The cover up: easy steps to perfect concealer

Hiding blemishes, dark circles and wrinkles is easier than you think. The secret to not looking your age is not a surgeon’s knife. Instead, it’s a rather innocuous make-up tool – the concealer. Many women leave concealers out of their daily make-up routines, deeming it an unnecessary and sometimes unreasonably time-consuming step. But any good make-up artist will tell you that a concealer, if used properly, can banish the most pesky imperfections with laser-light precision. Follow these easy steps to perfect concealer.

Do your prep
When we say camouflage, we don’t mean make-up inches thick. Your goal should be to get your skin to a level where you need minimal make-up, applied well, and that means establishing a really great skincare routine first.

Cleanse twice a day with a non-drying cleanser suitable to your skin type such as L’Oréal’s Ideal Balance Foaming Gel, $11.95, a gentle soap-free cleanser that’s boosted with vitamins and minerals. In the morning, treat your skin with a luxurious moisturiser, enriched with essential elements such as antioxidants and an SPF factor of at least 15. We recommend Clinique’s Superdefense Triple Action Moisturizer, $90, which contains antioxidants and an SPF 25 sunscreen. Night-time is the best time to rehydrate or soothe dry or stressed complexions. Try using an anti-ageing serum and night cream on mature skins or those showing signs of premature ageing.

No matter what brand of skincare you choose, Tayaba Jafri, international make-up artist for Laura Mercier Cosmetics, recommends you treat your face and eyes separately. “The skin on the eyes is completely different from the skin on the face,” she says. “There are no oil glands or major hair follicles around the eye and this skin is the thinnest skin on our body.”

Tayaba says applying face cream around the eyes, instead of a proper eye cream, can also have side effects including tiny white pockets or bumps around the eyes. She recommends using a gentle eye cream with healing botanical extracts, such as Decléor’s Hydra Floral Eye Contour Cream Gel, $75, which is formulated with an ultra-fine cream-gel texture that will create a perfect base to apply concealer to.

Scrub up
Besides moisturising the skin on your face and eyes, don’t forget to exfoliate once a week – nothing spoils a perfect make-up look like dead, dry skin flakes. Try an exfoliating system such as Lancôme’s Resurface Peel, $230, a complete exfoliating system that gently abrades the skin to improve texture and clarity. (Or try Lancôme’s Resurface Starter Kit – at just $65 it’s a worthwhile investment if you want to improve your skin’s appearance.)

123   |  Single page