This has been a pet project of mine for the past few years; finding very high coverage concealers that will fade out dark circles without making them grey and ashy. I have tried – quite literally – hundreds, and though there are dozens of them that work well, I’ve narrowed it down to my top five to make life easy. Out of these, three are ultra-high-coverage (Laura Mercier’s High Coverage concealer, Amazing Cosmetics concealer and Dermablend Corrector Stick) and three have very slightly less but a more workable, easy consistency. Estee Lauder’s Double Wear Stay-in-Place has been a firm favourite for years; creamy, crease-free and easy to blend. Benefit’s Boi-ing (despite the annoying name) is also very convenient and does a fine job on medium-to-dark circles, Bobbi Brown also has the concealing set, with creamy concealer and a setting powder, which gives a kind of “complete solution” to correcting any darkness.

If you’re trying to cover very severe darkness beneath the eyes then I would go for one of the ultra-high-coverage concealers, but be wary of the fact that they are slightly harder to blend. You need to really warm them up with the heat from your fingertips before you start dragging your fingers about all over the delicate eye area! Also, if you have lots of lines or wrinkles beneath the eye area, dragging the product about will only settle it into the lines and highlight them – patting the product in is the past way to go. Take a bit of time with it and you will be rewarded!

A note on shade choice: people are often advised to go “two shades lighter” with their concealer, others are advised to find the “perfect match” to their skintone. I say that it depends on quite how dark your circles are. If you think that they are bad but really they are just minor, you hardly need to go much lighter at all. One shade up from your foundation should do it. If your circles are severe, don’t think that by slapping on some really white concealer (followed by the infamous application of Touche Eclat!) you are going to somehow create an optical illusion. Better to start off by taking out some of the blue from the dark circles, so kind of doing a bit of rudimentary colour correction, and then going in with your proper concealer over the top. Benefit do something called the Erase Paste, a salmony-peachy coloured corrector that I think works very well – some people report back with gripes, but often they’ve used it as the actual concealer and it’s more of a skintone correcting base. (Find Erase Paste here.)

I’ll be doing another video on how to cover dark circles, including the correct way to use highlighting pens like Touche Eclat – used properly they can make a brilliant difference around the eye area. For now, here’s a run-down of the top five (six! I couldn’t choose!) best undereye concealers and any notes on how they apply or blend. For shades used and links to stockists, please check below the video pane.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place in “fair medium”: http://tidd.ly/b9caf757

Dermablend Stick Corrector in shade 15: http://tidd.ly/2ab87bea

Amazing Concealer in shade Medium Beige: http://goo.gl/28M6k1

Laura Mercier High Coverage Under Eye Concealer in 1.5: http://tidd.ly/c290c59b

Benefit Boi-Ing in shade 02: http://tidd.ly/a8898cf8

Bobbi Brown Concealer in Cool Sand: http://tidd.ly/c650c632