Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage
3.9
616 reviews
69% would repurchase
Package Quality: 3.9
Price: $$$
Package Quality: 3.9
Price: $$$
INGREDIENTS
(SC-1 – SC-8): Diethylene Glycol, Diethylhexanoate/Diisononanoate, Paraffin, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Octyldodecanol, Ethylhexyl Isononanoate, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax (Candelilla Cera), Polymethyl Methacrylate, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax (Cera Carnauba), Phenoxyethanol, Glyceryl Stearate, Tocopherol, Isopropyl Myristate, Oleth-10, Retinyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Water (Aqua), Silica, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Honey Extract (Mel), Potassium Sorbate, Hexylene Glycol, Caprylyl Glycol, Tetrapeptide-14, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77492), Mica (CI 77019). May Contain ( /-): Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77499), Ultramarines (CI 77007).Where to Buy
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Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm
Hair: Black, Other, Other
Eyes: Black
Love love love! Always suceeds in helping bring papules to a head because it is so drying. A lot of people try to use this under the eyes but it does not work like that! It's a spot blemish concealer and the two pans are for you to customize and mix and match to formulate your perfect shade. Genious!
Cons: the packaging bothers me. Love the mirror that comes with it but if you aren't careful, the button that holds the package together can unclasp and open the product. Not sure if this product can dry out (as it is a cream product I believe) but if it can then that's a huge issue!
Age: 36-43
Skin: Acne-prone, Tan, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
I love this product! I have been using this for over 10 years now. I cannot be without it. I often get comments on my skin and it's all thanks to this product. I don't wear foundation, just Laura Marcier to "hide" flaws. It never breaks me out and blends beautifully into the skin.
I use it to:
# Conceal post acne scars
# Cover actual blemishes
# Lighten undereye area. Mix a little with your undereye moisturiser :)
It doesn't budge, even in saunas and pools, I have tried:) the trick is to use a small angled brush and target the area and blend. If you moisturise before you use it, it won't feel drying.
Hope this helps!
Age: 30-35
Skin: Other, Other, Not Sure
Hair: Other, Other, Other
Eyes: Other
I've always been curious about Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage. I see it in every celebrity makeup artist's kit. Lisa Eldridge always uses it, it must be her favourite concealer. But since I don't live near the city I never bothered checking it out until now. Laura Mercier is hard to find in Australia, only select retailers sell it in exclusive locations. You can buy it online but I prefer to see how it looks in real life before I hand over my money. I purchased mine from David Jones for $55 AUD.
This is a really thick and dry concealer. Think a really dry and heavy stick foundation, only this is in a palette format. I think there are 2 things you have to get right to make this work. First, you need to get your exact shade or else it won't cover up anything. Too light or too dark won't work. I got this in SC3. I'm NC 20 in MAC foundations. I wasn't really too sure what shade to get but I figured, Lisa Eldridge normally uses SC2 on herself. I'm 1-2 shades darker than her so I figured I'll get SC3. Which turns out to work. I use a small fine tip brush (concealer or eyeliner brush) and swipe half half of each shade.
The second thing you need to do is to warm up the product by dabbing the brush onto the back of the hand to make the product more blendable. If you don't do that, it won't adhere onto the skin. This is especially important if you have dry skin. You want to tap the concealer on so that it becomes part of your skin, not to sit on top of it. I first use the brush to apply it on blemishes and pigmentation, then use my fingers to tap it onto my skin so it blends in.
It does cover my blemishes and pigmentation quite well, I get almost full opaque coverage. However I won't use this under my eyes, it's too dry and ageing. I prefer to use something more creamy like Maybelline fit me concealer for undereyes. I use a setting powder, MAC careblend pressed powder to set my whole foundation and to seal the concealer. This step is important too, even if you don't use powder, you should use it on the areas that you applied so it will last all day.
Age: 44-55
Skin: Combination, Fair, Cool
Hair: Blond, Kinky, Fine
Eyes: Green
I really don't like this... I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's extremely thick and drying. Absolutely no way for under eyes - blending is impossible, but also no good for spot coverage I find - its just too dry and cakey!! It shows up accentuates my spots instead of covering them, and also, picking up any product out of the compact is near impossible as its so drying its almost flaky! No-no
Age: 44-55
Skin: Dry, Fair-Medium, Warm
Hair: Silver, Wavy, Fine
Eyes: Blue
HG of concealers... With one caveat. This is NOT the kind of concealer that you contour with or swipe on large areas. This is a spot concealer and it is fantastic. It must have superglue or something in it because it does not budge offa that pimple until you take it off - even if you touch your face a lot.
