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How to Avoid Looking Like Casper in Photographs: White Cast Dilemma

I’m sure you’ve had this happen before. You’re taking a group picture and your face stands out, not because you’re the most beautiful one of the bunch, but because your face and neck are two different colors!

Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are the ingredients in makeup and sunscreen that are responsible for making you look like Casper. They do this because they are UV filters that deflect light, whether it’s sunlight or flash from a camera.

There isn’t really a way to reduce this effect. If you know you are going to be photographed, it’s a good idea to skip your sunscreen and wear only non-SPF and/or non-mineral makeup (mineral makeup often contains titanium dioxide and zinc oxide).

If you do wear these products, you could try to cover up with some non-mineral makeup powder, but how the titanium dioxide and zinc oxide underneath will react to flash and/or sunlight is unknown. You may still end up looking a bit white in photographs.

Sometimes sunscreen can also leave white streaks on your face. To minimize this white cast from sunscreen, let the sunscreen fully absorb into your skin. This can take up to 2 hours though! So for those who are more impatient, you can mix tinted sunscreen with regular sunscreen (preferably of the same brand) so that some color will mask the white cast. You also can layer your sunscreen with some makeup to cover up the whiteness. However, make sure you read this first to make sure your makeup won’t destabilize your sunscreen.

Even if you are wearing mineral makeup, makeup with SPF, or sunscreen, the white cast problem tends to be not as noticeable in non-flash pictures. However, for wedding or graduation pictures, be safe and skip these products for the day!

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