Okay, I think we can all agree on one thing: acne is annoying.
Awakening from unexpected pimples can really ruin the morning, and waking up in a cyst under the skin can ruin it all week. Especially these days, stress and wearing a mask are causing breakouts for the cleanest complexion.
Often we use concealer. Fingers staggered enough to choke. As you try to get rid of the blemishes, it only reveals darker, blunt skin patches that can give you more attention to acne.
But here it is. Concealer can completely mask breakouts. You only need to know how to apply it properly.
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To get some tips, we talked to Jonet Williamson, an editorial makeup artist based in New York, and figured out how to properly hide the annoying little (or big) pimples.
How Do I Prep My Skin When I Need to Cover a Pimple?
The first step in hiding acne is very important. Like any other piece of art, you need a clean, empty and smooth canvas to work with. So, preparing your skin is essential for what your makeup will look like.
First, Williamson proposes a “area assessment” of the breakout.
“If dry, flaky or discolored, is it shiny? If the blemishes are dry and flaky, it’s a good idea to apply a chemical exfoliator and an emollient cream to the skin,” she says. “If you have a slight discoloration [or] blush, you’ll want to focus on color correction and matting the area before applying the complexion product.”
She suggests Ren Ready Steady Glow Daily AHA Toner as a chemical exfoliant and Weleda Skin Food as an emollient cream.
For very reddish skin, try Dr. Jart’s Cica Pair Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment. The treatment goes green, but it dries the beige to neutralize redness. It also contains SPF to protect your skin from further damage.
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If you have picked up more problematic spots (stop!) and turned into a ticket, don’t worry. Hope never disappears completely. You can still cover it with proper preparation.
For this, Williamson proposes a gentle exfoliation. “I use a cotton round with an exfoliating side or an exfoliating wipe to be very careful and smooth,” she says. “Then I use a rich cream to moisturize the skin and correct the color if necessary.”
Of course, this goes without saying, but to avoid further irritation, always read the product’s ingredient list before use. “[This way] you will be able to see what is causing you breakouts or irritation,” Williamson says. But she added that proper preparation of the skin “will create a barrier to protect the skin.”
How Should I Apply Concealer To Cover a Pimple?
Now your skin is great and you are ready for makeup. But before you get to the good stuff, consider a color-corrected product that covers up the red leftover. Williamson wrote L.A. We suggest Girl Pro Corrector or MAC Conceal & Correct Palette.
Once you’ve covered the redness, it’s time to apply concealer. Of course, the end goal is to make the product look completely natural and skin-like, while providing a sufficient amount of coverage to hide even the biggest pimples. Sounds tricky? Well, Williamson highlights the scope that can be built.
“To get great coverage that looks like skin, it’s a good idea to put the [concealer] down firmly and then use a tapping motion to blend and build over that coverage,” she says. “A small blending brush or a wet cosmetic sponge will work.”
Her favorite concealer brush is the MAC 217 brush. The soft, dense brush head and oval shape make it easy to create a blending concealer.
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What is the actual concealer she swears? “I personally would like to suggest something like a cream that melts into the skin, like the character concealer from Evio Beauty.” She also loves the NARS Soft Matte Concealer and Kosas Revealer Concealer. She suggests using a shade lighter to hide blemishes and covering the entire face with a good foundation that perfectly matches the complexion.
How Do I Set My Covered Pimple?
Now that the covering is done, it will stay there all day long. “The translucent powder will be your best friend here,” Williamson says. The colorless powder trims the makeup and keeps it in place, matting the zit. Williamson loves Shiseido Sychro Skin Invisible Silk Translucent Powder.
And personal tip: If you have a big cystic acne (sadly like me), apply a little translucent powder to the blemishes with a concealer brush and the shape of the big bumps will be reduced.
What acne were you talking about now? We see nothing.
