18 Best Drugstore Concealers for Dark Circles (I’ve Tried Them All!)

If you have dark circles under your eyes and are trying to find a way to hide them, you understand how frustrating it can be when expensive concealer products don’t live up to their claims. Dark circles under your eyes are notoriously difficult to correct, and they can make you look tired and older than you want.

This post is all about camouflaging with the best drugstore concealers for dark circles.

Whether you have dark circles from pigmentation, aging, or if it’s simply in your genes, the drugstore has many options to cover your dark circles (and puffiness and bags, too).

Before we get to the list of some of the best drugstore concealers for dark circles under your eyes, here are some tips and tricks if you have really dark circles, and concealer just isn’t enough.

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18 Best Drugstore Under Eye Concealers for Dark Circles

The drugstore has some fantastic concealers for dark circles and other imperfections that you need covered asap. They are not only affordable but also very pigmented and highly effective.

They range from concealers to neutralizers and correctors to brighteners.

The best drugstore concealer for your dark circles will work with your skin type and how much coverage you need under your eyes.

This full coverage drugstore concealer is formulated with goji berry and Haloxyl, a peptide blend that brightens and thickens the skin around the eyes.

The skin around the eyes thins as we age, so this lightening ingredient improves circulation and helps to decrease blood pigmentation around the eyes, which leads to discoloration. The peptides also support collagen production and improve elasticity.

Instant Age Rewind Concealer Micro-Corrector Applicator

Instant Age Rewind Concealer comes with a Micro-Corrector applicator (sponge) that can be applied directly to the under-eye area.

Even though the directions say that the applicator is protected by an anti-microbial system (should you not wet the applicator), I prefer to remove the applicator and apply the concealer to my finger before applying it to my eye area.

The concealer comes in 18 shades, including a Neutralizer and Brightener. If you have really deep dark circles, you can apply the Neutralizer under your concealer.

You can apply the Brightener to the inner corner of the eyes, cheek and brow bones, and the bridge of the nose.

This concealer has a very pigmented formula and glides across the under-eye area smoothly. The Neutralizer provides an additional base to hide dark circles.

I love using the Brightener on the inner corners under and above the eyes.

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This concealer provides up to 24 hours of hydration for fresher and less puffy eyes in only one week. 0.5% hyaluronic acid delivers hydration and plumps the skin.

This eye cream is fragrance-free, paraben-free, non-comedogenic, and suitable for all skin types, even sensitive skin.

This formula is thinner than expected and covers dark circles nicely.

If you are short on time, this is the ideal product to deliver skincare to the eyes in the form of hyaluronic acid and also camouflage dark circles, fine lines, puffiness, and other imperfections.

The concealer comes in 14 shades. I purchased Light C3-4 and wish I bought it in Fair C1-2, as it is slightly dark. You generally do best with a shade slightly lighter than your foundation under your eyes.

I will use this on days that I apply a lightweight eye serum such as this eye concentrate from NIOD or this caffeine eye serum from The Ordinary to double the skincare benefits of these eye care products.

This concealer dries to a matte finish and quickly covers not only under-eye circles but also acne scars, blemishes, and discoloration with its large applicator tip.

The formula is waterproof and won’t transfer or flake, so it will last all day. Because it is a concentrated formula, only a small amount is needed, otherwise, it will look too overdone.

You can also use this concealer to contour or highlight. Just use a shade 1-2 shades lighter for highlighting and brightening and 1-2 shades deeper for contouring.

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• Aloe barbadensis leaf extract is soothing and anti-inflammatory.
• Camellia sinensis leaf extract’s antioxidant benefits include protection from free radical damage and reducing inflammation.
• It also contains Cucumber fruit extract and niacinamide, one of the best all-around anti-agers.

The doe-foot applicator is flexible, making it easy to apply under your delicate eye area. For a medium-coverage concealer, this concealer is highly pigmented and offers buildable coverage.

It works to camouflage dark circles as well as puffiness and bags while leaving a natural finish, not too matte and not too dewy.

It comes in 18 shades, so it will work for most skin tones. This concealer is formulated without parabens, phthalates, synthetic dyes, and fragrances, making it suitable for sensitive skin.

It is a medium-coverage concealer that you can also use to contour and sculpt the chin and cheekbones.

This concealer comes in 23 shades, including three color-correcting shades:

• Green hides dark circles on light skin tones, plus red/peach discoloration, pimples, and other imperfections.
• Lavender covers dark circles under the eyes on darker skin tones and yellow skin discolorations, blemishes, and other imperfections.
• Yellow covers purple-based skin discolorations like dark circles and veins, blemishes, and other imperfections.

