Concealer is the product people most often buy in the wrong shade. Part of the reason is that concealer does two different jobs, and each one wants a slightly different approach.
The two jobs concealer does
Covering blemishes and redness. Here you want a shade that matches your skin exactly. Anything lighter draws attention to the spot instead of hiding it, which is the opposite of what you wanted.
Brightening under the eyes. Here you can go slightly lighter, usually half a shade to one shade up. The skin under the eye is naturally darker and shadowed, so a touch of lightness lifts it. Going too light is a common mistake, though, and it reads as two pale patches rather than brightness.
If you only want one concealer, match it to your skin. It will do both jobs well enough, and it will never look obvious.
Why undertone matters more than depth
Most people can identify their depth without much trouble, whether they are fair, light, medium, tan, or deep. Undertone is the part that quietly goes wrong.
Undertone is the subtle color beneath the surface of your skin, and it does not change when you tan. There are three common ones:
- Warm leans golden, peachy, or yellow
- Cool leans pink, red, or slightly blue
- Neutral sits in between, without a strong lean either way
A concealer can be the right depth and still look off if the undertone is wrong. Too pink on warm skin reads grey. Too yellow on cool skin reads sallow.
Two quick checks at home. Look at the veins on the inside of your wrist in natural light: greenish suggests warm, blue or purple suggests cool, and hard to tell usually means neutral. Then think about jewelry: if gold suits you, you likely lean warm, and if silver suits you, you likely lean cool.
Neither test is perfect on its own, but together they give a good indication.
A note on color correcting
You may have seen green, peach, and lavender correctors. The idea comes from the color wheel, where opposite colors cancel each other out.
- Peach and orange tones counter blue and purple shadows, which is why they help with dark circles
- Green counters redness
- Lavender counters dullness
These are useful for specific concerns, but they are an extra step, not a replacement for a well-matched concealer. Most people do not need them.
How to test it properly
- Test on the area you actually want to cover, not on your hand. Under-eye skin and cheek skin are different.
- Check the match in natural daylight. Store and bathroom lighting distort color badly.
- Give it a minute to settle before you judge it.
The right shade will simply disappear. If you can see where it starts and stops, it is not the one.
Applying it well
Less is more, and this is especially true under the eyes, where heavy product creases into fine lines.
Apply a small amount, then tap it in gently with a fingertip or a small brush rather than dragging it across the skin. Build only where you need more. Setting it lightly with a finishing powder helps it stay put without creasing.
The Mahya range
Our mineral concealers come in 21 shades, and every one is labeled by both depth and undertone. The range runs from Porcelain, a very fair cool shade, through Light Beige and Pure Beige in the middle, to Medium Tan, Deep, and Dark Chocolate. That means you can match your depth and your undertone rather than settling for one or the other.
The takeaway
Match to your skin for blemishes, go slightly lighter under the eyes if you want brightness, and pay attention to undertone. Test in daylight, on the area you actually want to cover. The right concealer is the one you cannot see. Not sure where to start? Our shade finder can help.
