Rio Skin Camouflage and Tattoo Concealer Make-up Set

Rio Skin Camouflage make-up--so natural only you will know

Rio Skin Camouflage is a professional corrective cosmetic kit designed for home use. Applied to a variety of non-infectious skin conditions such as vitiligo, acne scars and age spots, birthmarks and tattoos, the results are truly amazing. It will also make scar tissue less noticeable and can even be used to add imperfections to the skin to make the final effect look natural.

Rio Skin Camouflage can be used alone or as the ideal base for applying your own make-up. With a little practice you will easily master the techniques of skin camouflage, bringing with it psychological benefits and boosting your confidence. Rio Skin Camouflage is unlike normal cosmetic make-up foundations. When it is applied it will mimic your normal skin and hide your skin condition or tattoo. The creams are fragrance free with a unique opaque coverage, created for maximum coverage and giving a truly long lasting, even finish. The Rio Skin Camouflage is technically advised by the British Association of Skin Camouflage.

First create the skin colour match by mixing a colour and testing the match against your skin

The application

Before you start, it's a good idea to watch the step-by-step DVD for great tips and techniques on how to use the kit effectively. Rio Skin Camouflage is suitable for both men and women, and for all age groups. The same procedure is used on all skins.

Skin colour match

First, create the skin colour match. This is the most difficult and time consuming part of the process. Wash your hands and the area you wish to conceal before you begin, removing any oils from the skin surface with a mild skin toner. Squeeze a small amount of cream that most closely matches your skin colour into your palm. With your little finger, swirl the cream around. Lightly dab the camouflage onto your skin next to the area you wish to camouflage.

It may be that your initial choice of colour is too light or too dark. If so, remove. Blend adding a lighter or darker cream and re-test. Once you have created the correct colour for your skin, make a mental note of the ratio you have used. For larger areas you may find it easier to pre-mix a larger amount than needed and keep the remainder in a sealed container.

You can apply Skin Camouflage cream easily with your fingertips

Fingertip application

Use your fingertips to dab the cream onto the area until it is fully covered. Do not to rub the cream onto the skin as this may aggravate some skin conditions. If you wish to cover a large area, it may be quicker and easier to use the sponge.

Use the fine brush if you only have small areas to cover

Brush application

If you only have small areas to cover, you may find the fine brush supplied in the kit is more accurate. When camouflaging a narrow scar, you may find it easier to use a thin, square ended brush to paint the camouflage skin match colour straight onto the scar only and not onto the surrounding area. In some instances this is not easily achieved, for example, if the scar shape is too irregular. In these cases carefully blend the camouflage over the immediate surrounding skin as you would with other large areas of cover.

Blurring, fixing and blotting

With a clean finger, gently tap the camouflage with a clean finger to blur the edges. This will blur the margin and help sink the camouflage into the area.

Fixing and blotting the camouflage help to make it water and smudge resistant. To fix, use a good quantity of powder to cover the camouflaged area using a puff. Press and roll the powder over the area. Wait a couple of minutes then brush off any excess powder. Brush in the same direction of hair growth to ensure hairs lie flat to the skin. Any cream attached to hairs should brush off.

If further coverage is needed, allow a few minutes for the first application to dry and set and apply additional camouflage cream as required. Do not overload with too many layers. Applying camouflage too heavily will make the area obvious and unnatural. Dampen a flannel sponge and gently press over the camouflaged area. Blotting removes any chalkiness the powder may have created, and accelerate the setting of the camouflage creams.

Skin Camouflage can be used to disguise even strongly coloured tattoos

Camouflaging tattoos

For most tattoos simply using the skin colour matched camouflage will be sufficient to hide the tattoo. However, with strongly coloured designs you may wish to try applying a thin base layer of the complementary colour to cover the tattoo area, before applying your skin colour matched camouflage cream.

If you are having difficulty camouflaging highly coloured tattoos, using some additional pigmented creams (generally available from theatrical make-up shops) together with the complementary colour theory may help. The complementary colour theory uses the principal of opposite colours on the colour wheel to cancel each other out. For black tattoos the complementary colour is white, for a green and lilac tattoo you would use a pale terracotta pink colour.

Apply a thin layer of the complementary colour to cover the tattoo area, and set with fixing powder. Then apply your skin colour matched camouflage cream as normal. Using the complementary colour in this way can have dramatic results.

After care

About 30 minutes after application you can be confident that the camouflage is waterproof and smudge resistant and you can swim and shower just half an hour later. Rio Skin Camouflage is designed to remain on the skin for 6-8 hours and can be removed and re-applied without any damaging effect to the skin. You may find it necessary to re-apply the powder after a few hours. Re-applying powder will also keep the camouflage matt. Use a cream based remover and cotton wool pads to remove your camouflage. Soap and water will lift the camouflage, but not totally remove it. Be careful when in contact with any oil based products, such as bath oil and aromatherapy massage oils as these will also remove your camouflage.