First off, let me say that what you see as "really bad circles" usually isn't as bad as you think. But with a little concealer we can eliminate this :] So let's get started!
Always remember that when you apply anything to your face, you want clean hands. Not doing this can contaminate your makeup or add whatever is on your hands onto your face ultimately hurts us in the end when trying to clear up a breakout! Dirt and oils on your hands will only aggravate the blemish.
Ok, types of concealers. My favorites are liquids and creams. Liquids are generally best used under the eyes as it is light in texture and won't settle into fine lines and wrinkles, or cake up and look, well, icky. Creams are good for a more full coverage. For example, a blemish, dark spots, redness, etc.
CONCEALING UNDER EYE CIRCLES
Warm up the product in the palm of your hand to "thin out" the texture so the coverage is smooth. You can also apply it right to the area with the applicator in your concealer. Now, make a triangle with dots of concealer. It's not as hard as you think. Start by dotting it under your eyes, a few dots on the side of your nose, and connect the line to the outer under eye dot. That creates a triangle!
You can use a brush to lightly and in circular motions blend the concealer. You can also use your fingers. The ring finger exerts the least amount of pressure since it's our weakest finger. It's important because the skin around the eyes is so thin, we don't want to tug on it and pull it. Premature wrinkles!
The triangle method brightens up the whole plane of your upper cheek and under eyes. If you want a glowy, highlighted effect, choose a shade or two lighter than your actual skin tone. Avoid going too light though – reverse raccoon eyes are not pretty. Don’t forget the upper lids! It makes the entire eye area more polished and draws attention up. Use stay-put eye makeup when applying dark colors. Flaky mascaras and powder eyeshadow can fall under your eyes and make dark circles reappear and look worse.
CONCEALING BLEMISHES, REDNESS, DARK SPOTS
Use concealer that is 1-2 shades darker than your skin. If you use a light concealer, it’s only going to highlight the acne or blemish instead of hiding it. The trick is to blend around the edges or apply foundation over the concealer to smooth out the color difference. If you have redness from the acne, use a green concealer as it counteracts redness- you do need to apply foundation on top though so you don’t look like a big old weirdo ;]
To avoid over-application which can cause cakiness, apply a dab of these thicker formulas with your fingers and blending out will give you the best results!
ALSO
Concealer can be used as a lipstick primer. Just apply it to your lips before you put on color to make the true color of your lipstick more intense (your natural lip color can alter your lipstick). It will also give your lipstick staying power when set with a layer of powder on top.
You can also trace around your eyebrows to make them look sharper and neater. Always remember though, blend, blend, blend! It would be like having a foundation line on your face!
If you still feel that concealer alone is just not enough, you can use a corrector before applying concealer.
The yellow/peachy pigments give you an extra boost of brightness and help cancel out purple tones. The green is used to counter act redness. Experiment :]
The low down? In the battle for complexion perfection, concealer is your secret weapon.
Stay tuned for more makeup 101 posts! If you have any requests, let me know! I hope this helped some of you who are struggling with the massive amount of concealers out there :]
Lots of Love,
Mary XOXO
