Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Concealer - Review

A bit ago, I reviewed EL's Double Wear Light foundation, as I had purchased a kit that included a full size Double Wear Light, a deluxe mini-sized tube of the matching concealer, and some other goodies. Because I had requested the foundation in Intensity 1.0, I received the concealer in light.

If purchased alone, this concealer retails for $20.00, and is available anywhere you find Estee Lauder. It's packaged in a tube with a doe-foot applicator, and really reminds me of the MAC Select Moisturecover concealer in many ways (other than the actual product, which we'll get to in a minute). The claims made on this concealer are:

For a flawless look with 15-hour staying power.Conceals flaws and corrects the look of undereye circles, dark spots and discolorations.Transfer-resistant, color-true formula provides medium to full coverage that won't slip, slide or melt away. Feels lightweight, comfortable.Easy-to-use wand applicator.

15 hours? Really? I can't speak to that, but I can say it lasted all day (about 10 hours) on my under eyes, and seemed to last a decent length of time elsewhere on my face. It also covered very, very well. It provides medium-full coverage. I didn't notice this concealer interfering with my foundation (ie, no patchiness or odd textures when my foundation was over it). It didn't seem to oxidize on me, which is always nice, and appeared to have a "natural" finish, not matte, not shiny.

Sounds good, right? Well, it would've been great, except it's not the right color. It's too dark, and a bit orange-ish. As I've previously noted, I am a light NC15 (if such a beast were to exist, I'd probably be a NC12.5). I'd probably recommend this to a dark NC15-light NC20. It looked really obvious under my eyes (where I'm the palest), and although it's easy to blend, I just couldn't get it to work for me. Light is the lightest shade this concealer is available in, so I can't try to find a better match in the line, either.

Overall, I'd recommend this for those of you who are a shade darker than I, because it is a really nice concealer, but if you're fair-skinned, this may not work out for you.