After testing many concealers, I’m convinced that all concealers crease under the eye if you have any lines there. ALL concealers. Even the ones labeled/marketed as “no-crease.” (Liars! 😄)
Here’s what I do to combat that. I should mention that my under-eyes are my face’s driest area (so I use an eye serum/brightener + eye cream), I’ve got lines, and I use concealer only to mask specific bits of darkness there.
- [Edited to add this bullet] Hydrate and moisturize the hell out of the under-eye area. Super important for me because my skin’s flaky dry there, but also a good idea for anyone whose concealer creases a lot. I use a hyaluronic acid serum all over my face, including under my eyes. Then I apply Lancôme Genifique Eye Light Pearl under my eyes. Once that’s absorbed, I apply a layer of eye cream (I’m testing a few different ones against my usual Lancôme High Resolution Eye Refill 3X). Once it’s absorbed, I apply a second layer of eye cream. Sometimes I apply a third layer, especially during winter. This also helps keep my concealer from looking cakey.
- If my under-eye darkness isn’t so bad where my lines are, I don’t cover my lines with concealer. Some mornings my entire under-eye is very dark, but other mornings it’s just my tear trough and very inner corners—so I apply a small bit of concealer only to those specific areas and completely avoid my lines. No concealer over lines = no chance of creasing. 🙂
- Don’t go heavy handed with concealer. Use only the amount needed for the task at hand.
- Creamy concealers work best for my dry under-eyes. I’ve tried thicker stick/pot cream matte finish concealers and liquidy concealers, and they all crease badly on me right from the start. NARS Radiant Creamy is still my concealer of choice, especially since I’ve got 2 perfect color matches there. I know that concealer doesn’t work for everyone, though. What works for you partly depends on how dry or oily (or “normal”) the skin under your eyes is.
- Use a setting powder that won’t settle deep into lines. Bonus points if it also has a blurring effect. I use an ultra-fine powder (By Terry Hyaluronic Hydra-Powder) for this. Sometimes I switch to the Hourglass Veil setting powder, which does get into my lines a bit but doesn’t emphasize them, if that makes sense.
- [Edited to add another bullet; I keep forgetting things!] Don’t use much setting powder. Even if you bake your under-eyes (I don’t, but I know some folks do), use the tiniest amount of powder necessary. I use such a tiny bit of powder, you’d think it’d wouldn’t be nearly enough to set things in place if you watched me apply it. 😄 But the powders I use work great in very small amounts.
- A few minutes after application, I gently pull my skin to open my lines, then use a very small buffing brush to lightly buff some of the concealer/powder out of them.
- If I notice lots of creasing a few hours later and it really bothers me, I repeat the above buffing. Sometimes I dust a bit more powder over everything.
You can also try using a primer under your eyes (if you don’t already) to help prevent creasing. An eyeshadow primer might work under the eyes for this. I don’t normally do it because the skin under my eyes reacts badly to various things, but one of my eyeshadow primers did work fairly well for this... I’m trying to remember which one... it was either Make Up For Ever’s or Too Faced’s.
Hope some of this helped!