I recently strayed off my path of using my regular products that work on my 45-year-old undereyes, and I’m here to tell you of my mistakes, products that did and did not work, and techniques that are rubbish (and some that work). Concealer over 40 – it’s tricky.
Concealer over 40: The situation
My undereyes don’t look particularly lined or crepey, I think. And previously, I’ve just used the Maybelline Instant Anti-Age concealer in Light (in minuscule amounts, not Instagram or YouTube amounts!), patted that in, let it sit, smoothed it out with a sponge again, and set it with a (minuscule!!!) amount of Nars Setting Powder. It gave me good results in covering my dark circles (which are truly not really dark, but kind of burgundy) and not accentuating fine lines or texture.
But then I finished that concealer, and wanted to test something new, and here’s where the problems started.
Mistake No.1 – Listening to influencers’ product recommendations
Oh sweet summer children! No matter how often you coquettishly whisper into your camera that you’re now over 30 – you’re still gorgeous human beings who do makeup on YouTube.
Note to myself: I’m still older, and I DON’T do makeup at YouTube, which has different requirements than day-to-day makeup.
What to do instead
Never change a running system. The Maybelline did work great on me – stick with that.
Mistake No.2 – application techniques
In theory, choosing serum concealers sounds like a good idea. In theory, the thinner the concealer, the less creasing sounds logical, too. But that doesn’t take into consideration TEXTURE. Again, I don’t have a lot of fine lines around my eyes. But, again, I’m 45, and there’s texture around my eyes. The skin just isn’t baby smooth any longer. And this is what happens when I use a serum concealer: the pigment will pool into any fine lines and accentuates texture as well.
What to do instead
Here’s what I like to do, with any concealer: prepping the area shouldn’t come as a surprise. Eye cream, people! Also, use as little as concealer as possible, and, most importantly, don’t do the Instagram triangle thingy. Use concealer where you actually have darkness: and that’s mostly towards the tear ducts and inner eye area. Play around with primers, as well.
Products that worked – and didn’t work
NYX Bare With Me Concealer Serum in Vanilla
The pump will give you too much product to work with. Be careful! While the shade is decent for me, I really, really hate the formula. First, I need a primer for this one to give me a result that doesn’t make me to want to tear my hair out. And even then, I find it incredibly difficult to get a coverage that does something for me, but then doesn’t accentuates texture. This would work best on someone with less pronounced dark circles, and almost next to no texture. I think if you’ve only that one smile line that nearly everyone has under their eyes, you’ll be fine with it. I’m not.
Makeup Revolution Eye Bright Illuminating Undereye Concealer in Light
Same issue on all points as with NYX above, but then with an added bonus of a really weird shade range. THIS is supposed to be LIGHT?! This is a straight up peach! Next.
Catrice True Skin High Coverage Concealer in 010 Cool Cashmere
The shade range is abysmal: either to dark and orange, or too cool-toned for me. This is borderline too cool on me, resulting on a slightly ashy look. BUT: the formula works better than the ones above for me. Again, I use a tiny amount on the inner and outer corners and blend those towards the middle of my undereyes with a beautyblender. I let it set, blend again to smooth out fine lines and texture (it will have pooled into lines), and set it with setting powder on a fluffy brush. Done. (But the Maybelline is still better.)
Concealer over 40: Conclusion
Stay with products that work well for you. Also, apply concealer only where you need to, and not where YouTube or Instagram tells you to, especially if you’re older. And now I’ll go back to my fave Maybelline. The end.
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