"Hide and Seek"

Remember playing that game? I do.

One person hid and the other person found them. It was a game we played as kids, and it was a lot of fun. Today, we have a new variation of it. It's called "find and hide". How to conceal those dark under eye circles, shadows, blemishes, and whatever else we want to make disappear. And in this variation of the game, we don't want anyone to find anything!

What can do this? Say hello to concealers! Those magic wands or sticks that cover and make all of what we want to disappear become invisible. There are a lot of choices out there and I'm going to tell you about a couple I use and love.

First off, what do I look for in a good concealer?

Well, of course it must conceal. So good coverage is essential. It can't settle in fine lines, look "cakey", and must blend easily,

Is there such a thing? Yes!

One of my favorites is one that I recently discovered. It's does everything I mentioned above and more. It's called Instant Age Rewind Eraser by Maybeline and the best price that I have found it for is on Amazon. It conceals beautifully. No creasing, no settling into fine lines, no "cakeyness". When I decided to try it, I looked at the reviews and thought, can over 200 thousand people be wrong? Well, no, they were right. It's just plain fabulous! The range of colors are great. It has a sponge applicator which makes it very easy to apply and control. What color to get? Rule of thumb is to go with a shade that is close to your foundation shade. If you are trying to cover dark circles, and since dark circles tend to have a bluish undertone, choose a concealer that has a peach or orange tint to it as they are ideal for canceling the bluish tones. How to apply? Put one or two dots under the eye (not close to the lash line and working from the inner corner outward), pat and smooth in. Do not rub or pull. I use a Real Techniques blender sponge. You can also use your finger. Always start with less product. You can always add more.

Now for a magic trick!

There is one shade in Age Rewind that everyone should have besides

the shade that matches your foundation. And that is shade 160. 160 is a brightener with a pink undertone and it brightens the undereye instantly! I use it every day and will never be without it. After you use a little concealer under the eye, use the 160 brightener. Here is the technique I use. I make an inverted triangle under the eye area. The sponge applicator makes it easy to do this. I make this triangle by adding a couple of dots under the eye (not close to the lash line), one dot top middle of your cheek bone and then one dot on each side of the triangle. Then I take my beauty blender to connect the dots, blending and filling in the triangle by tapping and patting. Make the dots small. You can follow the illustration above and can add fewer dots if you want but the idea is to have the inverted triangle shape. You will be amazed how this will instantly lighten up not only the eye area but your entire face! This is the technique I use all the time. The results are just amazing.

When do I apply all this? I apply my concealer and the 160-magic highlighter over my foundation. You can also dab a bit of concealer to cover blemishes and dark spots as well. Dab, pat and blend. Never rub.

Speaking of covering dark spots, there is one concealer I love for that. It's called Dermablend. It will literally cover anything and after I finish my makeup, if I see any dark spots bleeding though, aka sun damage, I dot on a little Dermablend, and they are gone!

I mentioned that I use a couple of concealers and here they are. Lacome's Teint Idole Ultra Wear all over full coverage concealer. It's light weight, doesn't crease and comes in a ton of colors. This too is one of my favorites and I reach for it all the time.

The last one I'll leave you with today is NYX professional Bare with Me concealer serum.

NYX is a brand I just recently discovered, and I love it. I have their lip pencils, eye pencils and more and it is a great line for a great price. There are 17 shades of this concealer that blend flawlessly, look natural and gives great coverage. For me, this too is a winner!

One more thing to check out from NYX is their color correcting concealer pallet. This palette helps conceal and correct discolorations; light and medium tones camouflage imperfections, yellow and peach conceal dullness and dark circles, green covers redness, purple and pink brighten. I have it and its invaluable!

So, there you have it. A basic primer on concealers. I'll do another post on some easy tips on how to use concealers in other ways and age rewind 160 for highlighting for other areas to highlight!

It's never been easier to hide what you don't want others to see. Just dab, pat and go! And trust me, nobody will find any of it!

Liz

❤️

(Any links in this post are affiliate links which I may be given compensation for if they are purchased through the link)