How to Cover Pimples and Dark Spots in Five Easy Steps

The secret to beautiful makeup? Beautiful skin. But that's not a reality for everyone. If that's the case for you, we have some good news: Our founder, Rose-Marie Swift, is a master makeup artist with over 40 years of experience under her belt—aka she's concealed and covered every type of blemish, even before images could be retouched—and she's sharing all her tips for covering up any sort of blemish or dark spot. Here's how she covers pimples and dark spots in five easy steps. 

The Importance of Skin Confidence

When you look your best, you feel your best, and, for some, waking up with a pimple can instantly squash those good feelings and confidence. There are so many reasons your skin might be acting up—hormonal changes, lack of sleep, quality of sleep, stress, and more, but there aren't too many options to get rid of the pimple. Since it's best not to pick at your imperfections (as this can lead to longer term scars and pigment issues), we suggest rolling with your new bump best friend (remember, keep your skin-emies close!) and calling on your makeup to conceal. Here are all the steps to take to make sure you get the best coverage on your pimples and trouble spots so you can feel confident in your skin—no matter how it decides to show up on any given day.

Step 1: Prepare Your Skin

Cleanse

Of course, when you're dealing with acne, you always want to make sure everything you're doing and using is clean to avoid spreading the acne. So, before applying any makeup, use a gentle cleanser to remove dirt, oil, and impurities. Clean skin also helps your makeup adhere better and last longer.

Hydrate with Moisturizer

If you're dealing with acne, you're likely using treatments to dry the acne up and that's leaving the rest of your skin dry as well. It's super important to get that moisture back in your skin because applying makeup over dry skin is only going to further accentuate it and draw more attention to your trouble spots. Apply a lightweight, non-comedogenic moisturizer like Kakadu Luxe Cream to keep your skin plump and supple. This step prevents dry patches and ensures your makeup doesn’t settle into fine lines or pores.

Step 2: Prime for Perfection

Selecting the Right Primer

A primer will help create a barrier between your makeup and skincare so your acne is protected too. Plus, the ReEvolve Primer instantly hydrates for up to 24 hours, so if you find you don't need much moisture, you could skip the previous moisturizing step and just use this. 

Benefits of Priming

Your primer will lock in your skincare but it's also going to help grip onto your makeup so that those pimples and problem spots don't start showing up midday. 

Step 3: Choose the Right Concealer

Match Shade to Skin Tone

The right concealer is critical for covering imperfections. For pimples, match your concealer to your skin tone. For dark spots, opt for a slightly peachy undertone to counteract discoloration. All of the UnCoverup shades ending in .5 have a peach undertone. 

Texture and Formula Considerations

Avoid thick, cakey formulas that can draw attention to imperfections. Instead, choose a lightweight yet buildable concealer. We may be biased, but we think UnCoverup is the perfect formula thanks to its self-adjusting minerals that provide natural coverage without drying agents like talc or clay.

Step 4: Conceal Each Spot 

Apply with Precision

Use a small brush to apply concealer directly onto the blemish or dark spot. "Everyone thinks you need more makeup to cover imperfections, but it’s the opposite." says Rose-Marie. "When people touch-up things they tend to do a big huge spot of hit but you just need the tiniest touch."

Step 5: Set The Concealer

The Importance of Setting Powder

To lock your concealer in place, press in a Hydra Setting Powder onto the concealed areas. Repeat the concealer and powder steps until your spot is totally covered—using very thin layers so it doesn't end up cake-y.

How To Cover Dark Spots

You can use the same technique above to help cover any dark spots or other discolorations you might have. "Back in the day we couldn't retouch these things so easily," says Rose-Marie of her experience as a makeup artist. "If we can make those imperfections look a little bit better—five years, maybe two years younger—you're going to be really happy with it."

Conclusion: Maintain Skin Health

While skincare and skin health is key to beautiful makeup, we all have bad skin days or trouble spots that need some help, and that's where these makeup tips come in. Lightly layering concealer with precision and a touch of setting powder builds up just enough coverage to hide what you want and let the rest of your skin shine. Here are more tips on how to use concealer on our under eyes and other spots. 

Need help finding your perfect concealer shade or personalized tips on how to conceal your trouble spots? Book a free one-on-one consultation with one of our Artist Experts.