For the most of 2018 my everyday makeup routine was very minimal and stayed pretty much the same the entire year. It included the wonderful yet cheap and cheerful NYX HD Wand Concealer. I barely wore any foundation that year and used to use just a few swipes of this concealer in the centre of my face. I used up 4 tubes of this consecutively so I think it's safe to say it has certainly earned itself holy grail status.

The NYX HD Wand Concealer comes in plastic tube and has a doe foot applicator, simple, easy and convenient to use. Comes with 3g/0.11oz of product which isn't much (for e.g. the Nars RCC comes with double the amount at 0.22oz of product) but at £6 it ain't too much of an issue since it's still half the price. I find the packaging a little on the cheap side, if you screw the lid on a little too tightly it cracks the outer casing and you usually end up pulling the outer casing off whilst the actual screw part of the lid is still attached to the main body. Minor glitch but I would prefer if the packaging stayed intact, better quality packaging perhaps if you’re reading this NYX?

Shade

You know I love a good shade match and NYX haven't failed to deliver. After scouring the net for swatches I had my eye on the shade CW04 which is also known as 'Beige'. I'd seen other olive tan people use this shade so I was eager to try it out my self. I love this shade! I've been searching for a concealer shade that will brighten my under eyes but still look natural and this shade is perfect, it has the right balance of olive/yellow/peach to brighten yet blend into my skin for when I don’t want to wear any foundation. There have been many a times where a concealer shade just doesn’t have the right tones in it so it just looks silly under my eyes and usually ends up making my under eye area look worse than it started. This shade blends into the rest of my skin wonderfully, you can't tell where the concealer ends. I would use a peach corrector underneath for when I wanted more fuller coverage under my eyes.

I also looked into buying a darker shade as I'd gone on holiday and caught a tan, again after carrying out a little swatch search I discovered they had a new shade launch and it included some lovely warm medium shades. I picked up the shade CW6.3 which is also known as Fresh Beige. It's much warmer and a touch more neutral than Beige but done a good job while I had my tan. I've also realised that under yellow lighting this particular shade looks completely undetectable on my skin, it's literally seamless and I'm obsessed! They have some brilliant brilliant shades for anyone with warm yellow olive undertones, several people in my family also use and adore this concealer and they use different shades to me, so it's obvious it's great for Mediterranean or South Asian skin tones.

Formula, Texture & Finish

It’s not super thick but quite creamy but not super emollient and feels really really light on the skin. I found the cult favourite Nars RCC quite thick and it caked up quite easily on me, it also looked rather obvious on my skin. I personally find the NYX concealer really skin like. I’ve also tried the Urban Decay Naked Skin concealer which is another cult favourite and I found that super light. In comparison to that I’d say the NYX comes in between the Nars and the UD, I did love the formula of UD but none of the colours worked for me unfortunately.

The NYX HD concealer is not one of those formulas where you have to work super fast to blend it in before it sets and dries on you, you have plenty of time to play around with it. I personally find the NYX HD concealer really easy to work with, no need to faff around, just apply and blend. I actually like using a brush for everyday light application and it blends in nicely. Like I mentioned it’s quite skin like in finish and does exude a slight skin like radiance. Skin texture being my biggest pet peeve I also find it doesn’t exaggerate my skin texture too bad rather it gives me a smooth undetectable finish which is a major bonus!

Coverage

I would say it's medium to medium/full, definitely buildable. What I sometimes do is let the concealer sit on my skin for a while to let it dry up a little before I blend it in, this gives me a little more fuller coverage, I’ve seen a lot of YouTuber’s do this and it works really well with this concealer. I love that this gives me coverage yet looks really natural, there’s been a few times where people have asked me if and what I have on my skin because it makes my skin look naturally even. I prefer my makeup to look as undetectable as possible and this gives me just that.

Longevity

The NYX HD concealer isn’t the most long lasting formula but on myself once set with powder it does stay on a decent while. I have quite creasy under eyes so I always have to set with powder. For me personally it's a decent everyday concealer and performs how I want it to. It's not very heavy duty but great for everyday light makeup.

Overall Thoughts

I think the fact that I've repurchased this so many times shows how much I adore it. I do think there's always room for improvement when it comes to shades and definitely packaging with this one but other than that for the price and performance it's great! If you're after a lightweight, easy to use concealer and you're on a budget definitely give this a go, you won't lose that much if it doesn't work out for you. Anyway I hope this was helpful, thanks for reading guys!