My Secret Weapon for Dark Circles: Review of Pixi Correction Concentrate Concealer in Brightening Peach

I have hereditary dark circles under my eyes.  I get at least 7 hours of sleep every night, I carry a water bottle everywhere, and I am good at managing my stress levels.  No matter what I do, though, I am always going to have my mom's very blue toned dark circles under my eyes.

Accepting that, I'm always on the look out for concealers that work well under the eyes.  In order to counteract the blue tone of dark circles, makeup artists recommend using a pink toned concealer.  The problem is, pink concealers at the drugstore are pretty much non-existant, and I'm a student on a budget.

Last year though, I picked up Pixi's Correction Concentrate Concealer from Target.  It's $15, which is expensive as far as drugstore stuff goes, but it is easy to find and, hey, it's still less expensive than the Bobbi Brown or Benefit concealers I've sampled in the past.  You can also get it for $15 and free shipping from Amazon, so depending on if you live in a state that taxes Amazon purchases, you might actually get it tax free (and thus cheaper) on Amazon.

This concealer/corrector only comes in one shade: Brightening Peach.  I would call it a salmon toned concealer.  Don't judge it by the color you see on the box, because that picture looks skin-toned to me, but the concealer is definitely salmon-toned.

See what I mean about the package showing you flesh toned
when it's actually peachy pink?

By the window on a somewhat cloudy day

Indoors

This stuff rocks! I use it everyday.  I apply this to bare skin under my eyes, then I apply my Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser concealer over it to match my skin tone.  This is the one under eye concealer from the drugstore that I have found that truly brightens up my dark under eye area.

The key to this product is to warm it up first.  I apply it with my fingers.  I normally like to apply products with brushes, but this is a fingers-only product in my opinion.  You need that warmth to get it to be a texture that you can easily smooth on.

Only use a tiny, tiny bit.  This pot that I'm working on now has been in use for about a week, and you can barely tell I've used it.  If you apply too much, you will find it getting cakey.

A picture is worth 1000 words, so here is the before and after!  I recognize that some of you might look at my circles and think, "Ha! What circles?" Trust me, it's hard to capture that blue tone on camera.  They are there, and they are hard to cover.

Before: Bare skin, sorry for the half blink!

After! Eye circles are pretty much covered, whole area is brighter

Have you got any favorite under eye concealers or treatments? Leave them in a comment!  

Review: Flower Cosmetics Lighten Up Brightening Concealer

So you guys know that so far I've tried the Flower Beauty blusher/bronzer duo, two Flower nail polishes, and two of the Flower lip butters and have been pretty happy with all of them.

Well...I hate to break a streak, but I have been trying out the Flower Cosmetics Lighten Up Brightening  Concealer over the past few days, and I'm sorry to say that this one isn't a favorite.

What I look for: In a concealer, I'm looking for pigmentation, blendability, and effectiveness.  I have some pretty blue under eye circles, and I need those to get covered easily and effectively.  I also have some redness around my nose that I conceal daily.

Packaging: This concealer has the twist-up into a brush style packaging.  The brush bristles are long and flexible.  I hate applying concealer with a brush like that (I prefer using a Sigma P80 or P86 brush) so I just use the applicator to get the product onto my skin and work from there.

Color Selection: 4 colors. That's it.  To fit all the range of skin tones that need concealer.  Yeah.  The shade I'm using is BC2, which is the second lightest shade.

Application:  I did not find this to be especially smooth with application.  Check out these swatches.  In the second picture after I had rubbed it into my skin a little bit, you can pretty clear see some little bumps of product.  I've found that lumpy texture to be pretty typical of this product.

Straight out of the brush tip

Blended out with 4-5 swipes back and forth.
Those little lumps are the concealer..not texture on my hand.

Coverage: You won't be able to use this for spots in my opinion unless they are very light.  It just isn't that kind of concealer.  I get the sense that this is meant for under eyes only.  That's fine.  Except that I don't find it does a lot for me for under eyes!  Check out the before and after:

Completely naked skin

No foundation, just the Lighten Up concealer under my eye and
blended out/down. Yes, I did blend the concealer over that freckle
if that gives you an idea of coverage

Did it add some lightness? Absolutely.  Did it cover some? Sure.  But you can still see that I've got some serious blue shadow going on.  For me, this level of coverage doesn't cut it.  Especially when I do not think that the application felt super smooth/even.  If your under eye circles don't have strong blue under tones, this concealer may be enough for you, you lucky girl.

Staying Power: I didn't set it with powder and it did stay at this level of meh-coverage all day, so that's something good.

Bottom Line

For me, this won't cut it.  If you are trying to just brighten up your under eye area and are not looking to counteract blue tones, you may enjoy this.  I think even at the drugstore price point I can find better.  I like Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser (my shade is Medium), for instance.  At Target, you can grab Pixi's salmon toned concealer that is great on under eyes.  I think I can still make this product work by layering it with one of these two, but it won't work on its own for my uses.  Check out my other reviews for Flower stuff though, because like I said, I don't think the whole line is a bust!