Best full-coverage concealer 2024: Blur, cover and brighten from just £7

The best full-coverage concealers are experts at camouflaging blemishes, hiding dark circles, and filling fine lines and wrinkles. They will also remain crease-free, offer full coverage, and revive your complexion when you need it most.

Of course, selecting the perfect shade to complement your skin type and tone (as well as having all the desired benefits) can be challenging, especially with so many options on the market.

Although each product is buildable, a full-coverage concealer will offer you similar benefits to using several other products simultaneously. It can also be used as a highlighter to brighten areas of the face and dismiss the need for foundation completely when applied to just the areas the complexion needs.

Read on to discover our selection of the best full-coverage concealers and our tried and tested reviews.

Best full-coverage concealer: At a glance: At a glance

How to choose the right concealer for you

What type of concealer do I need?

Full-coverage concealers will offer you just that when applied correctly. However, it’s not just the coverage level you should be thinking about. When searching for your new concealer, you need to consider what you’ll be using it for.

If you’re looking to cover up imperfections and conceal blemishes, you’ll need to look for a colour that will blend in seamlessly with your natural skin tone. You’ll want something that will look natural whether or not you choose to wear foundation and additional makeup.

If on the other hand, you want your concealer to shape, contour and highlight the face (which has become a popular way of using full-coverage concealers more recently) you’ll need to vary the tone slightly. If you want to highlight or brighten dark circles under the eye, look for a shade lighter than your natural skin tone.

Finally, if you’re looking to use concealer to contour, you’ll need at least two shades deeper than your natural shade, depending on how striking you like your contour to be.

How do I know what shade of concealer is right for me?

Concealer plays a crucial role in any makeup routine, and if you choose a great one, it will conceal flaws and imperfections, cover blemishes and hide dark circles to achieve a flawless and even complexion. But to achieve this, you’ll need to choose the right shade.

To choose the right makeup shade for your skin, you’ll need to determine your tone. Is it dark, medium, light or fair? To do this, find a well-lit area, such as a window, and examine your jawline. This area is often used to test shades and will give you a good idea of which one to choose.

Next, you’ll want to look at your undertone, which is the hue beneath your skin. Unlike your skin tone, the undertone remains consistent, unaffected by sun exposure or skin conditions. Here, you’ll be looking to determine whether you need a cool, neutral or warm product.

Some people test their undertones by looking at which jewellery better complements their skin tone. Silver is said to suit cool undertones, while gold is better for warm undertones.

How we test full-coverage concealer

To find the best full-coverage concealers, we tested each product on clean, bare skin. Most concealers come with an applicator for ease of use. For each application and concealer, we placed three spots of concealer under the eye and covered any blemishes or imperfections.

READ NEXT: Best concealers for dark circles

The best full-coverage concealers you can buy in 2024

1. Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Concealer: Best full-coverage concealer overall

Price when reviewed: £34 | Check price at John Lewis

Available in 22 shades, this vegan-friendly Hourglass concealer is our top pick for the best full-coverage concealer. The creamy and smooth formula is long-lasting and works hard to deliver a crease-resistant coverage that looks natural and glows upon the skin.

Despite being lightweight, this luxurious-feeling concealer effectively hides dark circles and blemishes and evens out pigmentation. It is also said to last up to 16 hours. It may be slightly more expensive than some others we’ve tested, but delivered a perfect result from only a single application. The flocked applicator ensures it goes onto the skin smoothly and without dragging, making it easy to blend in.

Due to the fact that this concealer is undetectable on the skin, there’s no need to wear any more complexion makeup. Better still, the formula is non-comedogenic (it won’t block your pores and cause blackheads) so you shouldn’t notice a cakey feeling or start to develop tiny spots if you wear it often.

Key details – Size: 6ml; Vegan: Yes

2. Sculpted by Aimee Satin Silk Longwear Concealer: Best natural finish full-coverage concealer

Price when reviewed: £16 | Check price at Boots

This concealer has a pretty impressive formula. Not only is it non-comedogenic (it won’t block your pores and cause blackheads) but it also provides antioxidant protection, contains niacinamide to lighten discolouration and stimulate collagen production and hyaluronic acid to hydrate. So, it’s no surprise that it applies wonderfully to the skin.

It may sound contradictory to look for a natural finish and full coverage, but somehow this concealer delivers that perfectly. Because of its silky finish, this concealer looks like healthy, glowing skin, yet camouflages dark circles and imperfections. It’s lightweight, but buildable and doesn’t settle into the fine lines under the eye.

An excellent concealer, this product has been recently redesigned to increase the length of the bottle which now has a longer applicator, and features a cleaner wiping-off formula in the revised leak-proof design. After using it for a whole day, this Satin Silk Longwear Concealer still sat well on the skin and continued to look great.

