How to cover dark circles

How to cover dark circles.

Early bird might get the worm, but it could also use some concealer. Dark under eye circles are not usually a problem for me, which is definitely something to be happy about. There are those days, however, when I’ve only had few hours of sleep and wake up in need of some help concealing the evidence of same.

I’ve tried a lot of different concealers over the years (and by a lot I really do mean A LOT) both high-end and more affordable ones. I’ve found two that work the best for me and my delicate, and slightly dry under eye skin.

1.  First thing that I do in order to cover those dark circles is use a brightening cream under my eyes. My favorite is still Origins GinZing Brightening Eye Cream. This product itself already does a good job at brightening the skin and making it look more “awake”.

2. Two of my favorite under eye concealers are MAC Pro Long Wear concealer in NC15 and NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla. Now, since dark circles usually have blue and/or gray tones, in order to conceal them you need to use a color that’s opposite to blue/gray (I’m referring to the color wheel here). The opposite for blue/gray is orange, but since my skin tone is so fair, a peachy-toned concealer does the trick for me. If your skin tone is deeper, I suggest you try a concealer that’s a few shades darker than your skin tone, so that it can actually cover those dark circles. For this, I like to use NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla, which is a shade that’s a bit darker than my skin tone. I usually like to use my ring finger to blend in the concealer, I find this to be the easiest and it also gives a most natural finish. Sometimes I also use a concealer brush, at this time my favorite is MAC’s 195 brush to blend the concealer in with my foundation.

3. Most of the time the combo of a brightening eye cream and a peachy-toned concealer will do the trick. In rare cases (think staying up all night) I do like to use a lighter concealer to brighten up the area that I’ve just concealed. For that, I absolutely love using MAC’s Pro Long Wear concealer in NC15. It’s absolutely great at brightening the skin, it doesn’t settle into lines and isn’t drying or irritating.

4. After all that heavy duty concealing and brightening, you need to set your concealer, otherwise it might melt off your face. I recently started using Laura Mercier’s Secret Brightening Translucent powder for that. A little bit goes a long way and it gets the job done; setting the concealer in place while also helping to brighten up the skin even more. I was a bit hesitant to try this powder, to be honest, mainly because I’ve tried Laura Mercier foundations and primers before and both gave me an allergic reaction. Thankfully, this brightening powder works like a charm for me.

These few products are my go-to essentials when it comes to covering dark circles, what are yours? Anything interesting I should try?