Best Concealer Palettes: How to Choose Your Color Match
We’ve all heard it said that makeup is an art, and while this is true, it goes a bit beyond this. As with most things makeup, matching a concealer palette to your skin tone actually relies on science and chemistry rather than art.
Finding the right shade of concealer for your skin involves more than just matching a color. You must take into consideration the undertones in your skin, what kind of skin you have, and what you want to use concealer for. Let’s break down these factors so you can find the perfect shade like a pro!
Why Color Matters
Concealer color is one of the most important parts of your makeup bag to match perfectly. Of course, nobody wantsa foundation that’s a shade off either, but foundation is meant for your entire face. In other words, if your foundation isn’t a perfect match, it at least covers your whole face to blend it all in.
Concealer, on the other hand, only covers blemishes, acne, pigmentation, scars, tattoos, or any other areas you want to hide. For this reason, it’s even more important that you have the right shade concealer.
Another way to think about the importance of a good match in makeup is with the color theory. The color theory involves how colors work together with the skin to change appearance. Some colors are colder colors like blues and greens, while others are warm colors, like reds or yellows.
It’s vital that you match your concealer tones to whatever tone your skin is naturally. So, let’s talk about how to find your perfect match.
How to Find Your Match
Here are the three most important steps to finding a concealer that matches your skin.
Match Your Skin’s Undertones
The first step is finding your skin’s undertones. Your skin tone changes based on a few factors. If it’s summer, you may be tanner than you are in the winter and may have a different skin color than you usually do. Undertones are the one part of your skin tone that never changes.
Similar to the color theory, there are cool undertones, warm undertones, and even some undertones that are neutral. Here are some guidelines for finding out what your undertones are.
Cool undertones:
If your skin has a cooler undertone, you probably have fair skin. You might burn easily and have to use a lot of sunscreen. People with cooler undertones also tend to look good with silver jewelry, and when wearing blues, purples, and emerald greens.
Another way to find if you have cool undertones is to try and find your veins. If your veins are easy to spot and pop out in blue or purple colors, you may probably have cool undertones.
Warm undertones:
On the other hand, those with warm undertones may avoid burning and tan more easily. In addition, those with warm undertones look good in earthy colors such as clay reds or sunset yellows. If you look better in gold jewelry than silver and have a hard time finding the veins pop out in blues, you probably have warm undertones.
Neutral Undertones:
Some people don’t fall into the warm or cool undertone category. If neither of these descriptions seems to fit you, you might have a neutral undertone. But don’t worry—this isn’t a disadvantage. You can still find the best concealer palette to match your skin. Plus, you won’t have to worry about finding or matching any undertones.
Find Your Skin’s Shade
Now that you’ve found your skin’s undertone, it’s time to find a shade. This can be tricky if you don’t have anything to look at. But don’t worry! With HIDE’s Premium Concealer shade finder, you can find exactly the shade you’re looking for the perfect match.
Here’s a sample of one of the best concealer palette shades and the undertones they go with.
- Linen: neutral to rosy undertones
- Almond: golden undertones
- Porcelain: neutral undertones
- Vanilla: neutral undertones
- Light Beige: neutral undertones
- Warm Beige: neutral undertones
- Sand: golden undertones
- Walnut: golden undertones
- Honey: neutral undertones
- Mocha: rosy undertones
- Espresso: golden undertones
- Truffle: neutral undertones
Still aren’t sure what your shade is? Use HIDE’s shade finder and take a look for yourself!
Match Your Skin Type
When you think of finding the perfect color match, skin type may not cross your mind. However, choosing the right type of concealer for your skin type can make a big difference.
If you have oily skin but choose an oily concealer, you may end up breaking out. If you have dry skin, it’s important to choose a moisturizing concealer. When you choose the right concealer for your skin type, it will blend in that much more and create an even more flawless match for your skin.
Luckily, with HIDE’s concealer formula, it’s perfect for all skin types! It’s lightweight and oil free, so it can be used on normal skin, dry skin, oily skin, or even a combination of these types. Plus, it can stay flawless through sweat and humidity for up to 12 hours!
Other Concealer Tips
Now that you know how to find your skin’s concealer tone, here are some other tips for choosing the best shade for you based on how you want to use concealer.
To Brighten Your Skin
Some people use concealer to hide acne, sun spots, dark circles, scarring, tattoos, birthmarks, and other unwanted blemishes. And concealer is great at doing these things, but it can also be used to brighten skin.
If you’re looking for a brightening serum rather than a total cover up, choose a concealer one or two shades lighter than your natural skin tone and apply it in small areas using the triangle shape method. This not only brightens your face and highlights parts of your skin, but also creates a lifted look.
To Contour Your Skin
One of our favorite makeup secrets for using concealer is that you can actually contour your skin with it. All you have to do is buy two different shades of concealer. You want to pick a light shade that offers a highlight to your contoured look and a darker shade to provide the accented parts of your contour.
We suggest staying around your natural skin’s tone when looking for these colors. If you choose something too bright, it may not look natural, and if you choose a shade that’s too dark, you may end up with a contour that doesn’t blend well together.
So, opt for a bright concealer just a few shades lighter than your normal concealer, and choose one a few shades darker than that for your main contour. By doing this, you’ll be able to make an effortlessly contoured look without contour at all.
How to apply concealer as contour:
Here’s a step-by-step guide to applying concealer as contour.
Let’s start with the lighter shades first. The bright spots should be the largest, so these will go on your cheeks, under your eyes, on the flat part of your chin, your T-zone, which is the T-shaped area on your forehead and down the nose.
A good guideline for knowing where to put your lighter concealer is on the parts of your face that naturally catch the light. In the same way, the darker concealer goes on the areas that naturally catch the shadows.
For the darker concealer, aim to outline your face. Draw a thin arch of dark concealer on your forehead just below your hairline, letting it get thicker as you get towards the sides. Outline your nose and cheekbones with the darker concealer as well. Lastly, add two darker spots to either side of your chin to accentuate the contour as well.
This should complete your contoured look.
Color Correcting Concealer
Another beauty secret we love to share is how to use your concealer shade to cancel out redness. If your main concern is canceling out under-eye circles, opt for a concealer with cooler tones or neutral tones. This helps brighten the area.
If you want to perfect an evening glow for golden hour, opt for a golden-toned concealer. This will add that dewy nighttime glow to date night or that golden hour photoshoot you’ve been prepping for all week.
No matter what your goal is, concealer can probably get you there.
Summary
Finding the perfect shade is paramount to knowing how to use your concealer and perfecting your overall makeup look. Plus, it makes hiding those blemishes that much easier. When you have the right color match, all you have to do is apply and get busy having fun!
To learn more about all the ways concealer can impact your makeup routine, check out our blog!
Sources:
What Does It Mean When Acne Is on Certain Areas of Your Face? - Health Essentials | Cleveland Clinic
How To Determine Your Skin Tone | Empire.edu
Acne - Symptoms and causes | Mayo Clinic
How Does Color Theory Impact Your Makeup Choices? | Tricoci University