Almay Smart Shade CC Concealer and Brightener Review & Swatches
Almay Smart Shade CC Concealer and Brightener is a new Spring 2014 launch from Almay hitting drugstores now that includes a creamy concealer and a brightener in one compact which is available in three shades.
Take a look!
Almay Smart Shade CC Concealer and Brightener is one of the products that gets me giddy because I like nothing more than a good concealer. This dual sided product has a creamy concealer on one side and a brightener on the other. The concept seemed great as you can concealer and correct with one side and pat a bit of brighten under eyes as well give you a well rested appearance.
In theory it’s a great idea! And hell it might even work out for some folks that need very little under eye concealing.
Unfortunately for me it runs way too shear. I settled and purchased Medium for myself because it looked like the perfect shade. The shades do seem to run fairly light so the Medium shade selection seems more like medium fair in my humblest. The concealer is a medium beige where as the brightener is a lighter beige with cooler pink undertones. The texture is dense here so don’t expect an emollient, creamy concealer like you’d see from Bobbi Brown. The density of the product doesn’t make it overly dry though and I find it felt a touch silicone-like when I applied it so it filled minor lines quite nicely during application and didn’t just fall into those lines and crease. It blends quite nicely under my drier eyes and didn’t crease through the wear but faded at around hour four unfortunately even after setting with powder. It does run fairly sheer so it’ll give a nice, natural finish but won’t conceal major dark circles, puffiness, and finer lines.
Personally, this is more of “I’m just starting to use concealer” type of product versus an “I only had six hours of sleep, I need to be at work at 8 AM for an important meeting and look my best” concealer. If your eyes are younger chances are you just need a little touch of concealer to look incredible and this might just work for you. However, those used to using concentrated, pigmented concealer will be disappointed.
I felt the brightener was a tad useless as it didn’t really brighten much of anything and just felt like I was applying concealer on top of concealer. It doesn’t have shimmer, a luminous glow, or any of the typical fanfare that “brightening” style concealers like to include in their finishes as of late. The good news is you can use it as a mixing product of sorts to lighten up the concealer shade.
In the end, Almay Smart Shade CC Concealer and Brightener is a great concept but the formula doesn’t quite live up the the brilliant idea. A bit more creaminess to the formula and a tons more pigment would make it an excellent drugstore concealer but unfortunately you get neither here.
If you just need a touch of coverage it’s your girl! If you need something more powerful, well, needless to say you’ll likely be disappointed.
Available now at drugstores.