Concealing Dark Circles with Mineral Concealers

Hi everybody,

How are you doing? I hope you had a good night sleep and feel well-rested. Lately, I've been an insomniac. For some unknown reasons, I could not go to sleep until the AM and I'm not talking about 1 or 2 AM. Usually, I can get some zzz at around 1 AM and it's been like that since I came to America. However, the sleeping time keeps on getting later and later until I found myself counting sheep at around 5 AM! As a result, I got dark circles!

Until recently, I was very blessed with not having the dark shadows under my eyes but going to bed late finally took a toll on me and the dark half-moon below my eyes are just horrible. Although my dark circles are not dark enough to qualify me for the NFL, they're just there and once they're there, they are annoying.

I have dark circles but they're not that bad
Image from Football America

So, campaign Cover Up Dark Circles began and so far I've been a happy camper. Roxy asked me if I've known any products similar to Well Rested from Bare Essentuals and the answers are yes and no. Yes, because I believe there are some products out there that conceal dark circles well; and No because I do not know how well "Well Rested" work. I'm allergic to bismuth oxychloride, remember?

Anyways, here are things that work for me and I hope they will help you as well.

1. Everyday Minerals Concealers:

These are fabulous concealers on the cheap side. I've used Sunlight for almost two years now and still haven't finished the sample they sent me yet! Recently, I got Abbott's Perk Me Up and it's also a nice concealer. I think it looks very similar to Well Rested.

EDM Sunlight and Abbott's Perk Me Up in the jar
Sunlight is a yellow concealer that covers dark circles and brightens up your under-eye areas while Abbott's Perk Me Up is a salmon concealer that covers dark circles very well.

Skin swatch

Don't let the colors scare you: in the skin swatch, I barely blended the concealers to my skin to show the shade but once I did, they melted to my skin very well. While some people love Sunlight and others like Abbott's, I find applying a layer each of those does a wonderful job to conceal dark circles.

Other potential dark circles eradicators from EDM: Pearl Sunlight which has shimmers, and Aussie Perk Me Up for those who have lighter skin tone.

Price: $2.50 for a sample, $4.00 for a mini, and $8.00 for a giant pack. You can get a sample pack for free (only pay for shipping, which is ~$3USD depending on how far you live from Texas.)

2. Silk Naturals Concealers:

I've been using SN foundations on and off for about 1.5 years and they give me good coverage. Since the base of their concealers are the same as that for foundations, I assume they would give good coverage as well. SN has two major types of concealers called "Sleep in a Jar": a yellow version and a peach version. While the yellow version only has one color, peach has three different shades from light to medium to match your skin tone.

The reason why most mineral makeup companies are so into yellow and peach tone concealers is these two shades actually cover up dark circles well. Since most dark circles and bruises are in green, and purple shades, the opposite colors in the color wheel are peach/salmon and yellow. Karen, the owner of SN, has a more detailed explanation here. The transformation is dramatic, I have to say.

Price: $5.92 for the yellow version, $6.25 for the peach version, and 75-99 cents for samples. SN does not give you a lot of products but their stuff do last for a very long time.

3. Adorned with Grace Minerals Foundation:

Yes, you got it right: it's a foundation! AwG currently does not have any concealers in their lineup because the foundations are ridiculously pigmented. Plus, I believe Franchesca does not want her customers to pay extras on things that her foundations can do well. When I'm in a hurry, I just use a tiny but of AwG foundation and apply it right beneath my eyes. It does cover up quite well but I find it to work much better when layered on top of Sunlight. Since Sunlight tend to have a yellowish cast, a bit of foundation on top does not make Sunlight look so cakey while further conceal the dark circles.

Now, the question is: do mineral concealers make tiny fine lines look more pronounced? The answer is: it depends on how you apply the product(s). When using mineral concealers, layering is very important as you do not want to load up a whole lot of products at once. Usually, it would take me about 2 layers of Sunlight to look good and I apply with a foundation brush (don't ask me why, it just works better that way!) The eyebuki brush from EDM also works very well, according to some source on the street. When everything else fails, just apply and blend with your fingers. Believe me, sometimes you need to take things into your own hands.

Take care ladies, and stay gorgeous!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

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