27 Best Tried and True Japanese and Korean Under-Eye Concealers in 2022 (Etude House, Shiseido, and More)
If Western brands aren’t cutting it for you (or if they are, but you’re living in Asia and need something cheaper), then try looking into the arsenal of Japanese and Korean concealers. There’s a lot, which is why we ordered the 27 most popular under eye concealers from Japan’s e-commerce giants and tested for the following:
- Coverage
- Longevity
- Application
Quick List - Top Japanese And Korean Under-Eye Concealers
Etude House
Coverage, Staying Power, and Application Are All on Point
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How to Choose Japanese And Korean Under-Eye Concealers
Here, we want to introduce three things you should look out for when picking out a Japanese or Korean under-eye concealer.
Determine the Kinds of Dark Circles You Have Before Picking a Shade
Broadly speaking, there are three kinds of dark circles: blue, brown, and black. The first order of business is figuring out which you have.
Blue Circles: Liven up Your Complexion With an Orange or Pink Concealer
When blood is oxygen-deprived, it turns blue–and because the skin around your eyes is so delicate, the veins show through, translating into dark circles. Overworking, sleep deprivation, stress, and hormone imbalance all negatively affect blood circulation and are often to blame for blue under eye circles.
If you get a concealer that’s tinted orange, apricot, and pink, it’ll neutralize the blue for you, effectively hiding the circles.
Brown Circles: Cover Up With Yellow or Green Color Correctors
Most brown circles can be covered with a yellowish tint, which will brighten up the skin around your eyes. If your circles are super dark, then you can try neutralizing the color with a green concealer.
Black Circles: Clear up the Shadows With a Pearly Concealer
You can try to blend the circles into the rest of your skin with a beige or ocher concealer. It also helps if there’s a bit of glitter or sheen to the product, as that’ll reflect light and disperse shadows.
Understand the Different Types of Concealers
Liquid and Cream Concealers Adhere Better to Your Under-Eyes
Liquid concealers don’t provide much coverage, but they’re easy to use. You can put them on with a sponge-tipped applicator, beauty blender, or brush–whatever your preference.
Cream concealers offer more coverage than liquid, but they still come out to a natural finish. You can often find them in a set or palette, and it’s fun to mix colors to create your perfect shade. However, you can pretty much only apply cream concealer with your fingers or a brush.
Stick Concealers Do Have Good Coverage, but Require Skill to Use
Pencil and Powder Concealers Most Likely Won’t Work on Dark Circles
Powder concealers only offer enough coverage to even out skin tone a bit. You might be able to brighten up dullness around your eyes, but they won’t work on darker circles.
Find a Concealer Formulated for Your Skin Type
For people with oily skin–if you use a powder or other oil-absorbing concealer regularly and notice that it’s been separating only around your eyes, try getting a separate, more moisturizing product for dark circles. You also may need different formulas depending on the season–a moist cream for winter, for example, and a lighter liquid for summer.
24 Best Japanese And Korean Under-Eye Concealers Ranking
Products | Image | Click to purchase | Key features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Etude House BIG Cover Concealer Skin Fit PRO | | Coverage, Staying Power, and Application Are All on Point | |
2 | MiMC Mineral Concealer | | Not Too Dense and Not Too Thin Texture Makes This Concealer a Breeze to Use | |
3 | bareMinerals BarePRO Coverage Concealer | | A Stick Concealer With a Soft and Creamy Texture | |
4 | Tv&Movie Moist Mineral Concealer UV | | Palette With Well-Chosen Colors That Leaves a Natural Finish | |
5 | BCL Kakushi Must Ultra Cover Concealer | | Works On Even Those Pesky Blue Circles | |
6 | ETVOS Mineral Concealer Palette | | Adheres to Skin and Gives You Solid Matte Coverage | |
7 | CALYPSO Magic Concealer | | Comes Out to a Lovely Color, but May Wear Off Over Time | |
8 | Shiseido SPOTSCOVER foundation | | Requires Some Mixing and Blending, but Provides Amazing Coverage | |
9 | d program Medicated Skincare & Cover Tube | | Applies like a Matte Foundation and Has a Rich Texture | |
10 | NOV Concealer | | Soft Enough to Be Used Around the Eyes, but Don’t Expect Much Coverage |
Coverage, Staying Power, and Application Are All on Point
It conformed to our skin upon application and was long-lasting. As long as you’re careful not to overapply, you won’t have to deal with creasing or caking throughout the day.
The concealer’s available in nine shades. Though none of them are very dark, you can find matches for very pale and bronzed skin, as well as both warm and cool undertones. There are even pink- and green-tinted options for any color correcting you may need to do.
Not Too Dense and Not Too Thin Texture Makes This Concealer a Breeze to Use
Even though this concealer felt light, it provided solid coverage. We applied just a single coat, and our dark circles faded significantly. It’s available in three colors–light, neutral, and tan beige–which work well on both warm and cool undertones.
A Stick Concealer With a Soft and Creamy Texture
The finish was smooth and lasted for hours; our skin always looked like skin. It also worked well for touch-ups. In fact, this concealer was so simple to use, it would be one of the first products we’d recommend to busy people or people just starting to get into makeup.
