You are here

Home

Don't worry You can conceal it

Nadine Johnson
Published: 
Sunday, May 6, 2012

 

There are times in a woman’s life when her skin will not cooperate with her. Under the eyes may look dark and old, pimples may pop up or dark marks look even darker.  It is at that time that you can turn to your makeup concealer as one of the go-to products that will make a huge difference in the way your final makeup will look.
 
 
What is a concealer? 
And how do you use it?
Concealers are cosmetic products created to disguise and hide skin flaws. They can come in different formats (sticks, liquids and creams) and have multiple uses in many different makeup applications, such as…
 
1. Using concealer under the eyes to diminish dark under eye circles. 
 
As we age, most of us tend to get darkening under the eyes; according to WebMD, with the advancing of years, the fat pad under the eye thins, allowing blood vessels underneath to show through.  Additionally as we get older, many times the blood flow to the skin beneath the eye becomes sluggish, further increasing the darkness in this area.
The best way to offset this is by using a concealer under your eyes to diminish dark circles.  A good under-eye concealer will shave years of your look and make under the eyes look bright and radiant (mimicking younger skin which naturally looks like this).  The trick in under eye concealing is getting the right formula and typically using a color that is a shade 1 or 2 times lighter than that of your foundation shade.  
There is always an ongoing debate from makeup artists about whether to use concealer then foundation or vice versa, but my answer to that is that it depends. There are times when I will put concealer under the eye, followed by foundation and then there are times when I will do the reverse. As I always say – experiment and come up with the order that works best for you. Always remember to set the under eye concealer with powder and to ensure that it is properly blended and natural looking.
 
2. Using concealer to hide dark marks, acne scarring and other skin spots
 
In the case where you want to have a little more coverage on a spot or scar that the foundation is not covering completely, you can spot apply concealer to achieve the maximum “hiding effect”.  In this case you want to use the same color as your foundation so that you can seamlessly hide the marks you want to cover.
 
3. Using concealer to colour-correct and cover up problems 
 
Many times you will see concealers in funky colors like green, yellow, blue and lavender and you’re probably wondering what these are for. These coloured concealers are correcting concealers used to hide skin problems. For example, I once had to apply makeup to a bride who arrived with a big red pimple on her forehead.  In a case like that, I had to use a correcting concealer to hide the appearance of the red pimple then top it off with the exact skin colour concealer.
 
The correcting colours are:
 
Mint green: to balance and counteract redness (great for use on pimples and rosacea). 
 
Pale yellow: used as a corrector and will help hide black, blue, or purple imperfections such as bruises. 
 
Lavender: helps to even out yellowness and corrects olive skin.
 
Light blue: counteracts orange tones. 
 
womanwise

Disclaimer

User comments posted on this website are the sole views and opinions of the comment writer and are not representative of Guardian Media Limited or its staff. Guardian Media Limited accepts no liability and will not be held accountable for user comments.

Please help us keep out site clean from inappropriate comments by using the flag option.

Guardian Media Limited reserves the right to remove, to edit or to censor any comments. Any content which is considered unsuitable, unlawful or offensive, includes personal details, advertises or promotes products, services or websites or repeats previous comments will be removed.

Before posting, please refer to the Community Standards, Terms and conditions and Privacy Policy