Concealer buffing brush

A concealer buffing brush is a domed buffing brush shrunk to the size of a fingertip: a dense tuft of short synthetic fibre about a centimetre across, rounded or gently slanted at the top, on a slim handle. It does the second half of concealing. Pressed and then turned in tiny circles, it melts the edge of the concealer into the foundation around it without lifting the cover from the middle, and it fits the hollow beside the nose and the curve under the eye.

Its nearest rivals are a finger and a sponge. A fingertip warms concealer and presses it in, but it is broad, and it leaves some of the product on the hand; a damp sponge sheers concealer out and soaks some of it up. The flat concealer brush places product; the buffing brush finishes it, and gives a full-coverage formula a soft edge.

Look at the head first. A true dome, like Sigma’s or Morphe’s, works in any direction and suits the under-eye. A rounded slant, like MAC’s 270, has a longer side that reaches the inner corner. Several houses cut theirs to the shape of a fingertip, and Shiseido makes a small cylinder for patting. Ulta’s is a small, slightly angled flat top, sold for pinpoint, full coverage.

Then density and size. A very dense head gives full coverage and holds its shape against a thick cream; a softer, fluffier one, like NARS’s, gives a sheerer, more diffused finish with liquids. A head the size of a fingertip suits the under-eye; a smaller one reaches blemishes and the sides of the nose; a larger one doubles for cream blush on a small area. Choose synthetic fibre, which does not soak up the product, so that the concealer ends up on the skin rather than in the brush.

Apply concealer after foundation, so that you use only as much as the foundation has left undone. Dot it where the shadow is darkest, often the inner corner and the hollow above the cheek, or place it with a flat brush. Then tap the buffing brush over it lightly, several times, before moving it at all: tapping presses the concealer into the skin, while rubbing moves it off. Only then work the edges in tiny circles, outward, until they disappear into the foundation.

A blemish needs a lighter touch still. Tap concealer onto the spot with the smallest part of the head, leave the centre where it is, and blend only the outer edge into the skin around it; buffing the middle would lift the cover from the one place it is needed.

The skin under the eyes is thin and creases, so keep the layer thin and the pressure light; a second small layer where it is needed covers better than a thick one, which settles into lines. Set it soon after with a little powder pressed on, before it creases. A dense little brush holds a lot of concealer in its base, so wash it after every use and dry it head down or flat, so that it keeps its dome.

Liquid concealer suits a softer, springier dome that spreads it thinly; a cream or a stick needs a firmer, denser head that can push it into the skin without dragging. With a colour corrector, use a small, dense brush to press the thinnest layer only where the colour is, then conceal over it with a clean brush, or the two will mix into grey. A powder concealer or brightening powder wants a looser dome, pressed on rather than buffed, so that it sets what is underneath instead of lifting it.

For most of the history of make-up, the tool for blending a small area was the hand. In 1909 the actor Cavendish Morton mixed his greasepaint on the palm of his left hand, finding it “an admirable palette; its heat readily melting the paint”, and the list of materials in his manual of stage make-up includes no brush at all.^[1] Warmth was the hand’s advantage, and a fingertip still brings it to a cream concealer.

When concealer became an everyday product in the 1950s, it was sold with the same assumption. Ayer Magic, a cream of 1952 for the shadows under the eyes and at the corners of the mouth, told its users to moisten a forefinger, dab on a little and blend it into their foundation with the miniature airfoam sponge they would find in the box.^[2] Finger and sponge, one to place and one to soften, are the two tools a concealer buffing brush now combines.

The brush imitates the finger quite openly. Kevyn Aucoin Beauty says its concealer brush, with a head shaped to the contour of a fingertip and a handle it describes as patented by the makeup artist, is an homage to the brushes of the line’s original 2001 assortment.^[3] Bobbi Brown’s brush is sloped to mimic a fingertip, and Pat McGrath’s is slanted to replicate, in the house’s words, her signature fingertip technique. Who made the first is not recorded in anything read for this page. What these brushes share is an aim: to do what a warm fingertip does, and leave the hand clean.