Don’t let the thinner consistency fool you. NYX Professional Makeup HD Studio Photogenic Concealer covers dark circles well and contours beautifully without looking cakey.

This concealer has a small application tip that allows you to deposit concealer closer to the inner corners of your eyes.

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The concealer applies smoothly to create an undetectable finish, easily hiding dark circles as well as blemishes and dark spots on your face.

The formula is highly concentrated and pigmented but does not build up, so you can easily hide dark circles without the telltale concealer discoloration under your eyes.

The concealer has a precision tip to apply just the amount you need onto your fingers. The concealer provides fantastic coverage and stays put throughout the day.

It can even help to take the place of foundation on days when light coverage is needed. The only drawback to this concealer is that it comes in only five shades.

It has a large doe applicator to provide an even application. The formula is lightweight and dries to a matte finish.

The concealer comes in 30 shades to match 99% of skin tones ranging from Light and Medium to Tan and Deep. The vegan formula is easy to blend.

Be sure not to over-apply, or you may see some caking or creasing.

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The formula is made for all skin types and dries to a matte finish. It has an oil-balancing formula that won’t settle into fine lines and wrinkles.

This award-winning concealer has a large doe foot applicator to apply the highly pigmented yet lightweight formula. Use it to conceal, correct, and contour.

The concealer comes in 26 shades ranging from Fair to Rich and works for Cool, Neutral, and Warm undertones.

I love this super-creamy formula that covers really well and the matte finish it provides. It’s great for combination and oily skin types.

This is one of the concealers often touted as an alternative to the cult-favorite Tarte Shape Tape Contour Concealer.

I wrote an entire post about testing drugstore concealer alternatives for Tarte Shape Tape Contour Concealer.

NOTE: If you have dry skin or mature skin in need of hydration, e.l.f. also offers a Hydrating Camo Concealer that offers a creamy, satin finish that lasts all day.

From the top right clockwise:

• Green neutralizes redness such as blemishes/acne.
• Pink brightens dark circles and dull complexions.
• Deep camouflages imperfections.
• Light camouflages imperfections.
• Purple neutralizes yellow undertones.
• Yellow conceals purple and deep red discolorations such as veins/dark spots.

I love the brightening that the Pink provides as a corrector and will follow with the Light concealer shade. If short on time, I will sometimes mix these creamy shades to hide my dark circles.

I apply with a makeup brush and then pat gently under my eyes with my fingers to blend.

This drugstore color corrector palette really brightens up my under-eye and provide the ideal base to follow with a traditional concealer.

Perfect for not only under the eyes but also for pimples, redness, and evening skin tone.

It also minimizes fine lines under the eyes. It comes in a whopping 43 shades, including several correctors and a few highlighters.

This concealer comes with a built-in brush to provide an even application.

The coverage is much more pigmented than I expected. Even better, you can combine the traditional concealer shades with a corrector for a beautiful natural finish.

This best-selling vegan concealer easily hides imperfections with its matte formula while brightening shadows and dark circles under your eyes. Plus, it’s the perfect formula to contour your face.

This concealer is creamy and rich. It lasts up to 24 hours with its full-coverage formula. The thin angled applicator makes it easy to apply under and around the corners of your eyes.

It’s very blendable and buildable too, so it won’t look too cakey or heavy. Available in 24 shades.

Although the rich formula sets quickly, it is very pigmented, and the color lasts throughout the day.

The concealer comes in 17 shades to cover imperfections, and it dries to a matte finish.

The full-coverage formula really covers shadows and discolorations under the eyes. Pair it with Revlon ColorStay Makeup for long-wearing full coverage for your entire face.

Bare With Me is a medium-coverage hydrating serum-concealer hybrid that works to hide dark under-eye circles, blemishes, breakouts, and dry skin patches while hydrating your complexion for up to 24 hours.

• The concealer is infused with skin-loving ingredients like tremella mushroom, a moisturizer, and a humectant.
• Centella asiatica extract, also known as cica, is a skincare ingredient known for its soothing and healing properties.
• Camellia sinensis leaf extract, better known as green tea extract, is rich in antioxidants that protect the skin, while allantoin calms the skin.

This lightweight creamy concealer is easily blendable and looks very natural on the skin. NYX notes that it can also be used on your body.

I think this is the best drugstore undereye concealer for mature skin due to its lightweight hydrating formula.

It’s vegan and cruelty-free and comes in 13 shades.

