The Product You Didn't Know You Needed
Last spring, I made a desperate, early-morning run to Sephora on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. What I walked out with surprised me: a bright orange lip liner.
I was in New York City for the weekend to run the More/Shape Half-Marathon, and I squeezed in a visit to my dermatologist, Dr. Neal Schultz (priorities!). We did the usual: a glycolic peel and Botox. But then he suggested it might be time for filler in my nasoloabial folds. (Sidenote: Those folds are the faint parentheses on either side of your mouth; subtly plumping them with filler like Juvederm can give your mouth’s outer corners a little lift.) I agreed. The injections were no big deal (Dr. S is a master injector), and I was good-to-go after ten minutes of icing. I was also instructed not to exercise or bend over for the duration of the afternoon to prevent migration of the Botox and filler. I didn’t listen. I went for a three-mile run, shoe shopping and met two different friends for cocktails.
The next morning, I awoke to the mother of all bruises beside my mouth. I dug into my tube of Beneft Fakeup Hydrating Concealer and spackled it on, in a vain attempt to diminish the blue-green horror. I’d brought this concealer to New York specifically because of its sheerness, figuring I’d want to look good for post-race photos—but not want to sweat through heavy makeup for 13.1 miles. Alas, this (otherwise great) product was not up to the task. So I pulled on a baseball hat, grabbed my sunglasses and hightailed it to the Sephora around the corner from my hotel.
Inside, I meandered around, using cotton swabs to paint on the heaviest concealers I could find. But nothing could camouflage that green monster. Finally, a salesperson came up and asked if she could help. I pointed at the bruise. She told me she’d be back with a makeup artist. This was a job for a professional.
The makeup artist returned and was nonplussed at what she saw. “Honey, I see injection bruises five times a day. This is Manhattan.” She led me to the Makeup Forever kiosk and pulled a deep orange, waterproof lip liner from the display, Aqua Lip in 17C Bright Orange ($24; sephora.com). She scribbled the orange pencil over the bruise, showed me what that looked like in a mirror (um, insane), then walked me over to the Benefit Cosmetics display and pulled out the same Fakeup I had back at the hotel. She used a small brush to lightly dab the concealer over the orange, while I watched in a handheld mirror as the bruise disappeared. Gone. Like-it-was-never-there gone. Incredible.
She explained that the orange canceled out the intensity of the blue-green, allowing any skin-colored concealer (even a sheer one) to make the bruise blend in with the rest of my face. I'm not sure I would have believed this had I not seen it with my own eyes. But it worked.
I promptly purchased that liner, and it kept me covered for two hours while I raced the next day. It also came in handy hiding leg bruises over the summer (am I the only one who bumps into the bed every time I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom?). Next time, I will try to listen to Dr. Schultz when he tells me what not to do. But I'll also pack my orange lipliner in case cocktails or a Flywheel class win out.
