Review: Milani HD Advanced Concealer

This is a product that rivals the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat, a favourite among many in the beauty community, but also unaffordable for many as well, it sells for around $50 CAD. Milani recently came out with their HD Advanced concealer which has an obvious resemblance to the YSL, however this one sells for around $10 CAD in drugstores. It makes sense that companies are trying to dupe the YSL since it is one of the most favourite beauty products of all time. Being in Canada, I had a hard time locating this and had to purchase it online from Cherry Culture recently, then I noticed that Well.ca sells it as well, a Canadian online pharmacy, a good option if you are in Canada and can't locate it.

Milani's HD advanced concealer promises to "cover imperfections and dark circles, with a weightless, good-for-your-skin liquid formula that leaves a natural finish as it brightens with a soft focus for flawless skin." It only comes in 4 shades (just like the YSL) including Light, Medium, Medium Beige and Medium Honey. I got the lightest colour, "light" and it works just fine for me. I wish they made more colours available. It's advertised that it can be all-purpose, used on the eyes and on the face to conceal and brighten. I bought it primarily to use for under the eyes.

The first thing that struck me about this product was the beautiful packaging, it's a luxurious gold click pen brush applicator, just like the YSL. The packaging definitely looks more expensive than it costs. I do not or have ever used the YSL so unfortunately I cannot compare the performance of the two here. When I first got this I had to click it a ton of times to get the product to start coming out. And even now one click is more than enough to cover both my eyes, so you have to be careful with how much dispenses because of the nature of the applicator.

Why is this called HD? I have no idea, it seems like the beauty community has jumped on calling everything and anything HD, people definitely fall for this. However, this concealer has some key ingriendents in it that make it sounds pretty fancy schmansy:
• Rona Coated Pigments that disguise dark shadows
• Invisaskin moisture base which keep the eye area hydrated,soften expressions lines and wrinkles
• Grant X Gamma Amino-Butyric Acid that plumps out creases, lines and imperfections
• Granactive RD 101 to help brighten and gently resurface the most delicate skin

I would say the coverage is light-medium (apparently better than the YSL). I have read that the YSL is better for highlighting, while this one is better at concealing. Now, I want to point out that you aren't getting crazy high coverage with this product, which is disappointing some people, this is meant as an illuminating concealer, meaning it is supposed to light up areas of your face. So under the eyes, it would brighten up areas that may have shadows or darkness. For me personally, having dry skin, I found that this doesn't sit too nicely on my skin, it did cover up my redness, discolouration and bit, neutralized the area, but it did separate into my fine lines. I think this would work better for those with oily skin. I moisturized well under the eyes prior to applying in the picture above too. This isn't something that others can notice unless they are really close to my face, but it makes the performance of this product for me poor, this is without setting it or anything too, which would make it worse.

The formulation is really nice, not thin, runny or on the thick side, it's right in the middle. I would say the consistency is similar to Revlon's Age Defying Spa concealing, and not as runny as Maybelline Mineral Power concealer. The colour "Light" is quite yellow too. It blended nicely into my hand above, however didn't provide any coverage really..but under the eyes, the performance is just not great for me.

I wanted to love this product and I still think it's okay, but it doesn't work very well for my skin. My skin is dry, my under eye area is dry and I need something less cakey under there. I think this could have potential to work well for others though.

Have you tried the Milani HD advanced concealer? What are your thoughts?