Finding the right concealer is not just about choosing a color that looks right in the packaging. The best shade depends on your skin tone, your undertone, and what you want to achieve.
Are you looking to cover dark circles under your eyes? Reduce redness? Brighten the area under your eyes? Or do you just want a concealer that blends naturally into your skin?
In this guide, we help you find the right Maybelline concealer – step by step.
1. Start by figuring out what you want to cover
Before you choose a shade, it is a good idea to look at what you actually want to correct.
Dark circles
If the skin under your eyes looks darker than the rest of your face, you can choose a concealer that is slightly lighter than your skin tone. For very prominent dark circles, a color-correcting concealer can be an advantage before you apply your regular concealer.
Redness
If you have redness around the nose, on the cheeks, or in individual areas of the face, a green color-correcting shade can help neutralize the red.
Uneven skin tone
If the problem is primarily small areas of different colors in the skin, it is often best to choose a concealer that is as close to your own skin tone as possible.
A fresher look
If you primarily want a more awake and fresh expression, a slightly lighter concealer under the eyes can be a good solution.
2. Know your skin tone
When we talk about skin tone, it is about how light or dark your skin is. Maybelline's shades range from very light to darker tones, so the most important thing is to find the depth that is close to your own skin.
As a rule of thumb, you can think of it like this:
- Very light – typically the lightest shades.
- Light – light shades that still have a bit more depth.
- Medium – shades in the middle of the scale.
- Tan – darker golden/brown shades.
- Dark – the deepest shades in the range.
If you use concealer to cover blemishes or other areas of your face, you will usually want to hit as close to your own skin tone as possible. For under the eyes, however, you can choose a shade that is slightly lighter.
3. What does undertone mean?
This is where many people get uncertain. Your undertone is the color tone that lies beneath the surface of the skin. It does not change in the same way your skin color can when, for example, you get sun.
There are basically three undertones:
Cool undertone
The skin often has a more pink, reddish, or slightly bluish cast. A cool undertone can often suit concealers with more pink shades well.
Neutral undertone
The skin has a mix of warm and cool tones. If you have a hard time seeing whether your skin is warm or cool, you may have a neutral undertone.
Warm undertone
The skin often has a more golden, yellowish, or olive cast. Here, warmer, golden shades will often look more natural.
Tip: Look at your skin in natural daylight. Artificial light can make it difficult to assess the undertone correctly.
4. How to find your undertone
Are you still in doubt? Try these little tricks:
Look at your veins: If they look mostly blue or purple, you may have a cool undertone. If they look more green, you may have a warm undertone. If you see both, you might be neutral.
Silver or gold: If silver jewelry typically harmonizes best with your skin, you may be cool. If gold looks most natural, you may be warm. Both work well? Then you might be neutral.
How does your skin react to the sun? If you typically turn red first, this is often associated with a cooler undertone. If you more easily get a golden/brown tone, it can point toward a warm undertone.
However, it is not an exact science – so always use these methods as a guide and not as fixed rules.
5. Should the concealer be lighter than your skin?
It depends on what you use it for.
For under the eyes
A slightly lighter shade can provide a fresher and more awake expression. However, if the concealer is too light, the area under the eyes can end up looking gray or very bright.
For blemishes and redness
Here it is usually better to choose a shade that matches your skin tone as closely as possible. If the concealer is much lighter than the skin, it can actually make the area you are trying to hide more visible.
6. Color correction – what actually is it?
Color-correcting concealers work on a simple principle: opposite colors can neutralize each other. Therefore, different colors are used for different problems.
Green
Green is used to neutralize redness. It can, for example, be relevant for red skin, blemishes, or visible redness around the nose.
Peach / orange
Peach and orange shades can be used to neutralize bluish or darker areas. They can be especially interesting for dark circles – particularly on medium to darker skin tones.
Yellow
Yellow can be used to neutralize purple and bluish tones and can at the same time give the skin a more uniform expression.
Pink / brightener
Pink can give the area a fresher and more luminous expression and can be used as a brightener.
Blue
A blue color-correcting shade can be used to counteract yellow or orange tones.
Maybelline concealer – which shade suits you?
Once you have found your skin tone and undertone, it becomes much easier to navigate among Maybelline's shades.
In our selection, you will find, among other things, shades from the very light 00 Ivory, 01 Light, and 02 Nude to darker shades like 10 Caramel, 11 Tan, and 13 Cocoa. There are also different shades for more specific needs – including Brightener, Neutralizer, and Color Corrector.
This means that you do not necessarily need to choose one concealer for everything. For example, you can use:
- A skin tone-matching concealer → for blemishes and unevenness
- A slightly lighter concealer → under the eyes
- A color-correcting shade → for redness or dark areas
A little trick: You don't need to choose the same shade all year round. Your skin can change color during the year. In the summer, you may therefore need a slightly deeper shade, while a lighter shade might suit the winter months better. It can also be an advantage to have two shades that you can mix when your skin tone is between two colors.
Find your Maybelline concealer at OutletNordics
Are you ready to find your shade? At OutletNordics, we have gathered a selection of Maybelline concealers in various shades so you can find the one that best suits your skin tone and the result you want.
See all Maybelline concealers and find your shade →
And if you are still in doubt, use our guide above as a starting point: Need → skin tone → undertone → shade. Then it will be much easier to find the right concealer.
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