CHENNAI : On some days, I impress myself with how perfect my chai tastes. On other days, I impress myself with how well I can cover up my dark circles. It has taken me over a decade to come to terms with the fact that my dark circles aren’t going anywhere… and while I’ve stopped expending energy into getting rid of them, I haven’t quite come to the stage where I can embrace them. It’s mostly a genetic thing; enhanced by the fact that I either get too much sleep or too little — and I am always glued to at least one electronic device.
It also took me a while to understand concealers. To date, I own no less than 10 concealers and correctors — and can safely tell you that it does not matter if you use NARS or Maybeline. The problem comes up when you learn most of your make-up from YouTube videos, and end up drawing a lighter shade of concealer in an inverted triangle under your eyes. You proceed to go over it with heaps of powder, of course.
This isn’t a bad way to cover up certain zits, but it’s quite a useless way of doing your eyes — unless of course you want to look like a dried up, powdered apricot. Movement+ thick concealer = make-up lines. The product will settle in into natural lines and the buildup will end up looking dreadful, thank me later.
You know how certain kinds of makeup look good only in photographs and doesn’t work in real life? This is an excellent example of that. It would definitely work if I contoured the living life out of my face, did super dramatic eye makeup and loaded up on fake lashes. I’d look stunning in every photo. It’s not for
everyday wear though. Especially if the rest of me is pretty minimal.
This useful piece of information is going to potentially change your make-up game/life forever. Darker colours diminish, and lighter shades enhance. So slathering on a lighter shade of concealer directly under your eye is only going to draw more attention to it.The solution to this is really the most simple: use a lightweight concealer (with a slight colour-cancelling undertone if needed) in the exact shade matching your skin. Skip the inverted triangle for now, and focus this on your under-eye area only. Blend, blend, blend! As a general rule of thumb, the colour cancelling tone you will require will be in shades of salmon or orange if your dark circles are purple of blueish. If your circles are blackish greenish, get one which is slightly yellow.
The lighter shade of concealer and inverted triangle method is super handy when you want to highlight and create an illusion of a lifted face. However, you should remember to do this after you have concealed correctly. It doesn’t matter if you wear little make-up or lots of it, the point is that you never want your under eyes to look like they ‘stand out’.Though I feel like I got quite overwhelmed with these radiance boosting, 3-in-1 highlighting concealers that are so in trend that I forgot all about regular old boring concealer, which you know, work pretty damn well. See you next week my lovelies!