By BR Tabatha
Is it just me or has concealing exploded in the same way that contouring and highlighting has? Once upon a time when we thought about concealing all it meant was finding a skin-coloured cream or liquid concealer one shade lighter than your skin tone and dabbing it onto a pimple. These days, well, nude-colour concealers are still a thing, but there are also green concealers, purple concealers, yellow concealers, some people are even using red lipstick to conceal dark spots. So what’s the deal with all the concealers? What do you need and why? We’re heading back to school to find out…
Remember the colour wheel that popped up during primary school? It’s the basis for colour correcting concealers. How about that? Basically, you take the problem you’re facing, and then use the colour on the opposite end of the colour wheel to fix it. So if it’s redness that’s giving you grief, you need a green concealer.
The first green concealer I ever saw was the Moisture Mist Green Veil concealer, and it would be fair to say it blew my mind, even more so when I learnt the purpose of it was to hide and neutralise the redness associated with pimples, broken capillaries, even rosacea. It took a bit of experimentation to get this one right, and there were a few “The Mask” moments initially, but I found by applying sparingly, then blending, followed by foundation (or flesh toned concealer on those non-full-face days) I saw angry red pimples and a few broken veins well minimalized.
If your skin’s looking a little sallow or maybe you’ve donked yourself on the head and have the tail end of a bruise to cover up, reach for a purple corrector, like that which can be found in Makeup Revolution’s Ultra Base Corrector Palette. Simply apply, and watch that yellowness disappear.
If you look like you haven’t seen a good night’s sleep in about ten years, reach for a yellow concealer, like LA Girl’s HD Pro Concealer. Yellow concealer as you may well have guessed is opposite purple on the colour wheel, and neutralises any bruised looking colours. Now here’s an interesting thing about yellow concealers – even though it doesn’t sit opposite red on the colour wheel, it can also be used to correct redness. Yep…there always has to be one exception to the rule… Yellow concealer, you little rebel, you.
Another colour used to disguise dark under-eye circles of the bluer toned variety is a salmon or peach toned concealer, like Bobbi Brown’s Corrector in Light Peach. As with other concealers apply first, blend out and then pop on your usual under-eye concealer and/or foundation. So where does red-lippy come into the equation? Well this vloggerwowed the beauty world by showing us how she used it to cover her dark under-eye circles and dark spots, and as you can see on the colour wheel orangey-red sits opposite, so it makes total sense.
However when others have tried it, it appears to work best for those with darker skin tones, where as fairer skin tones seem to have more luck with the salmon or peach coloured corrector.
So what have we learnt today, class? At the end of the day the trick to using colour correcting concealer is to take a look at what needs concealing, ascertain the colour of the problem area, then refer to the colour wheel to see what the opposite shade is. And when choosing a correcting concealer to buy keep in mind your own skin tone, which depending on the concealer can determine how bold a coloured corrector we choose. So easy we could all get ourselves an A+ if we were to be tested on it.
So do tell, is your concealer kit all the colours of the rainbow? Do you stick to the tried and true skin-toned shades? Are you keen to experiment with greens and purples? Get chatting!
I have never tried coloured concealer before, also not understanding the theories behind concealer. I just stick to one true skin toned shades.