Sunday, December 30, 2012

Review: Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Nude

I have tried many many undereye concealers because I have always had dark circles. The one thing I've learned is that your undereye concealer and your spot concealer has to be different - one product can't do both jobs. For the undereye, the Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer is the best that I've tried.



Packaging: As you can see, the pretty lettering has all rubbed off just with regular usage. As for dispensing the product, I have always been averse to twist-up packaging and built-in brush. I've had bad experiences with unresponsive twisting that sometimes doesn't dispense anything and sometimes dispenses way too much. For this particular product, I can live with the packaging - usually two clicks dispenses the proper amount of product for one use, and I don't have to wait too long for the product to come up. (Note that you have to twist quite a few times when you use the product for the first time.)

Below is what you get with four twists:




Product: The product itself is pretty great. It reflects a bit of light and blends really well. I usually apply this from under my eyes to a little below the dark circles, then blend. It looks really natural.


Natural Lighting:


Longevity: Since everything creases below my eye, this does crease slightly after about an hour even when I set it with powder. The creasing becomes noticeable after about 6 hours. At the 6 hour point, and every hour or two after that, I have to pat the undereye area to blend out the creasing. However, bear in mind that I have very oily skin.

Coverage: Opacity is just right - it covers my relatively dark circles but doesn't look dry or cakey. You can build it up or feather it out depending on the coverage you want. (You should build it up before setting it with powder. It won't blend properly after you apply powder. This means that touch-ups don't look very good.) It doesn't dry out your skin, but does emphasize dry skin that's already there so you should moisturize as needed.

Color: I use the shade Nude. There are 6 shades total, with both cool and warm tones. Since this concealer is light-reflecting, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a matching shade. However, it would be nice to see them make a few more darker shades to cover the entire range of skintones, purely judging by the pictures on the website.


Availability: You can get this from practically anywhere that sells drugstore makeup: CVS, Target, Walgreens, Ulta, etc. It retails for around $8.

Overall: This is a fantastic undereye concealer. It's creamy, natural, and easy to work with. I don't use highlighters and I don't expect that this would make a very great one since the light-reflecting quality is too subtle for that. As an undereye concealer, it has become my HG. It would be absolutely perfect if it didn't crease at all.

Total: 9/10