Freckles seem to be one of those grass-is-always-greener traits: those who have them hate them and those who don’t have them wish that they did! As for our office, everyone is in complete agreement that freckles are a gorgeous feature. I’d heard rumor of an actual “freckle pencil” on the market, so I hit the mall on a Saturday in search of the magic product. To my shock and dismay, Sephora didn’t have a one but the very helpful sales girl filled me in on a great beauty secret: you can actually use a brow pencil to create very realistic looking freckles. She recommended the Brow Wiz by Anastasia in the color Taupe. “It’s a fairly neutral tone that looks good on a variety of skin tones,” she said as she demonstrated how to create the freckles on her hand.
We had Austin fashion blogger Cyndi Huang of The Cyn City try out the look for us. Her evenly toned porcelain skin made her the perfect model for this technique — and she even has a few of her own natural freckles to build on.
We started by pressing the tip of the brow pencil to Cyndi’s nose and (with a good amount of force) making a small circular motion to create a “dot”. Freckles by nature aren’t perfectly round so there’s no need to get too perfectionist about it. We started the freckles at the bridge of her nose and worked our way to just above the nostril, then branched out to the apples of her cheeks.
Choosing the right color pencil for your skin tone is crucial for getting a realistic look — err on the side of lighter if you can. A pencil that is too dark for your skin can end up looking really costume-y and fake. If you have darker skin, you’ll probably want to explore Anastasia’s darker color options like chocolate or dark brown.) If you feel you’ve gone “too far” with your faux freckles, they’re easily removed with a makeup wipe. You could also add a few to your shoulders for a cute warm weather look!
Cyndi actually loved how her freckles looked and kept them on for the rest of the day for fun. What do you think? Would you ever rock a set of faux freckles?
photographed by jessica attie
featured image of emily bador by john akehurst for I-D magazine
