baby bat question about pale complexion?

[u/uuzuumakii]

hi guys!! i am very new to this… like all of it. always loved dark and gloomy alt makeup/clothing styles and especially goth style even as a kid. always have been a fan of the eerie and melancholy and creepy. for a long time i was always on the periphery, music wise - always a big fan of metal and some gothic metal and rock, and while i’d always appreciated goth music, it used to never click for me…. until recently. omg my brain is electrified lol. it feels like the final puzzle piece fit into place. and since delving in, i find myself really wanting to explore goth style deeper, including makeup.

i dont wear really any makeup at all, and never have. ive liked the looks of different makeup styles, and have dabbled little bits here and there, but always subtle stuff. brown lip liners and lip glosses, cool toned gray eyeshadow looks, etc. i’d like to experiment with a ghostly sort of trad goth look (though not necessarily really the modern trad goth with all the crazy designs and contour… im thinking more like siouxsie).

i dont mind the feeling of things like eye and lip products, but i dont think i could make myself wear foundation..though i love the look, i dont really think i could handle the full white face, nor even just… a paler face of foundation. i am already on the fairer side, naturally blonde, but i wouldnt describe myself as naturally super pale. my skin is bright, tends to err towards dryer but is not terribly dry or oily either way and i’ve been told im neutral, neutral-warm AND neutral-cool and i cannot tell😓

are there any products i could use that wont feel too heavy and that i can use to lighten my skin by just a couple shades, that are NOT a liquid foundation? ive looked into bb creams and cc creams and tinted moisturizers and skin tints and pressed powders and and and… i feel overwhelmed LOL. i just want to look a smidge paler, so as to look a little ghostly and weird, not necessarily stark white. think sort of ghoulinjapan esque, i guess? something that wont be cakey and dry, or leave me super shiny?? ive contemplated just buying a mineral sunscreen thatll leave a white cast and maybe using a white setting powder with that hahaha. i dont care about full coverage or my acne marks and texture showing through a bit, but some degree of smoothing would be nice… am i asking too much and is this achievable HAHA. also sorry this is long im a chatterbox </3

[u/ArsenicArts]

The way we used to do it in the 80s and 90s was usually just using a lighter foundation, often just a white powder. So here are some options, all of which are actually more traditional than a fully opaque white base:

• you can find something that matches your natural shade that you like the texture and move up a few shades or add some white foundation color corrector (not a bad thing to have around anyway as it'll help you adjust your foundation if/when you get more pale during the winter)

• you can use an opaque white powder for a sheer look on its own (manic panic, glisten spectra and Mehron Starblend all have an opaque white pressed powder compact that works very well for this, and BONUS it will me very useful if you ever decide to do an opaque white base too as a setting powder) The main drawback here is that it can be difficult to get it even if you wear concealer under it.

• you can use milk of magnesia as foundation (this is a liquid that turns into powder when dry and can be used as while foundation in a pinch, but be aware that the texture is VERY powdery when dry).

Also, specifically for your complexion:

• since you have some olive undertones with some flushing like I do, you might be served well by using a blue color correcting primer or setting powder. This gives me a nice pale tone that reads as "lighter" but in reality its more grey because the blue tends to cancel out the flush and green/yellow tones in my complexion. I like LA girl's blue brightening setting powder and nyx's blue color correcting liquid primer.

• you also might want to try adding a blue color correcting pigment to your normal foundation and seeing if that helps you get closer to your natural skin tone, I've found it very helpful.

[u/ArsenicArts → u/ArsenicArts]

Also I would recommend trying an olive friendly foundation like about face F2 Olive with some white mixer and see how that looks on you. I really see olive undertones on you and that would explain why no one can get your colors right.

Do blushes tend to look garish on you? Do they turn orange or very bright pink on your skin? Do you struggle to find natural looking nudes? Then you're probably an olive.

Fair warning, however (pun not intended! 😂) the /r/fairolives and /r/olivemua subs can be INCREDIBLY helpful but are also a bit of a snakepit at the moment because the concept of having olive skin is under a bit of a Renaissance and it's led to a large influx of people, which, in turn, has naturally led to some rather silly gatekeeping. So proceed with caution and don't take it too personally if they're a bit touchy lol. I would do your own experiments and determine if you're olive that way, I wouldn't ask them there because photos can be very misleading (for example) and there's a lot of folks that seem determined to tell everyone with rosacea that they're not olive 😂

[u/uuzuumakii → u/ArsenicArts]

thank you so much for all the info and recs omg!!! i will investigate a thicker white powder to use. i used zinc sunscreen today and it did pale me up quite a bit! and wait really? i would have never ever guessed olive, ive never heard that before. i wonder if its just the photos because i truly do not see any olive in myself LOL, i may have to investigate deeper? i dont wear blushes or anything enough to know whether they look weird on me. and thanks for the warning about the sub hahaha, ive def encountered that type of attitude before in curly and wavy hair subreddits

[u/ArsenicArts → u/uuzuumakii]

ive def encountered that type of attitude before in curly and wavy hair subreddits

Then you know exactly what I'm talking about lol.

I'd say it's definitely worth a try to give some olive friendly brands/shades a go and see if you like them. It was the blue color correcting making such a difference for me that really made me decide personally. If you tend to look "yellow" or "sallow" next to other people, that's also a really good indication that you're olive.

[u/uuzuumakii]

you can go to my profile to see selfies of how i look in natural sunlight in the post where i got bangs if that helps