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!