I admit that concealer is my #1 favorite makeup product and makes the most impact when used correctly. Yes, it might take an extra couple of minutes to deal with those dark circles from a long night out or just being up throughout the night consoling a teething 6 month old (uh hem, my current struggle!), but trust me – you, and the rest of the world that will have to look at you will thank you!
Prime Example- Miss Britney Spears (who is making a comeback ya’ll, have you heard her new song, “Womanizer“, it’s classic Brit ) looks like a pop princess when using her concealer rather than the pop “flop” picture sans concealer on the left.
A lot of women admit to me that they are intimidated by concealer, “what type to use?”, “what color?”, “where is the best place to use it?”, etc. So here is a quick lesson in helping to erase the imperfections you might want to forget about.
“The Art of Concealing”
Dark Circles: First let me start by saying, there are lots of products on the market that are supposed to fix or lighten you undereye circles, but honestly, those circles are caused by the hereditary dark veins that lie beneath the surface of that thin skin under your eye, and they’re there to stay. You just have to figure out how to cover them up. And as you age, that thin skin just gets thinner so you have to work a little extra harder than you did when you were 21.
- Pick a concealer that is hydrating so as not to settle in the fine lines around your eyes. Allure magazine recently named Cinema Secrets Ultimate Foundation Palettes, as their top pick for concealer that claims not to sit in those pesky lines.
- When choosing a concealer shade, DON’T go lighter. This is a misconception, and actually does the opposite of concealing. It gives you a greyish dead look and you end up having racoon eyes. Go a shade or 2 darker than your natural skin tone or foundation. This is especially true if you’re covering up puffiness which occasionally has some white in it, so you want a darker tone to recede the problem.
- Depending on the coloring of your dark circles, pick the following colored concealers: if you have a bluish purple under eye area, go for a warm beige tone. If you have yellowish brown under eye area, go for a cooler pinkish beige tone.
- When applying, the choice to use your finger or a concealer brush is totally a personal preference to me. I use a brush on my clients so as not to poke my finger in their eye and to get a more precise application, but on myself, I use my own finger. Be sure to focus on the inner eye near the nose and then underneath until you reach the outer corner of the eye. But don’t go out too far on the outside, most dark circles stop right before you reach the outside of the eye.
Blemishes: These are a bit trickier to cover up depending on what “stage” your blemish aka pimple,zit,volcano, is in. If it’s still under the surface it’s easier to conceal than if you’ve picked and proded at your blemish and now the skin on top is broken and gooey. Yuck, I know, but we all do it.
- Pick a concealer that has a thicker, drier consistency and is more like a camouflage (like Laura Mercier’s Secret Camouflage or Murad Acne Concealer– it contains salicyclic acid) because it helps it to stay put and not slide around the blemish.
- Again, pick a color a shade or two lighter than you natural skin. Because if you pick a lighter color it will draw attention to the blemish instead of disguising it.
- This is where I would suggest a concealer brush so as to get a precise application on the smaller area that you’re working on. Take the concealer and warm it up on the back of your hand by swirling your brush around in it, then apply several light layers of the product until you’re happy with the coverage. I would “dot” on the product rather than swiping which gets all over the place.
- Set your camouflage with some translucent powder to give it extra staying power.
Redness: Some form of redness/darkness usually occurs right around the sides of our noses and the corners of our mouth. It’s not reeally noticeable until you actually apply a little bit of concealer on those problem areas and then you notice it automatically brightens up your face!
- Use a hydrating concealer with a yellow based coloring for this area as well- see suggestion above in dark circles
Practice makes perfect when it comes to concealer, so don’t give up on it and keep trying to perfect the art of camouflaging! You never know when the paparazzi is gonna catcha without it…..