The creamy formula is made with a blend of the following ingredients that makes it look like a skincare product:

• Glycerin: A humectant that hydrates and plumps the skin to create a smoother, softer finish.
• Vitamin E: A powerful antioxidant that helps protect the skin from free radical damage.
• Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil: A nourishing plant oil that moisturizes and softens the skin.
• Hydrolyzed Collagen: A skin-plumping agent that moisturizes the skin.
• Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Extract: An antioxidant that protects the skin against environmental stressors.
• Sodium Hyaluronate: A powerful humectant that locks in moisture and keeps skin hydrated.

The concealer comes in 10 shades, ranging from Fair to Rich to work with most skin tones.

It leaves a dewy finish, and the hydrating formula has minimal creasing for long-lasting wear.

The concealer stays in place for up to 12 hours and targets discoloration, pimples, tired under-eyes, and other skin discoloration while leaving the skin feeling soft and moisturized.

The formula contains skincare actives that help to nourish the skin while providing excellent coverage. These include:

• Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter: A natural emollient and antioxidant-rich moisturizer that helps moisturize and protect the skin.
• Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil: A powerful moisturizer that helps to condition, protect and soften the skin.
• Sodium Hyaluronate: The salt form of hydrating hyaluronic acid that helps keep the skin plump and looking supple.
• Glycerin: A non-irritating emollient that keeps the skin hydrated and reduces water loss.

The flat precision doe-foot applicator makes application easy, giving you complete control over where and how much concealer to apply.

The concealer comes in 18 waterproof shades that will flatter every skin tone.

The concealer has a soft matte finish and a lightweight texture, so it doesn’t get cakey as you layer it to get full coverage. (I love that I can get full or even medium coverage without needing too many layers.)

The key ingredients in the high-performance formula include:

• VTOX (Okra Extract): VTOX helps reduce the look of fine lines under your eyes for a smoother skin appearance.
• Sodium Hyaluronate: This salt form of hyaluronic acid is a powerful hydrator that helps keep your skin looking plump and hydrated and helps avoid dry patches or cakiness.

The applicator is very cool. The precision flat tip contour wand deposits the concealer evenly, so blending it into your skin is a breeze.

And the tip reaches the corners of your eyes without any tugging or pulling. The oil-free concealer, is sweatproof, waterproof, and creaseproof.

I love that it comes in a large range of 30 shades, so you’re bound to find your perfect shade match.

The ingredient list of this concealer reads like a skincare product:

• The high-coverage formula contains moisturizing ingredients like shea butter and mango seed butter.
• Multi-tasking niacinamide and licorice root extract help to even out skin tone and reduce discoloration.
• Grape seed extract is a skin-protective antioxidant that helps to combat free radical damage.

The concealer comes in 22 shades, so you can find the perfect shade for your skin tone. The lightweight formula blends easily and deposits highly-pigmented color with minimal effort for a matte finish.

The texture is creamy and easy to blend into the skin without any tugging or pulling. Plus, it lasts all day without creasing or fading. Perfect for those days when you don’t have time to touch up your makeup.

You can also use this super affordable concealer for highlighting or contouring- it works great for brightening up your face without looking too overdone.

The concealer contains diffusing and blurring pigments to illuminate and camouflage dark circles.

The highly-pigmented formula has a really creamy texture that creates a soft-focus finish.

The concealer comes in 12 shades and has a long-lasting formula that looks natural on the skin without looking cakey.

Ingredients to Look for in Drugstore Under Eye Concealers

When choosing the best drugstore under eye concealer, it’s important to consider the ingredients that target dark circles and help camoflauge the visible signs of aging.

Not only do you want something that conceals, but if possible, you should also opt for ingredients that offer skin benefits.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most sought-after ingredients to perk up your under eye area:

• Hyaluronic Acid: A potent humectant that draws moisture from the environment into your skin. It helps hydrate your skin, making it appear plump and reducing the appearance of fine lines under your eyes.
• Vitamin C & E: Both are powerful antioxidants that protect the skin against damage from free radicals and UV rays. Vitamin C also brightens your skin, reducing the appearance of dark circles.
• Caffeine: This ingredient improves the microcirculation of your blood vessels and helps with dark circles and puffiness. It’s especially useful for those tired mornings when your eyes need an extra boost.
• Neutralizers and Color Correctors: These are essential in concealers as they combat the discoloration of dark circles.
• Light-reflecting Pigments: Some concealers contain these pigments to help brighten your under-eye area and make it look more luminous.
• SPF: If you’re going to be out in the sun, consider a concealer with SPF to protect your delicate under-eye area from UV rays.
• Peptides: These are chains of amino acids that are building blocks of proteins like collagen, elastin, and keratin. They are beneficial for your skin’s health and vitality. Peptides in concealers can help replenish your under-eye area.
• Non-Comedogenic Ingredients: Especially crucial for acne-prone skin, non-comedogenic ingredients won’t irritate the oil glands under your eyes.

