How to use concealer

Whether you are covering a breakout or trying to hide those dark circles. Here are the top concealer tips so you apply it the right way.

Dark circles

The best way to hide darkness under the eyes is applying your under-eye concealer in a triangle, not directly under your eyes. You basically draw an inverted triangle with the flat base under your eye and the tip pointing towards your cheek. Smudge and go. This will brighten your entire face regardless of how many hours of sleep you got. Concealer wands are the easiest to apply in this way.

Pimples

If your classic concealer isn’t cutting it when it comes to hiding spots, try a green formula instead as this can cancel out the redness. Gently tap the green tinted concealer on the spot first, then blend a high-coverage concealer (one that matches your skin tone) on top of the pimple to camouflage it. Don’t forget anti-blemish concealers that contain skin purifying ingredients are also good at treating at the same time as covering the spot.

Discolouration

For this you need a few colour-correcting concealers. Your colour correcting strategy depends on your skin tone and your concerns, but you’ll want a pale-pink concealer to brighten blue-based spots on fair skin, a peach concealer to neutralise blue/purple shadows on medium skin tones, and an orangey-pink to cancel out dark spots on dark skin. A yellow concealer will offset purple or darker-toned shadows on olive or tanned skin and green neutralizes redness and lavender cancels out yellow tones. Simply dab on the area and blend to cover.

The coverage

High coverage – Cream, body stick and sticks. These have a thick consistency, matte finish, and good for on the go. Good for concealing pimples, blemishes, veins, birthmarks, scars.

Medium to high coverage – Pencil. Thick consistency, semi-matte finish and good for contouring and highlighting.

Medium coverage – Liquids and liquid with wand. Easy to blend, evens skin tone, good for under eyes and highlighting.

Light coverage – Pen with metal tip and brush tip. Semi-sheer. Conceals and brightens under eye circles and the cooling metal tip will reduce puffiness and the built-in brushes are good for blending.