I rarely wear makeup (Cap & virgo I guess) & it worked for me but now I've got some perma-dark circles around my eyes that are from being sick/my skin thinning. I had a hard time finding makeup for my skin tone BEFORE - even Aveda's lightest wasn't light enough haha.

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Since Pluto is going to be on my ascendant for a while, what can I do to not look like someone's been punching me in the face?

Oooh, I can't wait to hear what Annalisa says.  However, I will share my trick because I also have to battle with dark circles.

A lady at the BeneFit counter taught me this and I find it works with all similar products:

Use a small flat brush, or fingertip, to apply concealer to the inner corner right underneath your eye (top and bottom, you may need some on the inner hollows, you know, right next to the inside corner of your eye.)  I feel a kind of fade out effect works best, you don't want to put too much concealer towards the outside of your eye because it's more visible on that skin.  Blend in a little with the brush or with your fingertip.

Then dab a little eye cream in a few successive dots over the concealer.  The kind that has brightening/vitamin agents, or the kind that is applied with a wand applicator, work really well.  Then tap it in gently with your fingertip, not so much as to smudge the makeup but to help it adhere to that very delicate skin.

Set the concealer by patting on translucent powder under each eye. (This step is important... the excess powder will fall off quickly, but the delicate concealer/moisturizer blend will smudge away and not last long)

I like BeneFit's concealer "Boi-ing" and I've heard Laura Mercier's is very good as well.  YSL Touche Eclat is supposed to be amazing but I haven't spent the money for it.

(my skin is really, really light too and I use BeneFit 01)

here's your pic. 

Thanks Jessica. Does that concealer have any "orange" in it? Even the Aveda looks orange on me nowadays ugh.

So with that technique you're doing a fadeout from your nose outward, right?

yeah I didn't want to have to look at that goddess

snork

hahaha but that's OK

Jilly, I was thinking you look beautiful but shy to say so because you probably think I am full of shit. I am actually not full of shit, you do look beautiful.  You look like a beautiful woman going to made up so she looks even better.

aw thanks Elsa :)

I agree.

I was thinking it's the wrong tone rather than level (of lightness/darkness) and did a search... found this:

"To hide dark under eye circles, select a cosmetic under-eye concealer that's one shade lighter than the foundation you're using. Understand that a pale yellowish concealer helps hide blue or grayish circles, while a light blue or mauvish concealer masks brownish under-the-eye bags."

so what you'd be looking for is a cool tone, something in the purplish, to blue, to green category.  you know, as an undertone. 

what you want is to determine the tone of your undereye area and go directly across on the color wheel to balance it. 

I too have an extremely fair skin but a lot of redness from broken blood vessels. I use the Glomineral eye concealer in Golden and the pressed powder foundation in Natural fair.  I also use a primer and that helps fill in fine lines and smooth out the skin surface before your foundation.  Sometimes you have to go to a makeup counter and test out certain shades because they can turn different colors when reacting to your chemistry. I tend to turn some makeups orange or too pink *yuck* I want my makeup to look as natural as possible ( my foundation anyways). Everyone here has good adive so you should be *hooked-up* :).

I use Laura Mercier Secret Concealer in shade #2 and am pretty pleased with it. I have fair skin. Use a concealer brush to apply and pat it in with your ring finger (it will apply less pressure than your index finger, or so the beauty magazines say).

Hi Jilly, you are beautiful very happy to see your face. Some products you might enjoy:

vitamin K gel, which you can get at the drug store. This actually helps dark circles to go away, it takes a few weeks of use to be effective, but it very noticable improvement once you get going.

As for concealer, look for something that says it reflects light. These products work very well, and a little goes a long way.

Lots of love.

LOVE YOU JILLY! i think you are lovely:)

(now that that's out of the way, heh)

I am a blush fiend and I wonder if have a bit of rosy cheek would boost you? i have dark circles and I'm over trying to fix them. Sorry, projecting makeup tips weren't asked for, were they:)

I also add this to my moisturizer when I'm feeling particularly wipedt: improves your overall skin tone, no parabens etc (it's german!) it lasts forever:

 If you like scarves, having coloured one around your neck gives a good boost.

something i learned from lauren luke via youtube: shimmer under your circles, above your blush. gives a bump.

Wow so many great tips -  thanks so much everyone!

I don't know if this will work for you, Jilly, but I will share something because I've always been impossibly pale.  (Somehow in the past year I've gotten a tiny bit of tan, and I have NO idea how to work that!)

Almay makes a foundation that basically blends to match your skin tone.  It comes out of the tube white with speckles of black in it - I know that sounds weird - but it all blends really nicely.  It won't do anything for the concealer part, but if you're going to wear a little foundation this is pretty light and it really does match nicely.

