Tips for Covering Any Kind of Skin Flaw

Get to know your skin flaw. No matter what type of flaw you have (blood vessel? pimple? vein?), you need to know what it looks like in daylight. Before you can select the right shade of concealer, you have to determine: (1) the color you want to neutralize (red vessels around the nose? blue veins around the eyes? green-tinged dark circles?), and (2) your base skin tone. To do that you need to go outside and look at your skin in daylight.

Create a beauty emergency arsenal kit containing the products you need specific to your skin flaw. At the very least, your kit should contain three items: a neutralizing concealer in pencil or cream form, a concealer that matches or is one shade lighter than your skin tone, and translucent power. You don't even need a makeup brush; you can just tap the powder over the concealer with a finger pad to give it staying power.

Practice applying the makeup and then look at your handiwork in all kinds of light. You want a natural-looking, even skin tone. You don't want to overcorrect, says Darac, acclaimed celebrity makeup artist and owner of Darac Beauty. Applying too much product draws attention to the problem you're trying to cover. You don't want flat, allover color that is one shade, either, he says, because it doesn't look real. Experiment, he adds. "For example, when stippling around the eyes, start with two colors instead of one. The first shade should be as close to your skin as you can, and the second shade slightly lighter. Start on the outer edge of the dark circle and move inward, stippling the concealer lightly. Then stipple the lighter shade over that." But not perfectly, he notes. "Don't overcorrect it. It looks fake. Skin is nuanced and shadowed; it's not one shade."

Use great products. Darac recommends:

● The Being True mineral line of cosmetics, including Perfecting Illuminating Concealer, which comes in three shades. This line also contains idebenone, an antioxidant said to help regenerate aged skin.

● Everything Pencils, which can cover just about any skin issue you have. Available in six shades.

Darac recommends getting at least two shades of pencils — or more. Neutralize, powder and then apply matching or lighter concealer. The pencils are great for drawing on spider veins.

● If you are coming from the gym, or about to go into a rainstorm, Darac suggests using Laura Dorf's Transformer to keep the concealer in place. Created to transform eye shadow into eyeliner, Transformer can be mixed with any makeup, he says, to give it a fixative quality and help it adhere to the face.

● Finally, for translucent powder, it's hard to beat Sifted Blur powder, which comes from Darac's line of cosmetics. The powder is extremely light and actually contains hydrating qualities, preventing the cakey result you can get with some powders. Also, it won't get darker as the day wears on, as some powders do.

Try an instant makeover now.