Key details – Size: 6ml; Vegan: Yes

3. e.l.f. Cosmetics 16hr Camo Concealer: Best affordable full-coverage concealer

Price when reviewed: £6 | Check price at Sephora

If you’re looking for an affordable yet powerful full-coverage concealer, add this e.l.f. Cosmetics product to your basket immediately. An anti-crease liquid concealer, it offers a matte finish and complete coverage that’s said to last up to an impressive 16 hours – and after trying it out, we can confirm that it lasts through a whole day of wear.

With a mixture of avocado oil and kaolin clay, the concealer adds a thick, matte coverage to blemishes and imperfections, but keeps the skin hydrated and looking fresh. However, due to its matte finish, we recommend moisturising first before applying any to avoid caking.

The e.l.f. Cosmetics shade match guarantee means you’ll easily find your perfect match – which is ideal if ordering online – with 26 different shades on offer.

Key details – Size: 6ml; Vegan: Yes

4. RMS Beauty “Un” Cover-Up Concealer: Best versatile full-coverage concealer

Price when reviewed: £38 | Check price at Free People

This 3-in-1 product functions as a concealer, colour corrector and tinted moisturiser in one. It effectively conceals dark circles, blemishes and redness while providing sheer to medium, buildable coverage across the entire face.

The concentrated cream formula is highly moisturising and doesn’t dry out on the skin, even after a whole day of wear. After testing it out, we noticed that it didn’t settle into pores or fine lines, making it look incredibly natural on the skin.

According to a consumer study, 96% of users said the RMS concealer corrects imperfections while delivering a healthy-looking, natural finish. And it does just that. Skin still feels like real skin and not like it’s been smothered in makeup, no matter how much you build up the concealer.

We found that the best way to apply this product is to use the tips of the fingers and tap it into the skin. It doesn’t drag and melts in like a moisturiser, plus there are 16 shades to choose from.

Key details – Size: 5.7ml; Vegan: No

5. Vieve Modern Radiance Concealer: Best radiant full-coverage concealer

Price when reviewed: £24 | Check price at Space NK

Vieve’s Modern Radiance Concealer is a versatile product that enhances natural beauty, offering a flawless and radiant appearance. Able to build up from medium to full coverage, this concealer effectively covers redness, blemishes, and dark circles to create a smooth yet natural-looking complexion.

Due to its radiant and lightweight formula, you can use this concealer in various ways. Whether you want to blend into the skin seamlessly to conceal, brighten under the eye or highlight with a lighter shade or a deeper tone to contour, the Vieve concealer is remarkably flexible. The precision “doe foot” applicator ensures a seamless and natural-looking finish while applying minimal product for the maximum effect.

The formula is skin-friendly, with ingredients such as hydrating hyaluronic acid and Vieve’s “Skin Thirst Relief” and “Phytoradiance” complexes to brighten the skin, lock in moisture and even the skin tone in a natural way. We found that using fingers to blur out the concealer was the most effective way to achieve a natural, full-coverage look.

Key details – Size: 6ml; Vegan: Yes

6. Maybelline Instant Anti-Age Eraser Multi-Use Concealer: Best anti-ageing full-coverage concealer

Price when reviewed: £7.99 | Check price at LookFantastic

This anti-ageing treatment concealer is the result of seven years of research and three patents. For an excellent price, it contains an impressive list of ingredients, such as goji berries and collagen to help keep the skin looking healthy and radiant. The concealer also comes in 16 shades from ‘cool ivory’ to ‘deep bronze’.

Using the sponge applicator helps to cover and conceal, fill lines and smooth the skin to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. We also found the most effective way to apply this concealer was to twist the bottle until a small amount was visible and blend upwards and outwards. With this product, it’s best to build up the level of coverage little by little to prevent the applicator sponge from dragging the makeup across the skin.

Key details – Size: 6.8ml; Vegan: No

7. Rose Inc Softlight Luminous Hydrating Concealer: Best hydrating full-coverage concealer

Price when reviewed: £23 | Check price at Space NK

The long-lasting liquid concealer formula reduces the appearance of fine lines, redness and skin discolouration, resulting in a radiant and even-toned complexion. When reading the claims from Rose Inc we were dubious about whether this concealer could live up to them.

The brand says that after a consumer study “100% of people said it concealed target areas and moisturises for up to 24 hours”, and “80% saw a decrease in complexion redness after 30 days”. We found that this concealer stays well placed on the skin after a whole day of wear and keeps it moisturised, while no redness was noticeable (no doubt thanks to the vitamin E in the formula).

Because of its great hydrating qualities (due to the added squalane and hyaluronic acid) we found that this concealer works well while used on its own – so you can wear it on those days when your skin needs a bit of a boost. Non-comedogenic, the Rose Inc concealer is skin-friendly and doesn’t clog the pores.

Key details – Size: 6ml; Vegan: Yes