This Extremely Popular Makeup Trick Just Does Not Work

Dark circles are the bane of our existence. They make you look tired, stressed out and fatigued. We cannot think of anyone who is a fan of the tired and stressed-out look.

The problem with dark circles is that they are not necessarily because of lack of sleep or being tired. In fact, dark circles are mostly a hereditary problem (thank you, mom and dad). And while you can easily get more sleep to get rid of your dark circles, you cannot do anything about your genes.

Enter concealer - a blessing from the makeup Gods. A concealer that is the right shade and consistency for your skin type will make you look awake, fresh and like you voluntarily wanted to wake up at 7 am for work.

Now, while some people have intense dark circles under their eyes and need a full coverage concealer, some can get away with a light coverage concealer and the extremely lucky ones need no concealer at all. A trick that has become immensely popular to combat dark circles is to use orange/red lipstick under your concealer. The logic behind this trick is based on the colour wheel. Since orange/red are opposite to blue on the colour wheel they are contrasting colours which counteract each other. Dark circles tend to have a purple/blue tinge to them and theoretically, it seems right that when you apply an orange/red colour base (lipstick/eyeshadow) your dark circles will be cancelled out.

Alas, reality and theory do not necessarily match - at least not in this case. All that happens when you apply orange/red lipstick under your eyes is that you have you use a lot more concealer to cover up your dark circles which have gone from blue/purple to red/orange (refer to the image above).

If you actually want to cover up your dark circles, invest in a full coverage concealer. If you absolutely must use a colour corrector - opt for one that is salmon/pink/peach tinged. Unless you have a very dark complexion, using a straight up red/orange corrector is going to do nothing for you. Check out our list of colour correctors that actually work!