The difference between concealer and foundation

The difference between concealer and foundation is something that often confuses make up beginners. And if you want your make up to look as good as possible, it’s important you know the difference. So let’s take a look at concealer vs foundation…

The difference between concealer and foundation

What is foundation?

Foundation, as the name suggests, is the foundation, or base, for the rest of your make up. You apply it all over your face to give your face a smoother and more polished appearance. You may also apply it over part of your neck too.

As well as making your face seem smoother, foundation also covers up a lot of blemishes or discoloration on your skin too. And it also makes your skin look younger and fresher.

You can get foundations in a variety of different consistencies, for example in powder form for oily skin, and oil or cream form for dry skin. You can usually also get foundation in more different shades than concealer. This is because you’re using it to cover your whole face so you want it to match your skin as closely as possible.

What is concealer?

Concealer is intended to be used to cover very specific parts of your face that the foundation doesn’t completely hide. For example, if you have a large pimple, sun spots, a scar or birth mark or other area that’s discolored. It’s also used to hide circles under your eyes.

Concealer will usually be in liquid form making it easy to apply a dab to the appropriate area of your face. It’s also much thicker in its consistency than foundation.

Basically, foundation will cover the majority of minor skin blemishes and those that it doesn’t hide can be covered using concealer. So if your foundation does the job of hiding all your skin blemishes and variations in color, then there’s no need to apply any concealer.

Foundation is usually more expensive than concealer.

Concealer or foundation first?

You can use concealer on it’s own, for example, if you just want to hide a big zit but don’t need to apply other makeup.

But it’s often also used along with foundation – you can apply it either before or after applying the foundation. Whether you apply the concealer or foundation first is really just a matter of personal preference.

The order of application doesn’t matter as long as you’re satisfied with the end result. Having said that, it’s usually more effective to apply the concealer after the foundation, in my experience.

Summary – concealer vs foundation

The difference between concealer and foundation can be summed up as follows:

Foundation is used to cover the whole face and acts as a base for the rest of your makeup. Concealer is used to hide those blemishes that the foundation isn’t able to.