How to stop undereye concealer caking

People with dark circles under their eyes often feel the need to use a thick concealer to cover them, but throughout the day, it starts to cake. But can undereye concealer be stopped?

The bottom line is, if your concealer cakes, you are using makeup that's too heavy for your under eye area. The skin around your eyes is five times as fine as the skin anywhere else on your face. When the concealer starts to cake, it not only reveals the darkness, it settles into fine lines, making you look older than you are. The good new is, you do not have to accept you undereye concealer caking anymore.

When the area is dark, we get why you might be drawn to using a thicker concealer to conceal the colour issue, but with under-eye discoloration, it's better to correct the colour issue with a colour corrector.

YSL La Touche Éclat is the daddy of colour correctors, but MAC also does a fab corrective range called Prep and Prime.

Figure out what is the underlying colour you are trying to correct; around the eyes, it is usually either redness, blue tone or an extreme sallow tone.

If it's redness, go with a yellow tone corrector; if it's blue tones you want to correct, go with a pink colour corrector; and if it's a sallow tone, go with a lilac colour.

The MAC concealers - and colour correcting concealers in general - are lightweight yet long wearing so they won't stick in lines. However, your application is also important. What I usually do is apply a lightweight concealer like MAC Studio Cover.  If there is still discoloration choose the correct colour corrector to neutralise this and apply it on top. Use a damp beauty blender (we dampen ours with a setting spray) to push it into the skin around the eye area. Less is more.

Using a transparent finishing powder (a matte or oil controlling powder as that will dry out the area), lightly set the area with a small fluffy brush.