Makeup Artists Swear By These Tattoo Cover-Up Makeups Because They Won’t Rub Off

Covering up a tattoo is an art — one that typically requires professional makeup artists to mix up custom colors and use an airbrush device (at least for film and television work). But when you’re trying to temporarily hide a tattoo in a pinch, arming yourself with the tools and tips the pros swear by is the next best thing. According to the experts Bustle interviewed for this article, the best tattoo cover-up makeup products are full-coverage foundations and creams that come in multiple shades. “Alcohol colors (pigment that is activated by 99% alcohol) are the best for longevity, but they can be tricky to learn,” Heba Thorisdottir, who has headed up the makeup departments on films like Babylon and Don’t Worry Darling, tells Bustle. When using a foundation or concealer, Thorisdottir recommends staying away from (or at least limiting) silicone ingredients if you tend to sweat more as they have a tendency to sweat off faster. “Always have several shades in case it needs to be lighter or darker to blend,” makeup artist Meg Boes advises when working with more traditional makeup products. While alcohol colors are longer lasting, when working with foundation or concealer, you’ll also need to add in a few more steps to ensure the makeup doesn’t rub off. Waterproof or water-resistant formulas are always helpful, but you’ll also need translucent setting powder and setting spray to really lock things in place.

The Experts

Meg Boes is a celebrity makeup artist and hairstylist based in Nashville. She has worked with celebrities like Sheryl Crow, Maren Morris, and Lily Aldridge, and her expertise includes weddings, editorial shoots, and red carpet events.

Omayma Ramzy is a celebrity makeup artist and skin expert based in Los Angeles. Her work includes editorial shoots, advertising campaigns, and red carpet events. Ramzy is also the founder of Omayma Skin.

Heba Thorisdottir is a Los Angeles-based makeup artist with more than 20 years of experience across editorial shoots, advertising campaigns, red carpet events, and film and television. Thorisdottir has served as the makeup department head on films like Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Suicide Squad, Don’t Worry Darling, and Babylon.

Rebecca Wachtel is a makeup artist for film and television who has more than 20 years of professional experience. Her work spans special effects and prosthetics for films and television series like Letters From Iwo Jima and Truth Be Told, as well as plenty of tattoo cover-up for Pretty Little Liars and Daisy Jones & The Six.

Tattoo Cover-Up Essentials

Before you read the step-by-step for applying your tattoo cover-up makeup, here’s a list of must-have products, according to professional makeup artists:

• Color-correcting product (you can reference a color wheel for colorful tattoos, but for black tattoos, you’ll want an orange-red)
• Full-coverage makeup that matches your skin tone (if you choose an alcohol-activated palette, you’ll also need 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol)
• A stippling brush or sponge
• Translucent setting powder
• Setting spray

Pro Tips For Applying Tattoo Cover-Up Makeup

Finding a product that matches your skin tone is only half the battle when it comes to covering up tattoos. How you apply your products is also crucial, and it involves quite a few steps to guarantee that your tattoo is fully covered and that your makeup will stay in place. Before you even get started, Thorisdottir stresses that you’ll need your skin to be completely clean and dry. “Stay away from using lotion the day of because it will rub off the tattoo cover,” she explains, adding that you may even want to saturate a cotton pad with some rubbing alcohol to swipe over your skin before applying any makeup (letting it fully dry first, of course).

Next up, all of the makeup artists that Bustle spoke with explained that it’s important to color-correct your tattoo if you want to be able to truly cover it up. “Most tattoos are black, and that black ink has a blue undertone, so you need to block that out first,” Rebecca Wachtel previously told Elite Daily. The makeup artists were split between using a concealer that’s more orange or red in color, but they all serve the same purpose. “It will neutralize the cool tone of the blue-black ink so that it doesn’t look ashy underneath,” says makeup artist Omayma Ramzy. Professional palettes that are activated with alcohol will typically include a few options for this, but you can also use an orange or red concealer, or even a lipstick (more on that ahead).

Once the color-correcting base has set, it’s time to go in with your tattoo cover-up makeup of choice, using either a stippling brush or a round sponge paint brush (one of Thorisdottir’s go-to tools). “Stipple the concealer, then a translucent powder,” Boes advises. “Depending on color correction, repeat another layer of concealer — possibly a little darker — and repeat until blended and covered,” she says. “Powder between each layer,” Thorisdottir repeats. “If you don’t, they will sort of all just mush together and will not cover as easily.” Seal your tattoo cover-up makeup with a setting spray and you’re ready to go.

One last thing to consider: The foundations and concealers available for at-home use most likely aren’t going to give you the same kind of staying power as professional products (and professional application techniques will). “When something is on your body, it’s moving around and touching things, and so it’s going to come off a lot easier,” Wachtel previously shared, so you’ll want to try to to prevent your covered-up tattoo from coming into contact with fabric as much as possible.

Shop The Best Tattoo Cover Up Makeup

In a hurry? Here is the best tattoo cover up makeup:

1. Best Liquid Foundation To Cover Up Tattoos: Revlon ColorStay Longwear Makeup
2. Best Mousse Foundation To Cover Up Tattoos: Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation
3. Best Cream Foundation To Cover Up Tattoos: Dermablend Cover Creme
4. Best Concealer To Cover Up Tattoos: Maybelline SuperStay Longwear Liquid Concealer
5. Best Cream Body Makeup To Cover Up Tattoos: Mehron Makeup Celebré Pro-HD Cream Foundation
6. Best Professional Palette To Cover Up Tattoos: Narrative Cosmetics Flesh Tone Alcohol Activated Palette
7. Best Palette Under $20 To Cover Up Tattoos: Mehron Makeup Tattoo Cover

1. Best Liquid Foundation To Cover Up Tattoos

This waterproof and transfer-resistant foundation is so good that Wachtel previously told Elite Daily that she sometimes uses it on set. “Sometimes we’ll do a tattoo cover and then put the [Revlon ColorStay Longwear Makeup] over it to blend out the skin,” she says. There are silicones in this foundation, but it was formulated to last on combination and oily skin types for up to 24 hours, remaining waterproof and resistant to heat, sweat, and humidity.

