We all would love to have naturally flawless and glowing skin, but we don’t. Like it or not, the stress of hectic work schedules, the build-up of pollution in the environment, poor eating habits and unhealthy lifestyles all take a harmful toll on your skin. Considering how delicate our skin and its complexion are, they are highly sensitive to any and all of these things.
The most common way your skin reacts to such adverse changes in the body and routines is by growing blemishes, pimples and showing discoloration. While nothing can substitute healthy eating, good hygiene and good sleep, most of us look for shortcuts in our daily life to cover these blips on our face, so we can put forward our best face daily. One such popular and safe solution to covering and concealing such facial problems is by applying a cover stick or concealer.
What can it conceal?
Just as its name suggests, this makeup tool helps conceal dark circles, broken veins, black heads, skin discoloration etc., which most of us suffer at some point or another in our lives. Today, such concealer sticks have found a place in almost all women’s vanity kits, who simply swear by its effectiveness and ease of application. Such a cover stick is especially great for women on the go, who either don’t have the time or the inclination to use too much makeup. Since such concealers are creamy and soft, they gently glide on your skin and settle seamlessly on the surface to give it a natural, flawless glow.
In fact, many women prefer using such sticks to spending time applying coats of foundation. Many others use it over their foundations, and some others under their foundation to ensure complete skin coverage. But the best way to use a concealer is to use it as a base and dust some loose powder or blush over it with light brush strokes. Cover sticks are a very useful and versatile makeup product that can be used by themselves or in combination with other makeup products.
Buying the right cover stick
If you too are looking for such a simple and wholesome solution to your ‘on and off’ skin problems, then investing in a good cover stick/concealer is the best bet for you. While shopping for one, always choose
one which is produced by a reputed brand. And even then, never go by the quality alone and always do a spot test or a patch test to ensure that it is compatible with your skin. Here, it is important to try on some concealer in the natural light as well to ensure it blends well with your overall skin tone.
The trick to applying it correctly
Generally there are two ways of applying such a concealer. The first method is to dot your whole face, especially the areas you want covered, and gently run your concealer brush over your face blending these dots with your skin in outward strokes. This needs to be done with a light hand and many women simply use their index finger to blend the dotted concealer with their skin, in order to give their whole face an even and neat complexion. Many other women use their concealer to only cover their facial flaws, and hence only dab some on their problem areas alone, blending it slightly with their surrounding skin
A word of caution
As easy to use and effective as these cover sticks or concealers are, you need to ensure two things for best results. Firstly, avoid sharing your cover stick with other women, as you could catch contagious skin bacteria and allergies from them such as acne. As a makeup artist you should always clean your brushes after each client. Secondly, avoid using a cover stick beyond its expiry date, as the chemicals in such kind of makeup products break down after that period and are not conducive to delicate skin after that
