"Aha!" I thought, "Finally this will fix my Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer woes!" For some background, you can read my first review here of the much loved concealer that I was most curious about when crossing the pond. Though I use it quite a lot, I never found "2 Light" to be a perfect shade. It was too salmon for my skin. Nearly pink, even! Now I know that salmon is a widely-used color to correct dark circles, but I just felt that there was something too obviously salmon about this one that didn't blend well with the natural tones of my skin. Indeed, I thought it was just too warm-toned for my needs! As you can see, in the tube these both look exactly the same, but I was keen to see if there was any difference that could change my mind about the crowd favorite.
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| Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. Left: Cool Medium 2. Right: Light 2. |
To test out the true difference between the two shades, I decided to photograph them on days with similar light to really see if 2 Cool Medium would be less salmony than 2 Light. I did swatch the two shades on my hand, but I lost the notes of which was which and forgot to take a blended swatch picture! Truly, un-blended these shades look nearly identical. However, once blended, the 2 Light shade takes on much more of a pink tone on my skin while the 2 Cool Medium blends in seamlessly with my skin tone. So far so good! And apologies again for the lack of swatch pictures. Look out for an edit one day when I can get some good light.
A note: I rarely get blemishes, so the primary function of a concealer for me is to conceal the crazy dark circles that I have to live with due to stress and lack of sleep (life of a grad student). I am judging these concealers 99% on their efficacy to cover undereye darkness and 1% of how well they cover blemishes. So, if you are looking for a blemish concealer or how well this performs on cystic acne and the like, I just couldn't tell you. My apologies.
This is my face sans concealer. I have foundation (I believe it is Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation) applied normally. I have also taken it under my eyes and around the lids as normal. You can still see my dark circles through the foundation application, because these babies will not stand to be ignored. You can also see that in this picture I do have a few blemishes on my cheek and around my chin. They are mostly covered by my foundation but could use a little help.
2 Light: This is my face after applying concealer and the rest of my makeup. To my eyes, it just looks like something is off, and the undereye darkness isn't minimized. Also, jk that's not a cheek blemish on the right that's a freckle. It doesn't show as well in photography, but in reality this just looks PINK under my eyes. No matter how well I blend there is always a stark contrast between the concealer and the rest of my face. I always feel really self conscious wearing it but am stubborn and will use a product up even if I don't like it.
2 Cool Medium: This picture is taken on a separate day, so I apologize if the lighting makes my face look different. Also, apologies for the towels in the background that are super-emphasized. Oops. Anyways, I hope you can see the difference, because I sure can! This shade just blends in seamlessly with my skin tone, yet completely covers and brightens dark circles. I have also tested this on blemishes and it matches my skin tone much better than the 2 Light shade. Also, it may just be that the other shade is older as I purchased it back in the fall, but this formula seems much creamer than the other one. Just an observation!
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| Side by side view. Can we all LOL at my eyeballs looking at each other because I sure am! |
The Final Verdict: Ultimately, my unhappiness with the concealer was never due to its lack of coverage (it definitely does that). While I was originally unhappy with the texture, I learned that a patting application with the ring finger does much better than a brush or a finger-smear application. The biggest turn-off for me was that the concealer from the range that was most likely to match my skin just didn't! Now, with the introduction of warm and cool tones I think I can definitely get behind this incredibly popular concealer.
Now, I did a little research and I've noticed that there's no press release or shade change on the Collection company website. There aren't any shade changes on the Boots website either. However, Superdrug does have Cool Medium, Warm Medium, and Dark on their website. So although I've just raved to you about this new shade development, I feel terrible admitting that there doesn't seem to be a surefire way to access all of the various colors! I would have a peek in a Superdrug near you to see if any of the aisle-ends have a Collection display, but other than that we'll have to wait and see if this is a permanent development for the line.
Do have concealer color issues? Do you have a favorite concealer that isn't Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer? Let me know in the comments and also tell me if you would like to see any other products reviewed!
xoxo, Kels
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