This freckle pen will help achieve your cottagecore dreams

This is Product of the Week – a weekly round-up of the Dazed Beauty team and wider community’s must-have buys.

WHAT IS IT?

Brand: Utan
Product: Utan Pen
Price: £18.00

WHY IS IT SO GOOD?

I loathe the “clean girl” aesthetic. Every day I opt for a full beat: full-coverage foundation, bronzer, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, fat eyebrows – the lot. But that’s not to say I enjoy looking cakey or quite as glam as the Huda Beauty-esque trends of Instagram’s past. Rather, I like to sit somewhere in the middle. Which is why I love a haphazard splattering of freckles – no sun damage required.

The combination of heavy-duty formulas with faux freckles instantly softens a make-up-heavy look. Suddenly, my full-coverage foundation looks more glowy, my blush more natural, my contours more bone and less bronzer. 

I’m not making this up – freckles really do help to naturalise a look – both make-up artists Jonathon Thorpe and Kenneth Soh agree with me. “Faux freckles create the illusion of wearing less make-up because if you were wearing less, they’d show through,” Thorpe explains. “They also add a hint of summer and colour to the face,” adds Soh.

Plus, I like to think of my make-up as an enhancer rather than a tool to conceal. With this in mind, slathering foundation alone atop my textured acne scars feels like covering up, but adding freckles makes me feel like I’m celebrating the texture and imperfections – I’m adding even more texture, even more marks!

With such adoration for the faux freckle, I’ve tried my fair share of freckle-promising formulas, from Freck Beauty’s iconic Freck OG and Freck Noir to Topshop Beauty’s Freckle Pencil (RIP), Lottie London’s Freckle Tint and beyond. After extensive research, I can confirm that the only one worth your attention is the Utan Pen.  

To put it simply: it looks natural, it’s easy to apply, and it’s the only formula I’ve used that tricks people into thinking my freckles are au naturel. As the name suggests, it comes in a pen with a brush nib. All you have to do is dot it onto your face and then pat at it with your fingers to spread the freckles to other areas of your skin. It’s amazing. The incredibly natural-looking finish is due to an ingredient called DHA (also known as dihydroxyacetone or glycerone), which reacts with your skin’s proteins to form a colour that’s unique to your skin tone. 

When “strawberry girl make-up” recently infiltrated our feeds, I found that Hailey Bieber herself is a fan. It comes as no surprise, what with it lasting for 48 hours (unless you cleanse), making it ideal for sunny, sweaty LA weather.

I’ve been using the Utan Pen for over a year now, and I have two backups in my stash at all times. No other freckle pen compares on look, longevity or ease, and I’d recommend it to anyone who fancies a freckle or two without spending ages in front of a mirror. 

QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS

If I was communicating with an alien only using hand gestures, I would describe it by… Energetically poking myself in the face and grinning expectedly whilst waiting for the penny to drop and their inevitable obsession to take hold.

The product feels like… Running through a sunflower field with the sun on your face, wearing a cottage-core dress and carrying a wicker basket.

If I went back in time, I would give this product to… Queen Elizabeth I, because that ceruse was doing absolutely nothing for her.

Revisit our previous Product of the Week picks below.