Conceal This – My Top 3 Under Eye Concealers for Tired Mums

Spilt Milk - 8 Dec 15

I have never been more in need of under eye concealer at any previous point in my life. Even in my darkest days of hedonism I’ve never know cumulative sleep deprivation like this. After 17 weeks I am broken.

This weekend my husband and I gave up any pretence of being a jolly, happy family and we all went to ground. We took any opportunity we could to sleep (using a tag team approach) and caught up on scandic crime dramas.

We muted possible hypotheses on why our daughter no longer sleeps. We debated introducing solids, dream feeds and God know’s what else. Finally, exhausted we decided that ‘it’s all a phase’ and will plough on regardless.

Now, obviously on the competitive parenting circuit of South London it is not socially acceptable to have a child who doesn’t sleep. You get banned from baby sensory for shit like that.

Which leads me to the most important part of new parenting: disguise. Disguise is a bedfellow of bullshit, (examples include pretending to know what an isofix is and advanced bullshitters will proffer advice on how to fix one to your car). Disguise is required for a variety of scenarios: covering nipples whilst breastfeeding, bums and thighs post birth, lactating on a night out – all too advanced for now. Let’s stick with disguising sleep deprivation.

Day to day my lowest faff strategy for disguising eye bags is simply to go hard with concealer. Again there are more complicated layers of buffing and masks which can help: but for now, the basics.

I have about 15 concealers depending on the ailment (spots, hyperpigmentation, scars etc). The under eye area is also my most wrinkled zone so what is needed are medium coverage products which counteract my purple bags with plenty of moisture.

I am far from a makeup artist so I’ll let Mary Greenwell tell you how to apply concealer……..

First up is Charlotte Tilbury’s ‘The Retoucher’ which is a combination of a concealer and a light reflective pen, so perfect for under eye and comes in at £25. I use shade no. 2 ‘fair’ but there are 10 to choose from. It is a lovely creamy consistency so goes on really lightly and doesn’t collect in your under eye wrinkles. My main gripe is that it isn’t quite enough coverage for me (these are BAD times) and it is dispensed via a brush (just like touché eclat) which gets minging really quickly and can cause irritation. The whole mechanism/pen thing also broke without operator error, which is a bit of a pain.

My second pick is Sisley’s Phyto Cernes Eclat – eye concealer with botanical extracts. There are 3 shades and mine was no. 2. What’s great about this product is that it is chocked full of good stuff for your skin so it is acting like a treatment while providing coverage. Again, it goes on to the skin well, has good coverage and could easily be used for touch ups all over the face if you just wanted to take one product out with you during the day. The downside is definitely the price (£60 – I WAS DRUNK WHEN I BOUGHT THIS!) and the shades are a bit orangey which is fine in the summer but takes a lot more blending in the winter. As you can see mine has been well loved.

My final pick and undoubtedly my FAVOURITE is Clarins Instant Concealer. I use shade no. 1. This stuff is the absolute bomb – the consistency is magic, it smooths under the eye so well and has really good coverage with no gathering in my eye wrinkles. The tube is really handy (no nasty brush) and just makes your bags look much better – nothing is going to make them disappear completely. Three shades to choose from and is the cheapest of the lot at £21.50.

Other, coveted under eye concealers include NARS Creamy Concealer and I know Bobbi Brown have recently launched a new ‘Corrector and Concealer’ range which is supposed to be good. I need to use up my existing vats of concealer before i can try anything new but if anyone has any feedback do let me know. x

Spilt Milk

New mother and longtime lover of all things fashion, skincare and beauty IG @the_spilt_milk Twitter @Thespiltmilk1

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