How to conceal broken capillaries on the face without piling on foundation

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Broken capillaries don’t pose a danger to your health, but like acne scars, you just don’t like the way they get in the way of a clear, even complexion.

According to Dr Georgia Lee, medical director of the TLC Lifestyle Practice Clinic, causes include sun damage, extreme temperatures and repeated laser treatments or fillers in the same area.

Broken capillaries are more likely to appear and increase as we age. These thin, red, ribbon-like lines may occur spontaneously or as a result of underlying medical conditions like rosacea or hormonal changes that arise from pregnancy.

Dr Lee recommends Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatments or vascular lasers to treat these. The latter option does have a bit of downtime – you can expect redness and some swelling for one to five days after the treatment. The upside? Vascular lasers will give you more significant results than IPL treatments.

Besides getting an IPL treatment or laser, you can reduce the appearance of broken capillaries with these tips.

Step 1: Cool down

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Start off by prepping your skin with a cooling face mask or gel to constrict the blood vessels and make the capillaries look smaller.

When skin is cooler, it has less of a tendency to get greasy, itch or redden.

Clarins Hydra-essential Cooling Gel, $58

This bright blue cream has a sorbet like texture that slips across the skin like a bouncy, watery gel.

It leaves a cooling sensation without any sticky residue.

Fresh Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask, $55

Most skincare products cool skin mildly (no more than a few seconds to a minute), but the cooling sensation of this Fresh mask lasts up to half an hour after you’ve removed it.

It contains menthol and is designed to refresh and soothe tired and irritated skin.

Chanel Le Blanc Masque Healthy Light Creator Mask, $133

This mask is formulated with ume flower extract and a fine pearl protein. It has a unique cooling formula that lowers skin temperature to calm ruddy and irritated skin.

Step 2: Colour correct

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Just like you would with zits and dark circles under the eyes, you need to take the colour out of whatever you are trying to conceal.

In this case, you should use green, which is the opposite of red on the colour wheel. What it’ll do: neutralise the red tones and render them “colourless”.

This goes for covering not just broken veins, but rosacea and pimples too.

Urban Decay Naked Skin - Colour Correcting Fluid in Green, $40

Apply a tiny amount of this on the veins and blend out slightly. Follow up with your normal skin-coloured concealer.  

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