hours) do we spend per year trying to find the perfect Instagram filter? I don’t have the answer…but I’m sure it’s longer than we’d like to admit. Why waste all that time when you can spend it doing productive things like making reservations on OpenTable and watching TMZ? I understand we all want to look good in photos, but a faux filter may not always be the answer…
This is not another blog post calling people out who hashtag #nofilter when the photo is very clearly edited. It’s about making your skin look like it would with a filter but you can proudly and honestly hashtag #NOFILTER…because you won’t be needing them anymore.
There’s foundation, tinted moisturizers, primers, and everything in-between…but there’s this category I’ve more recently discovered consisting of one-step products that either diffuse light to give you the perfect glow or just give your skin the right amount of tint without going too far with the coverage. And in my eyes…they’re all basically filters for your face. But in real life!
The most simple, yet effective, of these products I’ve used is Glossier’s Perfecting Skin Tint. Their description says it all…the skin tint falls “in the land between bare skin and makeup makeup.” It basically just enhances what you’ve got, without “erasing any other evidence that you are, in fact, a real human being.” I would use more of my own words to describe this skin tint, but when Glossier does it so well, I just can’t top that.
Another brand making living the filtered life quite simple is Hourglass. They just launched at Nordstrom so I went last night to check it out. I had used a few of their products in the past but the store I used to buy it from closed a long time ago (RIP Raizy), so I took quite the extensive Hourglass hiatus…but I’m back and I’m pretty excited about it. They have this super cool stuff called Ambient Lighting Powder that basically diffuses and softens surrounding light so you always look like you’re in the perfect lighting. They also have a blush (pictured above) that does the same thing but with added color for your cheeks. Whether you want a moonlit glow, sun-kissed skin, or a brighter complexion (and a few other options in between) there’s a powder for that. Who wouldn’t want to look like they’re in flattering light ALL the time? The “dim light” color is my favorite (although if you’re indecisive like me, you can just go with the Ambient Lighting Palette), so we’ll see if you notice anything different in my future ‘gramming.
These are the two I’ve had the most experience with but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other filter-like options out there. L’Oreal has a great finishing cream that gives similar results to the Hourglass powder (with regards to smoothing skin, diffusing light, etc.) but with a different technology and of course it’s a cream (not a powder). Charlotte Tilbury (my new obsession) is also utilizing light to blur fine lines and imperfections with her Wonder Glow Beauty Flash. To look extra luminous, RMS Beauty’s Living Luminizer is a go-to (if it’s good enough for Miranda and Gisele, it’s good enough for me). You can also go a different route than the skin tints and the light reflectors and try more of a corrector. Smashbox is best known for this, but the color you go for depends on what you want to fix — green to neutralize redness, orange to hide sun spots and acne scars, and yellow to cover up purple tones (like under eye circles).
So if you want to spend less time on choosing the right Instagram filter, and more time just making your skin look awesome IRL, then join the revolution (or you can always do both…)
Images via Fashion Gone Rogue & Facebook
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