By the mid-1950s, freckles had become associated with a life in the sun and were even considered attractive, especially in the 60s, when Twiggy, Jane Birkin and others didn’t hide their freckles. The tides turned when Chanel launched a limited edition pencil for drawing freckles, Le Crayon Le Sueur, in 1995, followed by Lancôme’s short-lived Freckle Crayon in 2003. By the mid-2000s, models like Maggie Reiser and Devon Aoki and celebrities like Lucy Liu had normalized them. Meanwhile, makeup artists like Charlotte Tilbury and Gucci Westman were applying makeup to models’ faces on fashion shows, expressing everything from sporty to retro vibes of the 60s and 70s. They all used eyeliner or eyebrow pencil to dot the dots.
The fact that there weren’t any makeup products aimed solely at painting on freckles wasn’t lost on Brixton. By the time she was in college, she wished there were. So in 2017, encouraged by a “hardcore freckle-loving community” she found online, Brixton launched Freck OG, a tiny tube of pigment with a tiny brush-tip applicator. (The brand has since launched a larger size, Freck XL, and a darker version, Freck Noir.) As part of a product lineup designed to mimic the look of skin after a day at the beach, Canadian brand Saltyface offers Freckle Paint. The existence of these products has naturally encouraged people who struggle with freckles. “People reach out and say, ‘That’s so cool to see freckles being celebrated,'” says Saltyface co-founder Bethany Menzel. “I always thought of them as a flaw. I always felt like I had to hide them.”
Salty Face Freckle Paint, $26