I use it in two ways - the lighter colour to hide pimples and marks, and the darker colour to 'paint' in the shadow of my under eye bags a la Wayne Goss. I use it almost everyday for the latter purpose (my eye bags could take me to Russia) and I've barely cracked it. I use a tiny artist brush NOT a concealer brush, as I find makeup brushes too big for what I want to achieve.
This will be the only concealer you need if all you do is cover spots and eye bags.
Age: 25-29
Skin: Oily, Fair, Neutral
Hair: Blond, Straight, Coarse
Eyes: Green
I've had such high hopes for this one. I have minor acne spots and scars, nothing too terrible but I still prefer to conceal them. I read that this product is capable of covering tattoos, so I was eager to see how it would conceal all my tiny blemishes. Spoiler alert: it didn't. This products literally sucks. My acne is honestly very very minor, with hardly any texture, and I still couldn't cover it up. It was still bluntly visible and when I applied more product, it just caked up, and later completely disappeared off my face. What a let down :/
Age: 19-24
Skin: Normal, Fair, Neutral
Hair: Brown, Straight, Medium
Eyes: Brown
Watching Lisa Eldridge's videos made me buy this concealer. I wanted a heavy-duty, full coverage, oil free and long-lasting concealer to cover pigmentation spots and blemishes. This is exactly what this concealer is and it does its job well.
PROS:
- extremely long-lasting; my skin normal skin to combination does not soak it up and I can get a 8-hour wear without powdering the concealed area; if powdered, I have worn this for 10 hours + without any problems (this is my trustee concealer for flights!)
- does not look cakey despite its very thick and creamy consistency
- can cover even the most hardcore imperfections
- a little bit goes such a long way, so the product definitely justifies its price
CONS
- because it has two sides that you are supposed to mix together to find your perfect shade, I found it very tricky and difficult to apply this; during my first month of using it I was ready to give it up because it was frustrating and time-consuming trying to get my shade, and it usually ended up being either too pale or too pink (I am SC-1)....but practice makes perfect and now I am done in seconds
- the application could be tricky at the beginning until you get used to it; for larger areas I use my fingers to mix the shades and warm between my fingers; but for spot concealing I use a tiny lip brush; I do not warm the product that is on my brush on the back of my hand first. I tried that and it did not work, so what I found best is to go straight on the area/spot with your brush and literally paint over it, do not buff or use circular motions because a streaky patch will show up
- it is not suitable for the undereye area because it is too drying, but if you are oily there, you should not have any issues; I use this concealer under the brow bone and on the very outer edge of my eyes
I would recommend this concealer if you have normal to oily skin, you suffer from blemishes, serious discolouration or pigmentation and you want to literally camouflage these . But if you are looking for a concealer with less coverage and moisturising feel to it, then this would not work for you.
Age: 30-35
Skin: Sensitive, Fair, Neutral
Hair: Brown, Straight, Fine
Eyes: Green
I did not like it. It does give full coverage as is (ie no tweaks with powder needed for coverage) and comes in *very* fair non-oxidizing shades - the combination of the qualities is imo unrivaled, which is why I give it 4 stars overall. However, it does not work for me, for reasons:
1) it separates on the oily Tzone (either powdered or non-powdered on) after several hours, and does so in the most horrible-looking way of extremely evident goo pools floating on top of the skin. And I find it cannot be remedied with blotting paper once the texture is disturbed (unlike some creamier products). So I *have* to always pay too much attention to the concealed spots during the day. I guess I see why make up artists love it - if a client needs to look perfect for a couple of hours of a special event, it does the job well. But I need the concealer to not betray all my concealed secrets by the end of my workday (like scaring those who were unfortunate to come too close to me). It also dries up after several hours on the drier parts of the face (my cheeks, which aren't flaking dry or anything at all, actually the condition of the skin is pretty decent) which then accentuates the couple of the long-post-scar blemishes making them worse than without any concealer. So, for me the LM SC is too unreliable.
