How To Apply Concealer

YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CONCEALER

Picture this: You arrive at a restaurant to meet your best friend for brunch and as you lean in for a hug, you spot a crusted, muddy-looking blotch of concealer on her cheek. As she starts filling you in on her latest news all you're thinking is: Her concealer is doing nothing but making that zit look worse -- how do I tell her? 

That's the thing about concealer. We do everything we can to use it to camouflage our flaws yet all too often, we end up accentuating them. And that's why, despite the fact that breaking down the details of how to apply concealer correctly sounds like the most boring makeup topic ever, it’s an important skill to hone. 

And while applying concealer properly may not be rocket science, it's not necessarily an intuitive process either. In fact, celebrity makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic (the guy responsible for making Kim Kardashian's complexion look flawless, even when it's not), says the most common mistake he sees women make with concealer is the most basic: We don't match it to our skin tone. 

"When the concealer is too dark, setting it with powder will only make it darker, which makes the spot you're trying to cover look like a muddy patch of skin," Dedivanovic says. 

But he also maintains that's not where the big fail ends. When we set the concealer with powder, we're using the wrong shade of powder. "You have to use a powder that's a shade lighter than your skin tone, because when dry powder touches wet concealer, it'll get darker." Who knew? Another life-changing tip from Dedivanovic: Apply your loose powder with a velour puff brush; using a natural bristle brush can leave streaks on your skin. 

Getting the distinct sense that Dedivanovic knows a thing or two about faking flawless skin? Good. Because with his tips, your odds of never being that girl with the awkward concealer blob on her face are vastly improved.