Concealer is a must-have makeup product that not only helps hide blemishes but can also lift and brighten the face. One of the most versatile products to have in your makeup bag, concealer does everything from brighten tired eyes to balance out your complexion, conceal red spots and even shape your face. It takes seconds to put some concealer on and blend your blemishes away, and we’ve rounded up 10 awesome concealer hacks to make your application that much more seamless.
Best Concealers to Invest In
For Under Eyes: Tarte Shape Tape Concealer
This full coverage liquid concealer is perfect for your under eye area. Formulated with shea butter to retain elasticity, mango butter to moisturize and liquorice root to visibly brighten skin, it provides up to 16 hours of flawless wear and lifted-looking eyes.
For Blemishes: NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer
This creamy oil-free formula provides high yet natural looking coverage to camouflage redness and blur blemishes. Collagen boosting peptides smooth and reduce the appearance of wrinkles and pores, hyaluronic acids helps to hydrate, soften and plump the skin and vitamin A, C and E work together for environmental defence for an overall healthier-looking complexion.
For Colour Correcting: NYX HD Concealer Wand
This concentrated emollient-rich concealer goes on like a dream to cover blemishes, colour correct redness and hide imperfections for a flawless finish. It’s available in colour correcting shades including green (to combat redness), yellow (to offset purple) and lavender (to cancel out yellow tones). It’s the perfect day-to-day concealer with coverage you can count on.
Our Best Concealer Hacks
1. Apply Concealer After Foundation
You should apply your concealer after you’ve applied your foundation, not the other way around. Think about it this way – your foundation is just that, the base to which all other makeup will be applied. When you apply concealer first, you end up removing most of it when you put on foundation and other powder products. When you start with foundation, you’ll need less concealer overall and will end up with better coverage.
2. Use Liquid Concealers Under the Eyes and Cream Concealers for the Rest of Your Face
Liquid concealers tend to work best under the eyes as they’re the least likely to move and crease. The under eye area is prone to creasing, so anything you can do here to prevent it is helpful. Cream concealers melt into your skin for irresistible coverage, and are ideal for the rest of your face.
3. Apply Under Eye Concealer in a Triangle
Instead of sweeping your concealer directly on top of your under eye bags, draw your concealer in an upside down triangle shape to help brighten up your face. Sweeping it across your under eye circles will actually end up enhancing the puffiness. Once you’ve drawn the triangle, dab the concealer into your skin with your ring finger or a beauty blender.
4. Concealer Hack That Will Change Your Face | Christen Dominique
While the triangle method is a great way to brighten your entire under eye area, there’s a newer technique for applying under eye concealer for a more natural application. It transforms your face by getting rid of super dark under eyes while lifting your face at the same time. To demonstrate this technique, Christen uses the JOUER High Coverage Liquid Concealer as well as a concealer brush and beauty sponge.
5. Use a Green Concealer for Redness
Colour correcting concealers are awesome and if you deal with redness on your face, you should counteract it with a green concealer. Green neutralizes redness, so apply it directly onto the affected area, then use a cotton swab to apply your regular concealer over top to really camouflage it.
6. Pat Concealer with Setting Powder
One of the downsides of concealer is that it tends to crease, especially under the eyes. Concealer creasing is when the concealer sets in to fine lines and pores, making them more visible. To prevent this from happening, instead of sweeping your setting powder over your concealer, pat it onto the skin using a makeup sponge. This sets the concealer in place and stops it from creasing.
7. Tidy Up Eyeliner Mistakes
Getting the perfect cat eye can be tricky. If it ends up looking a little shaky, dip an angled brush into liquid concealer to clean up any uneven lines. It’s much easier than removing it altogether and starting over, and will give you that gorgeous smooth line you’re looking for.
8. How to Cover Acne with Concealer | Emily Freybler
If your skin is prone to pimples and breakouts, check out this tutorial to cover up blemishes all while keeping your makeup lightweight and natural looking. It’s ideal for days you need to pop out of the house but don’t want a full face of makeup. She recommends three different concealer products – the Maybelline Fit Me! Concealer, the Neutrogena SkinClearing Blemish Concealer, and the Almay Clear Complexion Concealer to conceal mild acne.
9. Let It Bake
If you’re applying multiple layers of concealer, allow each to dry (or bake) before you blend it out. This allows the heat from your face to start setting your concealer so that when it’s time to blend it won’t shift at all. Apply it on the areas you want to target and let it sit for about 3 minutes to set properly before blending it out.
10. Contour Your Nose
Concealer can also be used to help contour your nose and make it look slimmer. The easiest way to create a seamless contour is to highlight first. Use a concealer that’s about two shades lighter than your natural skin tone and apply it to your nose, starting at the bridge and down the centre, stopping before you reach the tip. Use a brush to soften the stripe and blend out and down to the sides of your nose. You can then go on to use your regular contour products to shape the rest of your nose.
Try our genius concealer hacks to cover up, lift and brighten your skin for a flawless makeup look day after day.
