Cosmetic surgery is veering more and more towards non-invasive procedures but sometimes an operation is unavoidable. After plastic surgery you can suffer from bruising, pigment abnormalities, visible incisions and swelling.

For example, after rhinoplasty you have dark circles under your eyes and there is swelling to the face. A certain amount of medical downtime is necessary and it takes about two weeks to a month to get over the worst of the swelling, with the rest slowly dissipating over the course of a year.

Nobody wants to look their worst after having had a procedure to become more beautiful, however temporary this is.

That’s when you need to have foundation and concealer know-how for the best post-surgical makeup techniques. Concealer can be a girl’s best friend but you have to consult your doctor as to when exactly you can start applying it. After laser resurfacing, for example, it is advisable to wait two weeks.
There are two basic cosmetic camouflage techniques: concealing and contouring. Concealing aims to hide bruises or scars and helps neutralise discoloured skin, while contouring hides any swelling while enhancing your features.

• Choose a thick, heavy foundation for discoloured areas, and perhaps another, lighter foundation for other areas of the face.
• Choose pigment-rich, thick, dry-textured concealers, which stay put.
• Under your makeup, wear a light moisturiser with the correct level of sunscreen, which is vital after any procedures that uncover new layers of skin.
• Apply your sunscreen first, then foundation, and lastly concealer, gently, as your skin will be very sensitive to the touch.

Contouring creates the illusion of highlights and shadows by using different shades of make-up. To do this you will require three or four different shades of foundation. Apply the lighter shades wherever you want an area to stand out, and darker shades where you want the area to recede. Then blend, blend, blend.

To make your swollen nose look narrower use a small brush to draw a thin line of dark make-up down both sides of your nose, starting from the eye socket. Then, with a sponge or wedge, blend the dark colour down the sides of your nose and apply a stripe of lighter colour down the middle.

For swollen eyes, apply eyeshadow on your eyelid from just above the eye straight outwards. Try not to follow the curve of the eyebrow bone. Just underneath the arch of the eyebrow apply a lighter shade of make-up.