One of my first makeup memories is using a drugstore stick concealer—the kind that looks like a beige crayon—to clumsily cover tweenage acne and undereye circles (I’ve struggled with insomnia since I was about 12 and it was already starting to show). I used that chalky stick for about a year until a friend introduced me to a L’Oréal liquid concealer she swore would cover even the worst pimple. I asked my mom to take me to CVS immediately, and I never looked back.
It stayed that way for years until the Internet convinced me I needed to break my no-stick rule for something legendary. The Clé de Peau Beauté Concealer is one of the beauty industry’s most hyped products. Pretty much every editor has sung its praises, and it’s earned the adoration of too many celebrities to count (but to name just a few, both Khloé Kardashian and Kim Kardashian West are stans).
I became so obsessed with reading about the concealer that I believed trying it was the ultimate rite of passage for beauty obsessives. Of course, there was one problem: I couldn’t justify spending $70 on makeup on a student budget, no matter how many rave reviews I came across. It couldn’t be that good. But as soon as I graduated, I made the plunge. And that’s when I got it. It really is as good as everyone says.
The Clé de Peau Beauté Concealer has a thick texture that’s a little waxy at first (there’s a small tug when you apply it) but quickly turns creamy when it hits your skin. It’s somehow pigmented enough to cover zits and scars, yet never looks heavy or caked on. It has a natural matte finish but still looks luminous under my eyes and is great to toss into my bag and use as a midday touchup.
My joy of applying the perfect product every morning began to be overshadowed by a dark cloud: the fact that when it ran out, I would have to cough up another $70 to replace it. Spending that much on a concealer once is one thing, but creating a lifelong dependence is an entirely different issue. Luckily, stick products tend to last forever, so I pushed the dark thoughts out of my head and kept on applying my $$$ concealer, business as usual.
Then a few weeks ago, I impulse-grabbed the BareMinerals BarePro 6-Hr Full Coverage Concealer out of Glamour‘s beauty closet, not even sure whether it was my shade, since I’d remembered someone telling me it was similar to my fave.
I wouldn’t call it a dupe per se, but it definitely holds its own. It has the same full coverage and ease of a stick, but it’s a little creamier and goes on smoother. Because it has more slip, it also has a glowier finish. Another selling point? It’s highly pigmented and covers both spots and undereyes equally well. With both options I’ve found it easiest to use a brush (I like Fenty’s concealer brush) to blend versus my usual sponge. The BareMinerals also has some kind of witchcraft that makes everything blur together, like I have a filter on IRL.
I adore both and wouldn’t ever get rid of my Clé de Peau entirely (I’ll keep a small savings fund for it if I have to), but the BareMinerals concealer has become my everyday winner. As someone who’s insecure about her skin, I go through a lot of concealer, and I like not worrying about how much money I’m spending per swipe.
