Friday, August 20, 2010

Beauty Tip: Finding the right undereye concealer shade

When I first started out with makeup a few years ago, I thought the colour that you wanted under your eyes to conceal dark circles, veining etc was yellow, recently I learned it should actually be peach or salmon tones. However, many drugstore brands still make under-eye concealers in just flesh tones,. And MAC makes them in the standard NC and NW shades. It makes it difficult to decipher what shade is right for you. Also, you can conceal under the eyes with something over than a liquid concealer, such as a cream, but for the purpose of this post, I will focus only on liquid concealers.

My understanding is that under-eye concealers should be a shade lighter than you foundation this is because you want to brighten that away and take away any darkness that may be there. However, I see this all over the internet where girls have the reverse raccoon eyes going on, their concealer is almost white and it does not look pretty in my opinion. It seems to me that your undereye concealer should be close to your skintone, that way it doesn't appear white underneath and it covers, which is the point after all. Okay, this is something that I have been struggling with, so maybe you girls can help me out. I will go through all of the under-eye liquid concealers that I have here. I know that using eye creams can also help with the under-eye darkness or baggage that many of us have, however I have yet to find anything that does much.

All pictures can be enlarged!
swatches of all my undereye concealers, click to enlarge
Colours range from orange (MAC) to beige to peachy to yellow - which one works best?? 


*Concealer swatches below on eye are not blended in perfectly, in order to show the varying states.

Bare eye, notice the purple-ish in corner and hallow under my eye. I usually wear eyeshadow so pay no attention to the dicolouration on the lid.


MAC Moisturecover NW20, looks crazy dark and orange in the swatch, but on the eye, it kinda blends in almost with my skin, and I always wear foundation over it so. I don't think it's too stark. Give me your inputs please. It does cover the purple pretty well. I am debating on return this and getting the NW15 instead,


Revlon Blemish concealer, too light in my opinion, I only really use this on my chin (for blemishes).


Maybelline Mineral Power, I think this is okay, but it doesn't cover as well as the MAC.


Maybelline Superstay looks very similar to the Mineral Power except it dries matte very quickly. 


Maybelline Age Rewind concealer, this probably applies the nicest of all, and the best colour.


ELF's Undereye concealer is probably the worst out of all of these, now that I see the pictures, it's the sheerest and runniest, does not conceal very well at all.


Revlon Age Defying Spa, this one is a liquid, but applies more like a cream which I like, more thick, and has that yellow tint that I like.


I know my pictures are pretty sh!t, but hopefully you can give me some suggestions, I think some of my concealers are too light and do not cover as well as they could if they were darker. I know my undereye darkness is not terrible, but I do want to find something that works. What colour do you think works best for me. I need your advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

11 comments:

rebeca.cd said... Best Blogger Tips

MAC's and Revlon's are kinda good...
Maybe you can do what you said, try a lighter shade from MAC.
Now I'm using Benefit Erase Paste and I find it great for concealing dark circles (I use Medium tone on Erase Paste and I use MAC NW20)

http://becksmakeupcorner.blogspot.com

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

I have erase paste too, it's good, I have the lightest shade but, I am just focusing on liquid concealers here. ;)

Kristie said... Best Blogger Tips

I normally don't use liquid concealers so can't recommend one for you there. However, I do agree the color should be closer to your skintone, in the peach/salmon range. You don't want it too light or too dark either. Just one to 1/2 shade lighter than your own skintone.

Dandelion said... Best Blogger Tips

nice blog

alicesmother said... Best Blogger Tips

I still haven't found the perfect concealer myself (and who has, after all?) but I should say I like any of the maybelline that you show. Anyway, don't be so worried about it, as you say you don't have much to conceal!

~Lisa said... Best Blogger Tips

I quite like the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind ^_^

http://xmaterialgirlsx.blogspot.com/

Jamie Dorman said... Best Blogger Tips

Nice review! I love the maybelline age rewind! Make sure not to use the blemish concealer near your eye, salicylic acid isn't good for the eye area, even though the pH isn't in the right range for the salicylic acid to work as an exfoliant anyway.

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

Thanks for the comments everyone, I guess I will keep the MAC NW20.... I think the NW15 was too light... anyone use that one here with my colouring?

ShoppingGuru said... Best Blogger Tips

My skintone is dark and my undereye circles are hollow and VERY DARK :( i need help nothing works not even concealer.

Junerose said... Best Blogger Tips

Hey, Justine
I like the MAC concealer best. It seems to do a good job of concealing the purple and looks pretty natural.
I have been using Eye Return Gel from Phyto-C to help with my dark circles. So far, it's worked the best out of all the eye creams that I have tried.

Srishti said... Best Blogger Tips

I would say Revlon color stay, maybelline super-stay, instant age rewind and age defying give the most coverage while looking very natural, even undetectable. Which one gives the most coverage out of the four because I have severe dark circles. I am also going to buy one of these :)depending on the coverage.