2) i am fair around NC10 and very neutral with a tiny shift towards cool. I had to buy both sc1 and sc3 shades and vandalise them to make one matching combo of the milky-light shade from the sc1 and the neutral beige pan from the sc3. So, the expense and fuss doubled up! That is the only way I could match it to the entire shade range of my face. I mean, in the SC1 the pink pan is absolutely too pink, for me suitable only (mixed with the milky shade) to use where the natural blush on the cheeks is (and that's where I don't need a concealer). Otherwise the sc1 runs simply too pink however i mixed it - unless diluted with the milky shade to nothingness (which I could use on my neck - but I don't need a concealer there!). So, i wouldn't mind if the pink were included in a 3-shade pan, but I simply don't get how the LM marketing department chose to launch the sc1 so pink (or may be for NC5- gals?, dunno).
I am also not a fan of the mix-and-match products - too much fuss because once I (quickly) learned to mix "the good" shade with my sc1+3 "custom blend", i didn't need to mix in any other proportions, so I only got the pain from occasional mistakes during the obligatory everyday mixing process. A pain, really. And also some product always gets waisted. I only fully dig the SC3 combo for those who are lucky to match the shades (i'm not sure, but may be it is for NW 20-25 skin tones?) because both are nicely skin-toned (unlike the rosy pan in the sc2), just one is lighter and the other is the same neutral tonality but a couple of shades darker, like the winter/summer skin. All in all, I am positive the LM would have an even bigger success with the LMSC if they sold each colour separately, for those who are in between their current shade duos.
3) The texture it gives (of course, well blended in) is imo not very skin-like (like, worse than the skin) - especially in the daylight, altho totally acceptable in the evening/indoors dim lighting. So, i'd say, texture-wise, unless worn in the evening/indoors with no bright lighting, it demands some liquid foundation (or *generously* applied powder) to look fully uniform with the rest of the face. Otherwise, the difference in the texture became more and more evident the longer hours I wore it. As far as I only wear powder foundation and very rarely need the "generous" layering, for me that is quite a big con.
Is not the right concealer to conceal scabs - doesn't stick and slides off too easily (the powder helps, but not fully remedies).
Doesn't irritate or clog pores - that's a plus! The ingredients aren't too bad at all - also a plus.
I did get their special SC brush, it works, but I don't find it indispensable. A couple of lipstick brushes (the beautiful MUFE one with the cap, and another no-name one) worked just as good, may be even better because softer on the skin. However, the original SC brush is actually two-in-one as the bristles are cut to a tip good for pin-point concealing - but that comes at a price of its being too harsh and prickly (i do have sensitive skin - especially where I need to conceal the little smths)
I had absolutely no problem with taking the rather stiff product out of the pan - lightly "shaving" with a wide spatula or just a (clean) thumbnail easily collected the right amount of the product. It was always so easy I couldn't get why some girls had to resort to heating it with a hairdryer.
I don't like the wide shallow pans - totally unnecessary because you are not supposed to swipe across with a big/wide brush, but it collects dust with all its surface, and more of the product is subjected to air.
Overall, i don't like the LM SC. I prefer a more reliable, naturally looking when worn on bare skin, not demanding to buy several shades, easy to use product, - even if I have to tweak the coverage with my powder foundation. For now, it is the Becca Full coverage (which I really like), the ever faithful la Prairie pen and the JI powder foundation (used as concealer) - the 3 of which I use as necessary.
Age: 25-29
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Neutral
Hair: Brunette, Straight, Medium
Eyes: Green
This is a great concelarer and the 2 shades mix perfectly to match my skin tone. The formula is really creamy and easy to blend and when set with powder lasts! I only use this for post blemish scaring and pin point concealing as it is quite heavy coverage but it works wonders. Would repurchase however this will last forever so probably won't need to for years!
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Dempea
on 4/5/2017 12:29:00 AM
More reviews by Dempea
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Neutral
Hair: Black, Straight, Fine
Eyes: Brown
PLEASE NEVER DISCONTINUE THIS. I have hormonal acne and this just covers it beautifully, cancels out redness with the yellow toned shade, the salmon shade cancels out the purple hyperpigmentation. lightweight, doesnt look cakey, does break me out most importantly. I have 2 pans SC1 and SC2 (NC15- NC25) for anytime time of the year. would repurchase.
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