OCC Crème Colour Concentrate

One of the staples of a Pro Make-up Artist’s kit is grease paint; used for everything from stage make-ups to colouring wounds or adding colour to the cheeks on a fashion show, it is a real multipurpose product that is an essential part of any kit.

The trouble with grease paint is the ingredients; most conventional greasepaint use a blend of Mineral oils, paraffin, petroleum and more as their prime ingredients – along with a myriad of other ingredients I try to avoid; consequently I’ve been on the hunt for a cleaner alternative for quite some time…

Crème Colour Concentrate from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics

My discovery of the Crème Concentates was relatively recent and thanks to in the most part to my friend and fellow Make-up Artist Lou Dartford (unbeknownst to her!). For some reason I had foolishly overlooked them repeatedly, instead focusing on pretty much every other product in the range. Foolish.

Crème Colour Concentrates are high impact, multipurpose pops of colour that are suitable (in the most part*) for use of eyes, lips and cheeks – as well as face and body work. Besides using them as blush or base for a loose pigment, I have used them in a way more commonly attributed to traditional greasepaint; effects work. I recently posted a link to a promo in which I created a snake tattoo on a girls scalp using only Crème Colour Concentrates – here are a couple of continuity shots (hence mobile phone shots) of the snake tattoo.

The Concentates are easy to apply using a finger or brush, they are incredibly smooth and blend like a dream; easily blending away to nothing (or into one another) but on the flip side, they are completely buildable for more density of colour. As with grease paints they can benefit from a little powder to set them and avoid smudging if you have built them up.

There are currently seventeen shades in the range in either demi-matte and glaze (metallic) finish. Although this doesn’t compare to the vast spectrum of shades offered by the likes of Kryolan or Mehron, it isn’t a bad start. Alongside black, white, true red and Royal blue are an assortment of intriguing shades which while at first don’t appear obvious, are perfect for creating just the right colour blush or shade of eye colour.

From an ingredients perspective Crème Colour Concentrate isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imaginion (Liquid Paraffin is included in the list), however it is a significant improvement on many of the conventional brands. To be honest it is a concession I’m prepared to make if on the whole the rest of the ingredients are more favourable; it is also packed full of moisturising ingredients such as vitamin E, cocoa extract and aloe leaf extract.

I haven’t as yet removed my grease palette from my kit but it certainly gets far fewer outings these days…

Founded in 2004 by Make-up Artist David Klasfield, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics started out with just a pair of lip balms. Fast forward 14 years and this has expanded significantly and the company is now at the forfeont of colour cosmetics. OCC products are vegan and cruelty free.