A Guide To: Concealers & Correctors

Hi Guys,

This is my fourth instalment into my A Guide To Series, which is going to be on concealers, but mainly more on correctors as they're becoming more and more popular. They're a product that can be a bit baffling because well some are bright orange and green! I also thought this would be a good progression from Foundations too!

One of the main difference's between a concealer and correctors are that you won't want to use a corrector on its own. Correctors neutralise the area your Concealers are covering, which then in turn actually make your concealers more effective.

Correctors are used to neutralise unwanted tones in the skin, if you were to look at a colour wheel. The colour of the corrector will be opposite to the colour your correcting, there is mainly 4-5 main shades that are more commonly used, my favourite products to use for this is Illamasqua Cream Pigments. They have a waxy consistency, so as soon as you apply your foundation and concealer over the top, it won't budge underneath.

Peach/ Orange - Peach tones are used to cancel out purples in the skin, specifically under the eye on fairer skin, a great ones is Cream Pigment in Emerge. However on a darker skin, a darker orange shade such as the one in the wheel, works a lot better than a peach tone.

Green - Is fantastic at neutralising redness, the mint tone of Cream Pigment in Bedaub, perfectly reduces any redness in the skin.

Yellow - Yellow will neutralise any purple tones found in the skin, I find it works better over the eye lid to correct pigmentation rather than on dark circles, which are better corrected with the peach tones.

Lilac - A product like the Illamasqua Cream Pigment in Dab, is a great lilac to use to counteract any yellowness to the skin, as the purple tone is usually used to correct sallowness in the complexion. 

Or a few companies who mainly supply makeup artist kits, like Graftobian, do a  Light Corrector Wheel, which houses your peachy tones, orange, green, yellow and a couple of nude concealer shades. 

You tend to find with concealers that come in a pot, they're not going to have varying finishes on the skin, they're going to be most probably higher coverage and creamy on the skin. 

MAC Studio Finish Concealer is a popular option, the MAC Concealers also come in the same system as their Foundations, meaning you can find a concealer in either a warm tone or a cool tone. If you want to use it under the eye, then picking a NW shade, which is cool toned, will correct under the eye slightly on fairer skin tones due to its pink undertone. 

A cream compact concealer that actually contains a corrector is the Illamasqua Skin Base Lift Concealers. They have Emerge pigment mixed into them, as they are designed for under the eye area mainly. But you can also use this product else where on the face too. 

The Blogger favourite, Collection Lasting Perfection, is quite possibly the most popular liquid concealer out there, especially high street wise. It's a medium to high coverage concealer, with a matte finish, you can use it under the eyes. But with all liquid concealers under the eye area, you're better setting it with powder straight after, to prevent creasing.  

Rimmel Wake Me Up is a radiant dewy concealer, probably the furthest away from the Collection finish. Due to its light reflecting properties, it blurs any fine lines under the eyes, as it reflects so much light under the area. At the same time it will also brighten under the eye because of this. However it does mean Its not recommended using it on any blemishes as it will highlight them. 

The high end option, Nars Creamy Concealer is a lot creamier than the Collection Concealer. It can be used both under the eye and on any blemishes. The actual finish to it isn't matte, but not radiant, it has a slightly dewy finish, which looks lovely under the eye.

(Swatches - Left to Right: Nars, Collection, Rimmel, Bedaub, Graftobian Yellow, Dab & Emerge)

I haven't included a couple of types of concealers just because I wouldn't actually class them as a concealer, but they will be included in a future post! Hope this has helped and let me know which type of product you'd like to see next too!

Eloise x