I'm obsessed with freckles. Clearly I'm not the only one, as models with prominent freckles are starting to pop up in campaigns everywhere, and faux freckles — by means of makeup or more permanent measures — have been all the rage for the past year or so.
When it's sunny outside, my fair skin becomes pretty freckly on its own. But once the sun begins to descend way too early and overcast skies make themselves at home during fall and winter, my beloved spots disappear, and I simply feel weird without them.
Natural-looking freckles are hard to emulate with eyeliner pencils and the like, however. That's where my new favorite product comes in.
Hi, have you heard of Freck yet?
It's essentially makeup whose only purpose is to create the effect of having real freckles. That's it. That's the product.
Before you knock it, just know that makeup artists use it on models and celebrities (whose freckles you likely thought were entirely natural) all the time. Here's Lady Gaga wearing it on her recent "bare-faced" New York Times Magazine cover.
Makeup artist Sarah Nicole Tanno used the indie product to achieve this "toned-down" version of Gaga, as she confirmed on Instagram.
It comes in two sizes, both of which you can find on Freck's site. The OG Freck contains .045 ounces of product.
Freck OG ($22, Freck)
The XL, on the other hand, provides more than twice as much product for $10 more.
Freck XL ($32, Freck)
I'd been using a kohl eyebrow pencil to trace over my natural freckles, but they stood out just a tad too much. I discovered Freck on Instagram and instantly knew I needed to know if it actually looks as good as this.
Or THIS. Promotional photos of makeup done by professionals are one thing, but real-life results are another.
Freck graciously sent me an XL tube to try for myself, and like any product, it definitely had its unique quirks and needed several trials to master.
Freck's applicator isn't a dotting tool like you'd expect, but a thin brush of sorts. It's the product's key to creating realistic faux spots that don't all have the same size and shape.
Freck's other key to undetectable faux freckles is its extremely customizable formula. It goes on dark brown, but can be spread or pat down to a sheer auburn color consistent with actual freckles.
The instructions Freck provides with its product advises holding the applicator vertically, dotting on clusters of three to five dots at a time, and blotting with fingers to soften the freckle shape.
If you dot on some freckles without patting them down, then you'll get that dark brown color payoff that won't look entirely natural on a pale person such as myself but will show perfectly on a deeper skin tone.
Be warned, though: Patting the dots down with a finger, as the provided instructions direct, might cause unwanted transfer.
When I used Freck's instructions as presented, what I got was a larger-than-desired smattering of faux freckles that looked great but were still bold enough to be registered as ... well, not mine.
But then I tried lightly blotting freshly applied dots with a beauty sponge instead of my finger, and the angels sang.
Since nailing down the Freck technique that works best for me, I've barely left the house without at least a light smattering of faux spots across my nose, brow, and cheeks.
Without the summer sun and smog around, I can wear Freck for about 10 hours on an average workday before it fades away. Which is great for me, because at this rate, I feel naked without it.
It's official: Freck, I stan you.
Learn more about it and get your own right here.
