For the next seven days, I will be ditching under-eye concealer, which is craziness, considering the fact that there was a time when I’d literally never leave home without it.
No, seriously, I used to apply under eye-concealer to pick up the mail…right outside the house.
Lately, however? Nuh-uh. It has NOT been doing me any favors, and I don’t know exactly what happened, because I really haven’t changed my skin care routine. Suddenly, though (or so it has seemed to me), everything I put under my eyes looks heavy and thick and textured and like — pardon my French — crêpe. I feel like I’m looking much older than I am.
It appears that I have come to a fork in the road, and I can either completely cover the dark areas under my eyes but look 10 years older, or, I can wear less (or maybe nothing at all?) and look kinda tired…but closer to my age.
I’ve also realized that maybe the darkness I see under my eyes is all (or mostly) in my head, and that, my friend, is kind of blowing my mind right now…
Anyway, still not ready to quit concealing cold turkey, so my plan is to experiment at length with non-concealer-y products, like illuminators, tinted moisturizers, sheer foundations, and basically whatever else I stumble upon that looks like it might work. I hope to find a solution that doesn’t age me as much as standard concealer.
And hey, maybe I’ll get better at accepting myself and the inevitable march of time along the way.
So, in my last non-concealer-y product experiment, I tried It Cosmetics CC+ Illumination Color Correcting Full-Coverage Cream in Tan under my eyes, and I wore it with the new It Cosmetics CC+ Oil-Free Matte (also in Tan) on the rest of my face.
I picked this pairing because one of issues I’ve had is with full-coverage concealer looking too harsh when paired with the sheer foundations and tinted moisturizers I wear on the rest of my face, but these two “It” products are medium coverage (different finishes, though) and have similar textures, so I’d hoped that the transition from my under-eyes to the rest of my face would be more seamless and less jarring/obvious.
To test, I blended the tiniest amount of CC+ Illumination in the inner corners and under my eyes with a pointy eye brush, and buffed a bit of CC+ Oil-Free Matte on the rest of my face with a Real Techniques buffer brush.
No powder. I skipped it because I wanted to avoid any caking under my eyes. I also didn’t want to make the matte finish on the rest of my face look too matte, so I set everything by generously spraying Urban Decay All-Nighter instead.
Girl, it worked!
Illuminating CC+ has these teeny, tiny pieces of glitter in it, and it’s a little too much shimmer for me to use on the rest of my face, but I think it totally works under my eyes. As long as you don’t use too much (because then it’s like a glitter spotlight on your lines), it brightens everything up, and because the It CC creams tend to skew peachy, it also helps to color-correct.
I also like how CC+ Illumination blends so well into CC+ Oil-Free Matte, so there’s no obvious transitions between them, and skipping the powder and opting for the setting spray instead avoids a heavy or powdery finish. Plus, it helps the products stay put. When I go to remove my makeup at night, yes, the CC+ under my eyes wears off because I’m not setting it with powder, but there’s still enough of it there to take the edge off.
I’m gonna keep looking around to see if I can find anything better (I’m combing through the recommendations you guys left in the comments the other day. Thank you again!), but I’m liking CC+ Illumination so far. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be a new go-to!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
