Undereye Concealers -- Swatches and Reviewlets

Featuring:

Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer Chantilly and Vanilla

Burberry Sheer Touch Concealer 01 Light Beige

Cle de Peau Concealer Ivory

Amazing Cosmetics Concealer Fair

Bobbi Brown Corrector Porcelain Bisque and Light Bisque [both older, creamier formula]

RMS Beauty "Un" Cover-Up 11

Illamasqua Under Eye Concealer 100

Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer Fair

Ellis Faas Concealer S201

I swatched these in what I thought was the correct order of darkness (dabbing first on the back of my hand) BUT as you can see, some formulas set/dry considerably darker, throwing off the order -- in particular, Nars. This picture was taken about 5-10 minutes of setting, and the final order from dark to light[1] (give or take exaggerated undertones[2]) runs:

Cle de Peau Ivory (warm peach) 

RMS 11 (neutral yellow) // Bobbi Brown Light Bisque (very warm salmon pink)
Nars Vanilla (warm pink)
Ellis Faas S201 (neutral yellow)
Burberry 01 (neutral peach-pink) // Amazing Fair (warm peach)
Nars Chantilly (neutral yellow-olive)
Tarte Fair (beige pink)
Kevyn Aucoin SX-01 (cool yellow) [swatched for colour reference only -- this is my blemish concealer]
Bobbi Brown Porcelain Bisque (cool pink)
Illamasqua 100 (true white) -- my mixer

In order of pigmentation
full opacity: Kevyn Aucoin
very pigmented: Cle de Peau // Bobbi Brown corrector // Tarte
pigmented: RMS // Ellis Faas // Nars // Amazing
sheer-medium: Burberry // Illamasqua white

Finishes [I never powder over concealer, so these are the finishes of the products themselves]
dewy: RMS // Bobbi Brown
creamy: Tarte
invisible, 'skinlike': Burberry
satin-matte: Amazing // Illamasqua // Ellis Faas
matte/powdery: Kevyn Aucoin // Cle de Peau // Nars

Most emollient to driest to touch [i.e. most to least blendable on my dry skin]
very creamy: RMS // Bobbi Brown corrector // Burberry [despite its drier feel, it has a lot of silky slip]
creamy: Kevyn Aucoin // Nars upon initial application // Ellis Faas
medium: Amazing // Tarte -- both require warming up between fingers before application
dry and drags on skin: Cle de Peau // Illamasqua

Most moisturising to most drying in practice
moisturising: RMS // BB corrector // Burberry
neutral: Illamasqua // Tarte // Ellis Faas
drying: Cle de Peau // Kevyn Aucoin // Amazing
what fresh hell is this: Nars Radiant Creamy, which once set, becomes a horrific, powdery parody of its name -- over several days of testing (with various combinations of creams and primers under, over and mixed into) it would invariably leave me with desperately shrivelled tree-bark crone eyes by noon.


Burberry Sheer Touch for lazy days / good days
Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer on top for extra polish -- on its own, this lacks the warmer pink tones I need to cancel out my blue/green veininess and can be a little tricky to blend over my skin, but layered over a light coat of the Burberry, it can handle anything, without the need for a corrector. As a bonus, it is sufficiently pigmented, neutral and pale to work as a blemish concealer too, and sits a bit prettier on my winter skin than Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer, which I'll still keep around for those fresh and luridly red!!! blemishes that need more yellow.

In practice (warning, scary high def pics ahead)

One click of Burberry Sheer Touch 01 brushed from the inner corner, remaining product drawn with one stroke over the outer corner redness.
A tiny pinhead dot of Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer Fair, warmed between ring fingers and pressed on (even warmed up well, it remains a thick, dense balm texture):

So everything else is an Ignominious Out. For reasons.

Note [1] For undereye concealing I opt for a colour half a shade to a full shade darker than my skin, to counter the naturally ashy tendencies of my circles, for better coverage with less product[3] and to achieve a more realistic look (an exact match, even without ashiness, takes away all the natural dimension from that area, leaving a very obviously made-up wax doll look). Obviously, this varies from my winter palest (Graftobian Glamour Cream Porcelain this year) to summer darkest (Laura Mercier Silk Cream Soft Ivory), but in general terms Ellis Faas S201 is the darkest I can go in summer, while Porcelain Bisque/SX-01 are too light even in winter.

Note [2] Undertones vary wildly in my collection because I used to need yellower tones to combat purple/brown discolouration; during my Korres honeymoon I found warm pink tones most effective in taking the edge off the blue/green bruisiness visible through the especially thin skin around my eyes; now a mix of yellow and pink (peach) works best for my blurple circles.

Note [3] For me, concealer is the one aspect of base makeup that must always aim at total invisibility, if there's to be any point in it. There's nothing worse than adding texture in the interests of subtracting colour, so I would rather have some darkness/discolouration showing through a great (i.e. undetectable) texture than a totally uniform colour achieved by an opaque cement wall of an unflattering texture, caking steadily into every fine line, pore and hair [yeah, I hadn't quite twigged that I had so many giant crater pores / a forest of peach fuzz right under my eyes before the Nars Radiant Creamy fiasco, either. Cheers for that, François!]

Finally, to aid your extrapolation, some things commonly cited in concealer reviews which I don't care about:
creasing/melting/fading/too rich/moves around and never sets/results in milia or breakouts -- my skin's v. dry, too dry for any of these to be issues
lasting power / how the concealer plays with setting powder -- I never use powder
reverse-panda effect -- hate, natch, but unless I slap on some opaque white, aint gonna happen....
white/ghostly flash in photos -- I don't use flash in my own photos for the blog, and don't exactly get papped on the regular, so I care not for TiO2 / ZO content and whether or not it's micronised blah blah