Conceal Don't Feel

It pained me to write that title, because unlike millions of people around the world I actually didn't like Frozen. But I thought it was appropriate. Tangled was A LOT better and much more sassier in my opinion. Anyway, back on topic.

Unlike Instagram filters would like to lead us to believe, we aren't all blessed with perfect skin. There are apps, filters and lots of little tricks to help us become flawless. But unfortunately we cannot walk around in real life with Valencia filter over our complexion. Actually, no I take that back. We can. And it's called makeup, yay for makeup!

But not every blemish, dark circles, acne scarring, redness, general badness, can be masked by the same product. 

The general rule of thumb is that the order of base makeup goes: primer, colour correcting concealer, foundation, good ol' regular concealer, under eye concealer, face powder. Maybe that's not a rule of thumb, but it's certainly worked for me. 

So you've got some face issues that your regular old foundation just can't cover up? Lets chitchat about it!

Dark Circles/Pigmentation/Discolouration

Trust me, as someone who has just finished her degree with one of the last assignments being a dissertation that was over 50 pages long, I know a thing or two about late nights and their resulting dark circles. The best solution to this besides a 3.30pm nap is a concealer that concentrates on brightening and reflecting light off the darkness, such as the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser. This baby brightens the shizz out of dark circles and you'll find the best results through putting it over the top of your regular foundation. Can also be used as a subtle highlighter on the cupids bow, cheekbones and nose. And if you have found yourself with uneven skin tone/darkness/discolouration that can sometimes be the result of nasty things like sun spots (stop right now and put on sunscreen ASAP, none of this tanning business thank you) you will need to get use a brightening concealer as well but one with a bit more coverage. I cannot rave enough about the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. It's just marvelous and covers everything perfectly. Invest in one of these babies and you will not be sorry!

Redness

Take your mind back to grade five when you first learnt about colour wheels. Or in my case, last year at university when I was forced to take a unit of graphic design as an elective that was taught by a hot hippie in Birkenstocks. Because you only want the colour red on your lips and not on your skin, sometimes regular foundation just doesn't cut it coverage wise so you need to use a green concealer. Why? Because green is opposite to red on the colour wheel. Hey, all those thousands of dollars paid for that semester elective of graphic design is starting to come into play. The best green concealer I’ve used both coverage/quality/price wise is the Maybelline Green Correction concealer that I picked up for a nifty $4.50 when Chemist Warehouse had a massive cosmetics sale. The only downside with this is that it’s in a lipstick style container that I went a bit heavy handed with and snapped it in half. Man, I’m so aggressive. 

Pimples

Because pimples are just so darn fabulous and extroverted, they need all sorts of coverage. You will need to use a green concealer, as mentioned above to knock the redness out of those pesky spots. Then follow up with your regular foundation, and if they are STILL peeking through because they're being all Iggy Azalea on you (fancy) you will need a good concentrated skin toned concealer to fix that problem. Depending on the level of the emergency situation on your face, I’ve found two concealers have worked best for me over the years. If your whole face is just looking like one giant pimple that needs covering, the little pot of goodness that is MAC Studio Fix will sort that straight out for you. It's a really thick, concentrated concealer that could probably cover the stripes on a zebra if need be. And if the situation is a little less severe, Benefits Boi-ing is amazing. Like the NARS Creamy Concealer it is an absolute powerhouse and I find it actually does a great job of concealing most skin concerns, for me it's worked on everything from dark circles and pigmentation to pimple problems. It's a lot lighter in consistency than the MAC Studio Fix so I much prefer using it to MAC. Because the MAC Studio Fix is such a heavy concealer, I only save it for drastic situations so my skin doesn't end up congested. 

So there you go, you could probably conceal a pie in a bakeshop with all these beauts. And I have personally used all these products, so there is no pesky magazine style marketing to be seen.

Conceal away!