Concealer comparison swatches - NARS Radiant Creamy / Urban Decay Naked Skin / Maybelline Instant Age Rewind

Today's post is a quick swatch comparison of the three under eye concealers I have in rotation right now. I have fair, dry skin with blue-purple dark circles, so I am always looking for a concealer that will be pigmented enough to cover discoloration, brightening enough to make me look awake, and not exaggerate dry skin or fine lines.

Urban Decay Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla is my favorite of the three for all purpose use. Especially now that I'm nearing the end of my tube, the drier texture can look cakey on dry skin under my eyes. I find it has the best coverage of the three, especially for post acne pigmentation or blue - purple dark circles. The shade Vanilla is a hair too deep for my face and doesn't provide any brightening under the eyes - I wish they made a shade between Vanilla and Chantilly!

Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer in Fair Neutral is the newest concealer to my collection. I kept seeing it in 2015 favorites videos on YouTube, so I wanted to give it a try and see if it lives up to the hype. Fair Neutral is quite a bit lighter than I thought it would be, but the next shade deeper is quite a bit deeper and more yellow. Even on my fair skin, Fair Neutral can give me a reverse panda effect if I am heavy handed. I absolutely love the thin texture - it blends into my skin beautifully and brightens well. It is pigmented compared to a standard concealer like Maybelline Fit Me, but it has less coverage than NARS RCC or Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage.

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer in Fair is in between textures of the NARS and Urban Decay. It feels a little more creamy than the Urban Decay, but is much more thin than the NARS. This is a great concealer if you are worried about dry skin texture and want a little bit of coverage and brightening. It isn't as high coverage as the NARS and it isn't as brightening as the Urban Decay, but it is a good compromising formula. I'm sure a different shade would be more brightening, but this is the lightest in the range as far as I know. This is my hands down favorite drugstore concealer - I haven't found anything with as nice of a texture around the same price.

Is it a dupe? Nars radiant creamy concealer vs. Maybelline fit me concealer

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer and Maybelline Fit Me Concealer is another one of those internet famous dupes. I see this one everywhere online, from blogs to reddit to YouTube. As the owner of both of those products, I feel compelled to put them to the test.

I have shade Light 2 Vanilla in the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer ($29, .22oz) and shade #10 Light in the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer ($6.99, .23oz). Vanilla is the second to lightest shade of the NARS (Light 1 Chantilly is much lighter) and the NARS comes in 10 shades. #10 Light is theoretically the lightest shade in the Maybelline Fit Me range of 6 options, but is much darker than Vanilla and is rumored to be darker than shade #15.

Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage Concealer SC-2 [review] [swatches]

Laura Mercier's Secret Camouflage concealer palette is a cult product. I bought it almost a year ago after seeing it recommended by Lisa Eldridge on YouTube. I picked mine up from Sephora, Secret Camouflage retails for $34 for .26 ounces of product.

I selected shade 2 (SC-2), which contains a yellow shade and a peach shade that can be mixed or used separately.

5 Disappointing Products - Recent Makeup Fails

I love reading about other people's disappointing makeup products, especially when the item in question is on my wishlist. The 5 makeup items below were total fails for me, but they might work for you just fine. I bought this all myself and I wish I hadn't.

Let's get started, shall we?

NYX HD Concealer Wand in Green review & swatches

Have you ever wished for a 'mint chip ice cream green' concealer? Perhaps a pastel pistachio? Me either. Read on for a tragic story of a promising product led astray by an odd undertone.

NYX HD Concealer Wand in Green (CW12) is described as a "pastel green" that will "reduce the appearance of redness." This is a sound idea according to basic color theory, so I figured I would give a green concealer a shot. I have quite a bit of redness around my nose, a little acne scarring on my cheeks, and a few active breakouts. This normally costs about $5 at Ulta, but I bought mine on a 40% off sale.

Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch highlighting concealer pen in Ivory 320 review & swatches

I have been curious about highlighting concealer pens, so I picked this one up at CVS. I ended up paying $1.28 thanks to CVS extra bucks and a coupon! I chose the shade Ivory, # 320, which is the second lightest in the range. Radiant, the lightest option, looked very pink (almost like color correcting pink) so I passed and chose Ivory.

Dream Lumi Touch has very standard concealer pen packaging - you click the bottom of the tube a few times to push a bead of concealer up through the attached brush tip applicator. The clear cap fits securely over the brush. The writing on this tube is poorly adhered and already is starting to flake off.

I usually like Maybelline concealers (still sad about the discontinued Maybelline Minerals concealer) and this one fits into the pattern. Like its sister product, the Maybelline Age Rewind concealer, this one has an overly complicated name and a frustratingly stupid applicator. I ripped the gross sponge tip off of my Age Rewind concealer long ago, but this brush tip isn't easily removed. Granted, the brush tip looks easier to clean than the sponge, but a squeeze tube or mini pump would be an asset to this product.