For Extremely Dark Circles…

Apply A Neutralizer Under Your Concealer

It turns out that extremely dark circles are best treated by first neutralizing the undertone of the dark circle with a corrector.

Then you can apply concealer on top of the corrector. I have seen the best results using this one-two punch to knock out my dark circles.

Not everyone has the same undertones, so once you determine the shade of your dark circles, you can treat them with the appropriate shade of corrector. In general, follow these guidelines for color-correcting:

• Green Undertone: Use A Red/Peach Undertone Corrector/Concealer
• Purple/Blue Undertone: Use a Yellow or Orange Undertone Corrector/Concealer
• Red/Pink Dark Circles: Use A Green Undertone Corrector/Concealer

Apply a Brightener

You’ve probably heard that dark colors absorb light. That’s why I try to avoid wearing dark colors in the sun when it’s hot out. Well, it turns out that your dark circles will absorb light as well.

The goal is for our dark circles to reflect light, so you can apply a product specifically designed to brighten the under-eye area and reflect light.

These brightening concealers with light-reflecting pigments can hide circles and open up your eye area, faking a more wide-awake look.

How To Apply Drugstore Under Eye Concealers to Hide Dark Circles

Apply a concealer after your skincare routine and foundation/tinted moisturizer or any other base makeup product that you apply to your entire face. This provides a base for the concealer.

There are a variety of effective ways to apply concealer under your eyes, but don’t simply swipe a line under your eyes and drag or smear it into your skin. This may cause caking and creasing.

Draw an inverted triangle under each eye with the tip facing down toward your cheek (you can also apply a few dots inside the triangle).

Gently pat to blend with a concealer brush, a makeup blender sponge (these Mini Miracle Complexion Sponges from Real Techniques allow you to apply concealer in the corners around your eyes), or your ring finger to distribute the concealer across your dark circles.

Alternately, you can dab multiple dots of concealer in a half circle along your dark circles and gently blend.

Consider sweeping a setting powder on top to lock your concealer in place so that it will last all day.

TIP: Remember, less is more. You can always layer concealer for more coverage if your first application is insufficient.

Related Post: Best Under Eye Setting Powders

Treat Dark Circles Under Your Eyes with Skincare

Concealers can only do so much to hide your dark circles. You can apply skincare products that stimulate collagen production, help brighten the under-eye area and protect your skin from future discoloration and hyperpigmentation.

Apply An Eye Cream Formulated with A Retinoid

Dark circles can form with age as skin thins and fat decreases around the delicate eye area.

This image, published in 2016 in The Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery, shows the mid-face and lower eyelid anatomy with aging. As volume decreases, hollows and shadowing increase.

Try an eye cream containing a retinoid for dark circles due to thinning skin from aging. Retinoids help stimulate collagen and can thicken the skin over time.

I have dark circles that have appeared with age. They are frustrating and don’t go away.

I have been religious about applying an eye cream formulated with a retinoid to thicken the skin under my eyes and stimulate collagen production. As a result, my eye area is smoother and fine lines are softening.

Apply Brightening Skincare Products

Spending too much time in the sun can cause hyperpigmentation. This may occur under the eyes resulting in splotchy discolored skin.

Brightening skincare products such as those formulated with vitamin C will improve hyperpigmentation and other sun damage and help prevent further damage.

Don’t Forget Sunscreen

While applying sunscreen every single day is a must regardless of whether or not you have dark circles, it will also help prevent sun damage which can cause hyperpigmentation, fine lines, and wrinkles that can make dark circles worse.

Visit A Dermatologist for Additional Options

Consider visiting a dermatologist if no over-the-counter options budge your dark circles.

There may be prescription-strength treatment products or procedures to help your dark circles. Chemical peels or IPL (Intense pulsed light) treatments may help under-eye pigmentation.

Hyaluronic acid filler is helpful with loss of volume and the resulting hollow appearance under the eyes.

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What is The Best Drugstore Concealer for Dark Circles?

The best drugstore under eye concealer for my dark circles continues to be Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles Treatment.

While there are some dark circles (like those that come with volume loss) that no concealer can cover, these drugstore concealers can make your eyes look more awake and brighter and can even make you look younger.

What are your favorite drugstore concealers and correctors to hide dark circles? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!