White face in photos?

 Ever had a great night out, only to look back on the photos you took and be horrified to see your face looking extremely white?

Ever looked at photos of yourself and worried that you are wearing a foundation shade that is much too light, even though it looks great in person?

If you are like me and have said yes to either of the above questions, you have experienced what I like to call "ghost face". This phenomenon is when you look great in person, but in photos your face shows up much lighter then your body. I have first hand experience of this, and I know how disheartening it can be to see this in photos the next day, after putting in so much time and effort into your makeup. Thankfully though, I have found the culprit that has been causing ghost face for years, and I am ready to share it with you in this post.

An example of ghost face

What causes ghost face? 

The culprit is SPF. This is found in a lot of liquid foundations as well as face powders to protect your skin from the sun. SPF has an ingredient in it called titanium dioxide which is used to reflect UV rays and other light particles to protect the skin from the sun. However, when this is on your face when you are using flash photography, it creates a flash back which makes your face appear a lot whiter then it actually is!

How to prevent it?

So how do we prevent that awful look in photos? I have two options for you:

• Use a foundation which has less SPF. This is best to do on certain occasions when flash photography will be used, for example nights out when you are out of the sun. Any foundation with below about SPF 8 should photograph without a flashback. A couple of low or no SPF foundations include Mac face and body foundation and Revlon Colorstay whipped foundation. 

                                 

• Use your regular foundation and then apply coloured face powder to your entire face. Just be sure to check that this powder doesn't have SPF or titanium dioxide in the ingredients. You can then test this by simply taking a photo of your face with the flash and check to ensure you don't have a ghost face!

Thanks for reading - and enjoy your new ghost free photos!

xoxo Yvonne - Be beautiful