Lighten Up

I have a little girl called Lucienne, who has just turned 1. She is the utter joy and absolute light of my life and and has improved me in ways I never thought possible, however she has not had that effect on my under-eye area! The sleepless nights are frequent and the bags underneath my eyes can rival Louis Vuitton's full kit.

So under eye concealers are important to me to say the least, and so they should be for all, no matter what level of darkness exists under your eyes. That area is in shadow from the brow bone and because the skin is so transparent, every little thing shows up. Brightening the area effectively has a transformative result on the eyes. They look bigger and brighter and even if you are wearing no other makeup, this should be a step you add in to your morning routine.

As with every thing in makeup, there are a multitude of different products out there with every brand telling you that they have the best for you.

In my opinion a good eye concealer should have three features 1. a fluid texture so it doesn't sit in lines around the eyes. 2. have a decent level of coverage, so many of them are too sheer and thus hide nothing. 3. colour-wise be an exact match for your skin if your shadows are normal or a shade lighter than your skin if your shadows are quite dark ( the lighter tone will counteract the darkness).

I personally can't be bothered with the various different corrective shades that are out there i.e, lilac, green or peach. Most concealers are yellow toned and this will cover any red under the eyes taking away the blinky, tired look that most people get when sleep deprived or stressed.

I currently have two hero eye-concealers in my arsenal. On most of my makeup clients and brides I use the Lancome Effercernes Long Lasting concealer in shades 01 or 02, €26. (It is best applied with a brush to get around the small contours of the eye). Unfortunately I recently became allergic to it for some reason which is a shame because it is great.

I'm currently auditioning new products for the role and I have found the Airbrush concealer by Clinique to be great, €24. I'm using it myself every day in shade 04 - neutral fair. It comes in a pen format which I don't love as the product is sitting in the bristles until the product runs out, so I wipe the brush with surgical spirits on a tissue every so often to disinfect... you don't want any nasties in the ever-so delicate eye area let me tell you!

Shadows, be gone!