Here we go  http://www.almay.com/Pg/Main/CatProdDet.aspx?catid=31&catnm=Face&subid=233&subnm=Foundation&prd=28636&osubnm=Foundation

and  http://www.almay.com/Pg/Main/CatProdDet.aspx?catid=31&catnm=Face&subid=233&subnm=Foundation&prd=29460&osubnm=Foundation

I don't see any dark circles under your eyes, Jilly. I myself have puffy eye issues... if yours are puffing, make yourself some black tea using two tea bags. Let the tea cool, then lay back and put the tea bags on your eyes for like 8 minutes or so. Be careful not to let the tea drip onto your pillows, though! :)

My mom's dad died the day before she got married and they all used the tea bag trick to get rid of the puffy eye bags from all the crying.

I've heard about the tea trick, but chamomile or peppermint instead of black tea.  I know chamomile is soothing and peppermint increases circulation and tightens skin.  I'd worry about the increased circulation exaggerating circles, though, and menthol in your eye sounds like it would suck so very, very much.  *lol*

I use horse chestnut herbal extract internally...it worked well for me and rapidly. I had the same problems. You may also put a drop in your day cream and put under the eyes 2 or 3 times a day. The dark circles are blood micro-circulation problems so all products increasing that shall work

For the tea trick (Bananas), green tea is better(more caffeine and tanins), it's for swollen eyes, I do it too, but for the dark circles it had no effect on me.

I have no make-up tips!!  I think you look beautiful too!!  

Shannon, that foundation looks very interesting - I think I will give it a try.

Hi Jilly!

Welcome to my world! I deal with them every day and have since I was a kid! Dark circles are hereditary in my case and some people think they actually are attractive and deepen the eye but those people are in Europe, LOL.

You have some good advice here. I've used about every product on my eyes and my favorites I will list. The idea is to apply concealer only on the inner corner of your eyes and not under the eye or around the eye area. Your dark circles are mainly in the corner of your eye so you apply whatever product to the corner of your eye and work down a bit but not all the way around. Use a magnifying mirror if you can stand it and you will see where your eye is truly dark.

Lancome has an under eye concealer that is waterproof and comes in two shades and that works well. It stays all day and matches pretty well. It also is believeable color and is a nice sheer enough texture.

I also like Smashbox who has a stick for quick under eye work and it is sheer as well and user friendly. It comes in a couple shades. Use a bit lighter than your face make up if you wear any or use a bit lighter than your skin tone for concealer to lighter up the area. It takes about two min.

Studies show that Bare Minerals concealor is loved the most by people and I've tried it too. It's not bad at all. It comes in a shade that almost never misses and you use a brush to apply it. The brush and the soft but sheerness of Bare Mineral make up is easy to wear and looks very natural.

Those are my favorite products in my search for under eye cures. Do you have puffiness too? You didn't say so but if you do I've researched that forever as well so just ask!

Annalisa

".. some people think they actually are attractive and deepen the eye but those people are in Europe, LOL..."

Ha ha ha! LMAO!

Annalisa, do you know if there's any truth to the folk cure of using preparation H for under-eye puffiness?  my hesitancy doesn't really make sense but I'm leery of putting butt cream near my eyes just to test it out.

I use the Smashbox stick, it's great!

Satori, I used to know a man who used it for his under eye bags and it worked quite well....but I don't know about the advisability of putting such strong stuff on such thin, fine skin.

haha I'm moving to Europe!

Thanks! I'll print this out and take it to Sephora with me, which I guess is a store in a mall around here haha. :D

I rarely have any eye puffiness - just the dark circles, which has a genetic component from both sides of my family now that I think about it.

Jilly, Sephora should have everything.  They are pretty awesome!

RE: hemorrhoid cream for eye puffies
Believe it or not, but your skin on your perineum and in the rectum is much, much more delicate than the skin around the eyes.  Prep H may be a strong vasoconstrictor, but there's so much emollient in the ointment that you're not in any danger.  Unless you get it in your eyes, which I imagine would be very unpleasant!  Use just a tiny bit on your ring finger (like someone else mentioned, it's your weakest finger) and if it hasn't helped in ten minutes, apply a smidge more.

"Studies show that Bare Minerals concealor is loved the most by people and I've tried it too. It's not bad at all."

I've tried it since it came with the set, but I'm not too fond of it.  It seems like I have to use it straight from the jar (no tapping, no swirling) to get any kind of coverage at all and then it's quite noticeable.  Is there something I'm doing wrong?  I usually use it when I have a breakout, otherwise I don't really need concealer.

I love love love mineral make up because it doesn't feel like I have a huge layer of gunk on my face and it's fun and fast to apply.  I found a brand that is really reasonably priced and pretty good quality. It's called IQ Naturals.  http://www.iqnatural.com/  The brush or bronzer was pretty reflective so I need to play with that and figure it out but the sample kits start at $16 and I really liked the eye shadows a lot. 

I'm practicing my make up techniques because the Ireland trip is coming up and I will have a lot more opportunities to dress up than in my every day life.  :)