Review: NYX HD Photogenic Concealer in Beige

I Bought This

Someone might be reading this and thinking "Did you buy the wrong concealer?! Return it!" I didn't buy the wrong concealer, I promise! Okay, maybe I did... Kind of.

I bought it for contouring, not concealing! But I do wish NYX had a more middle of the road, not heavily red/orange-y and not overly yellow medium shade.

NYX has quite a few affordable concealers and I've swatched some of them before (I think I swatched their Full Coverage concealer and it reminds me of Benefit's Erase Paste! Very thick and sticky product, but almost malleable? Weird stuff). Some things can't be swatched or they're just of no interest.

*GASP!* Safety sealing!

NYX HD Concealer comes in a thick plastic tube with black all over and a doe-foot applicator. Instead of the shade label being on the bottom of the tube, the sticker is on the top and the actual name is printed on the side of the tube. It is a little bit hard to find on some tubes, but it seemed to me that some had different packaging strangely enough. The doe-foot is very typical of liquid concealers and also much less messy. The plastic wiper on the tube means you don't have a giant glob of concealer coming out and it's very easy to tap/dab onto the skin thanks to the doe-foot. Extremely convenient! Take it from someone who spent 5 or so minutes swatching every shade that I could find an open tube of. (Because people tear off the safety seal at my Ulta and there are no testers available!) Oh oh oh! These have safety seals! Actual safety seals! Do you know how awesome that is with NYX?! I hate that things like lipstick and the concealer sticks don't have safety seals. They really need it, along with testers set out. (By the way, the concealer sticks don't seem to have very good caps; pretty dry formula too.)

Not many products have the sticker on the cap instead of the bottom of the tube.

Beige (CW04) is described as "medium with beige undertones." It certainly is beige, with a lot of yellow and on the fairly light end of medium. It's the kind of shade there is a market for, and I feel fills a necessary role. I swatched shades Medium (CW05) through Tan (CW07); Medium has very strong red undertones, Glow (CW06) is like a highlighter for light-medium to medium skin tones, and Tan? Tan is pretty dark for a shade called Tan! It's a deeper medium shade, with I'd say neutral-to-cool (red) undertones. For contouring, a lot of the shades just were not going to work for my skin. I couldn't swatch Nutmeg (CW08) which I knew would be way too dark. I only went with Beige after eliminating each shade one by one based on the undertones and overall tone.

See how light it looks here? Now just wait... (By the way, these are in daylight!)

The formula on this? Divine. Just bloody divine. It's thin but very creamy, easy to blend out, and oh so very pigmented. One little itty bitty dot from the slanted tip of the doe-foot blended out into a very large swatch that covered some area in one long streak on the back of my hand. You don't need much of this stuff! It covers without being cakey and blends out so well.

Blended swatch. The top blend was taken maybe 5 to 10 minutes after the dotted concealer photo and, as you can see, the last swatch photo is exactly 10 minutes later.

Now for a gripe that might not actually be a gripe (but I'm still saying it's a gripe!)... Beige oxidizes. Like oh my god, hello oxidization! It oxidizes into nearly the same color as my Neutrogena foundation, that slightly orange color that is clearly not a match at all. I find Beige being more orangey which I think is from the yellow undertones.The oxidization does mean I can figure out where exactly to put a darker-than-my-skin eyeshadow, since I find Beige almost blending into my skin and disappearing. This might be due to the lights in my bathroom. Still a scary thought!

This wore for 8 hours under eyeshadow and face powder without much fading. I only noticed my contouring had disappeared on one cheek. Otherwise, it held up through sweat and heat! I applied it over my foundation before I applied the eyeshadow I use for contouring (the pigment on the shadow isn't very good but I work with what I got) and before applying actual face powder. I do know people rave about this stuff and I understand why.

Overall, I do really like this--the formula is wonderful! The packaging isn't anything special, but the contents are just great. For $5, you get an easy-to-blend, thin yet creamy concealer. Yes, the shade range seems a little strange and feels small to me, but this is a drugstore product. I don't normally use concealer (I don't like the idea of having multiple layers of colored "base" products on my face nor do I have many blemishes to cover up) but I would definitely go out and buy the correct shade I need. It's just. So. Good. I can't stop raving over the formula.

I think the cashier at Ulta thought I was colorblind or insane. If he had asked, I would have calmly explained its for contouring rather than concealing!It's so awkward to be pale and buying concealer that's obviously off.

SPOOKEHDOOM