How To Disguise Dark Under-Eye Circles

Each one of us has had that morning where we woke up, looked in the mirror, and instantly regretted it. Sometimes we don't even have the comfort of a late night to console us over the raccoon-masks under our eyes. We went to bed at a reasonable hour and while we slept (apparently) a thug came in and punched us roundly in the face. Ideally, with proper sleep and hydration and nutritions, under-eye circles wouldn't be a huge deal. Still, you can't account for sinus pressure, a poor night's sleep, or stress. Things will give you elephant-tracks under your eyes and, though they be Prada, who really wants to carry bags like that? After an unusually bad morning this way, I googled some tips on disguising the carnage and, after employing several techniques, came up with a pretty great regime for those days when everyone is asking if you're okay.

To make this as legitimate and sleepy-eyed as possible, I rolled out of bed, threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera, and proceeded to shoot this post. I know the bags under my eyes weren't terrible this morning, but they're still there (my bathroom happened to be extremely sunny) .I'm wearing no makeup and have had no caffeine, so what you're getting are my real under-eyes, unadulterated by anything like several hours of being awake. All right. To begin with, here are the products I use to disguise those bad boys:

Eye cream? you're thinking. Yeah. Concealer, yeah, BB cream, okay. But what the heck am I doing with the lipstick/primer? Okay, let me get into a little color theory with you. Your under-eye circles tend to be blue or purple-ish. The opposite color on the color wheel (which you want to apply to cancel out the blue) is orange. Therefore, applying something orange is perfectly logical. You can use any sort of orangey lipstick (not gloss) for this. Apply a thin layer after the eye cream. The eye cream is preferential. I got some for free in my Birchbox (its caffeinated) and I love it, but it is not strictly necessary for this tutorial.

Spread the lipstick/primer thin with your fingertips. Next up we have concealer! I use E.L.F. concealer one shade lighter than my skintone. When choosing an under-eye concealer, always go one shade lighter than your skin to brighten the area. I like to stipple mine and spread it gently around my eye, not forgetting to cover the inner corners of my eye and the sides of the bridge of my nose.

 Last step is BB cream or foundation. I don't use a lot of products on my face so I use BB cream as my only concealer/foundation. One good way to avoid the heaviness of under-eye foundation is to lightly apply the foundation in a wedge shape, with the widest part of the wedge stretching under your eye and narrowing toward your cheeks. Then blend it very well downward, into your cheeks, instead of side to side. Apply a light power to set it off and you're good to go! Prada bags put back in the closet till tomorrow morning.

(Go ahead and finish the look by continuing your makeup per usual, or just fill in your brows, add a little punch of blush, and head out the door with that freshly-awakened glow.)

Hope this was helpful to some of you! I know I was amazed at the idea of applying lipstick under my eyes, but I have to say that it has done the most thorough job of concealing the blue-ish bags than anything I've ever tried. Give it a go and let me know how it works for you!