With the launch of her now super-viral beauty brand, Rare, we’ve had our eyes and ears open for any and everything involving Selena Gomez and makeup. Not only do we want to know what’s new with the singer and actress’ hit line, we also are keen to get in on the secrets behind how she always looks so effortlessly radiant. Lucky for us, Gomez’s makeup artist just posted a TikTok explaining her do’s and don’t’s for concealer application.
Makeup artist to the stars, Melissa Murdick, is no stranger to letting followers in on all of her A-list quality beauty tricks, and last week she posted a TikTok explaining what she says is one of the biggest concealer application faux pas. Beginning the video with a green screen photo of a woman with thick dots of concealer dabbed directly over her blemishes, Murdick starts by saying “Y’all, if you’ve got a zit, do NOT put your concealer on like this to cover it.”
Now, for anyone like myself who has only ever covered blemishes by layering concealer right on top of them, you may be shocked, but Murdick explains that there are several reasons why you shouldn’t put product directly onto an active pimple. “If you put your concealer directly on your skin, on an open wound, on a zit, you’re contaminating your concealer,” she begins, “you’re also using more product than you need which is going to make it look cakey especially as it wears throughout the day.”
Not to worry, Murdick doesn’t stop there. She goes on to explain her celebrity MUA approved way to cover a zit, which starts with simply washing your hands. Once clean, she puts a dab of concealer onto the back of her hand before taking a very small brush, picking up a small bit of concealer from her hand, and patting the product right onto the area you want to cover. She then lets the product sit for around 10 seconds before taking a synthetic blending brush—her personal favorite is the Bdellium Tools Studio 785 Tapered Blending Brush ($12)—and lightly patting up and down on the area where the concealer was applied until you start to see it seep into the skin, and then moving to patting around the edges.
If you’re working with a scab or a more stubborn blemish, she recommends repeating this process again. She also notes that this technique is made to be done after your foundation is applied, and should be set with a good setting spray as opposed to setting powder to further avoid cakiness.
You know what they say, old habits die hard, but if Selena Gomez’s makeup artist is telling us to reevaluate our concealer technique, you can be sure we’re going to listen.
