How to Choose Concealer for Your Tan Skin: 7 Steps to a Flawless Face

It's true:

The best concealers, blend right into the skin, cover your flaws and don't slide off your face in a heat wave.

While women with fair skin use pink hues to hide their skin imperfections, you'll need a product that matches the yellow undertones of your golden olive, beautiful brown or tanned skin perfectly.

To eliminate under-eye circles and redness before a hot date or an evening out with friends, you too can choose concealer for your tan skin like a pro.

Here's how:

Things You'll Need:

• Translucent Powder
• Concealer
• Handheld mirror

1Apply several shades of concealer colors to your jawline.

With a mirror in hand, stand in direct natural sunlight to view the concealer shades. Should your concealer be lighter or darker than your skin?

The perfect shade of concealer will match your tan skin tone perfectly and disappear into the skin effortlessly.

2Use a product that complements your skin tone.

Concealer shades range from peaches and pinks to lavenders, greens, and blue-based formulations.

Hide your skin imperfections with a yellow-hued concealer that complements your natural skin hue perfectly.

3Apply a concealer for your particular skin type.

Concealer formulas come in three textures: light creams, drier and matte sticks and potted and opaque versions.

What are the best formulas for your tan skin?

Smooth on cream concealers for dry skin; matte and oil-free sticks for oily skin and potted concealer if you have normal skin.

Use a heavier stick concealer to hide very dark circles or heavy pigmentation spots. You may want to try a brand like Dermablend, which specializes in corrective color.

Stick concealers are generally heavier and more opaque than regular concealers — they work to put very dark areas under cover.

4 Go one-half to one shade lighter than your skin.

Concealer is often used to camouflage dark areas of the skin such as undereye circles and pigmentation spots.

By going one-half or one shade lighter than your skin color, you'll sufficiently lighten these dark areas, without actually drawing attention to them — which can happen when you choose a shade that's too light.

You may want to head to the department store for concealer, where a cosmetics consultant can help you choose the perfect shade.

5Conceal imperfections with the right concealer color and formulation.

For dark-colored, under-eye circles, smooth on a liquid concealer that is no more than one shade lighter than your skin color.

Cover blemishes on your chin and cheeks with a heavy stick or cream formulation that is the same color as your foundation.

To make your concealer last from morning to evening, set the product with a quick dusting of translucent face powder.

6 Skip color correctors.

Concealers in shades of blue, yellow, and green are said to counteract dark and red patches on the skin.

While this works in theory, using them correctly takes a lot of skill.

What's more, you often have to cover these products with a layer of foundation;

if you wear them alone, you risk having blue, yellow, or green circles under your eyes instead of dark ones!

7 Pat it in.

After you apply your concealer, whether with a brush, a wand, or your finger, use your middle finger to pat it into your skin.

Rubbing will only move the concealer around or smear it off, and you'll be left with no coverage at all.

Set concealer with translucent powder to help prevent midday migration into the lines around your eyes.

Do's & Don'ts: How to Choose Concealer for Your Tan Skin

In makeup circles, concealer is the ultimate miracle worker.

It hides skin imperfections, brightens dark areas, and is the number one must-wear for many makeup artists. The challenge: picking the right shade and formula for you.

Here, are a few of our final mistake-proof concealer tips:

• For dry skin, try a cream concealer that's applied with a wand. But use sparingly, since too much concealer will settle into undereye lines.
• For normal skin, pick a stick or pot concealer. These formulas are drier than cream concealers, so they'll look more matte on the skin. Again, apply sparingly.