• Available Shades: 44

2. Best Mousse Foundation To Cover Up Tattoos

Boes prefers a creamier foundation over a liquid, recommending the whipped texture of Rimmel’s Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation. The oil-free foundation has a light, airy texture that doesn’t feel heavy on your skin — no matter how much you need to layer it on to fully cover your tattoo. This is another foundation that contains silicones, but it also contains ingredients like talc, silica, and kaolin to help absorb oil and keep skin matte.

• Available Shades: 20

3. Best Cream Foundation To Cover Up Tattoos

When it comes to concealing tattoos, several of the makeup artists Bustle interviewed recommended Dermablend as a reliable brand for at-home use. Of the brand’s Cover Creme, Ramzy says, “It’s a full-coverage tattoo cover up and gives a more natural finish.” The makeup is a thick cream that’s more matte than your average foundation, and it’s also cruelty-free, vegan, and made without silicones and fragrance.

• Available Shades: 21

4. Best Concealer To Cover Up Tattoos

If you’re covering up a smaller tattoo, you may find it easier to just dab on some concealer. Maybelline’s SuperStay Longwear Liquid Concealer comes with a flexible doe-foot applicator to help with application precision, and the formula is both full coverage and waterproof. “Make sure the product is very concentrated,” Thorisdottir says of the top requirement when choosing less expensive tattoo cover-up makeup. “You won’t get far if the product is geared towards a sheer coverage.” She also notes that when working with concealer, you’ll definitely need to apply a few layers (powdering in between each layer) to get that opaque, long-lasting finish.

• Available Shades: 16

5. Best Cream Body Makeup To Cover Up Tattoos

Mehron specializes in makeup that can be used for special effects, face and body painting, and makeup for the stage and screen. The brand’s Celebré Pro-HD Cream Foundation can be used on your face or body for full, buildable coverage. Because it’s a thick cream that you can scoop out with a mini makeup spatula, it’s easy to mix a few shades together for a more customizable color and to control how much product you’re applying. The foundation is both cruelty-free and vegan, and doesn’t contain any fragrances.

• Available Shades: 27

6. Best Professional Palette To Cover Up Tattoos

Using an alcohol-activated color palette is the surest way to guarantee that your tattoo cover-up stays in place all day without rubbing off onto clothing, but expect a bit of a learning curve in terms of getting the consistency just right. The EBA line is a favorite of both Thorisdottir and Wachtel, but it’s also quite pricey. Narrative Cosmetics offers a more budget-friendly option with the brand’s Flesh Tone Alcohol Activated Palette, which comes complete with multiple skin tone shades for mixing and color-correcting shades that will block out any color tattoo. Just don’t forget that you’ll need some rubbing alcohol to loosen the product up and turn it into a watercolor-like consistency that you can stipple over your tattoo.

7. Best Palette Under $20 To Cover Up Tattoos

Another option from Mehron Makeup, the brand’s Tattoo Cover was designed specifically for covering tattoos, unwanted hyperpigmentation, and the like. Featuring a creamy formula that’s more consistent with a body paint than a traditional concealer, the wheel includes five colors that you can use individually or mixed together. If you still have trouble getting an exact color match, you can always go over the tattoo cover (and powder) with a layer of regular foundation, too.

8. Best Color-Correcting Base For Tattoo Cover-Up

All of the makeup artists Bustle spoke with stressed the importance of color-correcting black-blue ink tattoos to block out that darker color first before you try to cover it up. While you can try to hunt down an orange-red concealer, both Thorisdottir and Boes suggest reaching for something you probably already have in your makeup kit: a liquid matte lipstick. If you don’t have one in a shade that’ll work, NYX’s Lip Lingerie XXL Matte Liquid Lipstick in ‘Gettin Caliente’ is a color-correcting match that’s less than $10. Concentrating the orange-red lipstick over the ink only, let the liquid formula completely set before applying your first layer of cover-up in the tone that actually matches your skin.

9. Best Setting Powder To Cover Up Tattoos

No matter whether it’s a liquid or a cream, if you’re using a foundation or concealer, you need a setting powder, too. Dermablend’s Loose Setting Powder comes in a translucent option and in two yellow shades that work best on darker skin tones. Each powder helps to mattify your tattoo cover-up makeup and prevent it from smudging or transferring for up to 16 hours. Plus, it’s a cruelty-free and vegan formula that doesn’t contain any fragrances, sulfates, or phthalates.

10. Best Makeup Setting Spray To Cover Up Tattoos

For her alcohol-activated colors, Thorisdottir sticks with EBA’s Pro Seal Spray, but for any cover-up that she does, a final application of powder and spray is key. “For cream colors, I would get a water-based setting spray,” she says, recommending Skindinavia’s The Makeup Finishing Spray. The unique formula uses a patented technology that was created to help cool the skin in an effort to prevent sweat and oil production from starting in the first place. The setting spray can be used over liquid, cream, and powder formulas to help set your tattoo cover-up makeup in place for up to 16 hours.

Experts:

Meg Boes, celebrity makeup artist and hairstylist based in Nashville.

Omayma Ramzy, Los Angeles-based celebrity makeup artist and founder of Omayma Skin.

Heba Thorisdottir, Los Angeles-based makeup artist specializing in film and television work.

Rebecca Wachtel, makeup artist for film and television with expertise in special effects and prosthetics.