Palette With Well-Chosen Colors That Leaves a Natural Finish
Try gently tapping it into your skin. For under-eye circles, you can first color correct with either the pink or orange shade, then blend everything out with the neutral beige. The concealer came with a sponge-tipped applicator, which was easy to use, but for our eye bags and other larger areas, we preferred using either a brush or our fingers.
We also liked that it smelled of roses. It had an SPF 50+ PA++++ rating, so it’ll also protect you from the sun and hopefully prevent your circles from darkening in the future.
Works On Even Those Pesky Blue Circles
It’s available in a “light” and “natural” shade (again, remember that this product was formulated with Japanese skin in mind). Both have a subtle pearly sheen to them. If you go for the shade just a bit paler than your natural color, it’ll clear up any dullness and make your eyes shine.
Adheres to Skin and Gives You Solid Matte Coverage
It’s matte and can get cakey, so make sure you use sparingly, especially around your eyes. We found the two-way applicator convenient–the brush for blending out and the sponge for finer cover-ups.
Comes Out to a Lovely Color, but May Wear Off Over Time
You can get the concealer in salmon beige, pink beige, and yellow-beige—mix and match according to your skin tone and the type of circle you’re trying to conceal.
Requires Some Mixing and Blending, but Provides Amazing Coverage
However, this concealer is only available in two colors. C1 is pretty much a pure white, and C2 is very yellow, so it’s difficult to use just one or the other. You have to mix them and then blend everything out with foundation.
This could be your holy grail concealer, but be prepared to spend time on blending it for it to match your skin tone.
Applies like a Matte Foundation and Has a Rich Texture
It was also available in only one color—a yellowish shade that you can see in the picture. This concealer will likely only work on pale skin with a golden tint.
Soft Enough to Be Used Around the Eyes, but Don’t Expect Much Coverage
The case was compact, though the lid was a bit tough to open. If you plan to use this for touch-ups, keep in mind that you’ll either have to carry around a separate applicator or use your fingers.
There are just two colors, formulated with Japanese skin tones in mind. If you want to brighten up around your eyes, you’re meant to use the light beige; if you need something to cover pigmentation, you’re meant to use the natural.
Packaging Takes Some Getting Used to, but Concealer Fits like a Glove
It applied like a stick concealer but had the texture of liquid. Coverage was light to medium, but it came out to a smooth finish that conformed perfectly to even the delicate skin around our eyes.
It’s also a plus that medicube’s formulated for sensitive skin. The concealer’s available in light and natural beige, both of which looked good on a variety of undertones.
Comes Out to a Dewy Finish, but Still Looks Natural
Coverage was light; this concealer didn’t do anything to particularly dark circles, though the finish came out natural.
It’s available in light beige and orange-brown; the orange-brown is more for hyperpigmentation, whereas the light beige works well on dull spots and under-eye circles.
A Buttery Stick Concealer That’ll Work Well on Dry Skin
Just know that the formula was quite oily. That could spell trouble if you were hoping for something you could also use around your T-zone, but if you have dry skin that gets even drier around your eyes, then that curse becomes a blessing.
The Angled Tip Makes Application Easy
Coverage was great, so we’d recommend using this mainly on large areas (like freckles on your cheek), and then slowly tapping upwards with a beauty blender or your fingers, towards your eyes. It worked best on brown circles, which are the result of pigmentation.
Colors to Help Brighten Up Around the Eyes
The case was slim and easy to carry around. The formula was a bit dense, so staying power was great. However, be gentle and use sparingly around your eyes to avoid tugging on your skin or any creasing.
Clé de Peau BeautéCorrecteur Éclat Pour Les Yeux
Provides Decent Coverage but Isn’t Long-Wearing
You have to be especially careful around your eyes, since the skins shifts there so frequently, which means that it provides ample grounds for creasing.
It did also fade and separate over time. If you don’t mind touching up, that shouldn’t be an issue, but know that this concealer’s actually quite long and may not fit into smaller makeup pouches.
Provides Light Coverage, but is Long-Lasting and Breathable
The longevity of it impressed us. Though most thin-wearing concealers fade quickly, this one stood up to both oil and rubbing. And it’s nice knowing that at the end of the day, your makeup won’t look much different from how it did at the beginning.
Offers Decent Coverage, but Wasn’t the Easiest to Apply
CEZANNE did offer more coverage than average though. Even though it wasn’t enough to obliterate deep shadows, it managed to hide lighter eye bags. More specifically, though the light beige–the one we tested–didn’t really do anything for blue circles, it was enough for brown circles and red spots.
The Texture’s Good Enough for Eye Bags
However, while it did look natural, this concealer couldn’t do much concealing on its own. But it did fix dull patches and brighten up skin.
If you want to actually hide your dark circles, though, you’ll have to make sure you add a medium to full coverage foundation on top.
Extremely Oily Formula, but Great Coverage
We wouldn’t recommend this for oily skinned folks, especially if you plan on using this concealer on other parts of your face.
It was quite pale in color and brightened up skin. Coverage was also solid. You might be able to use this on dark circles if you have dry skin, but generally speaking, this product is better off being used as a highlighter.
A 2-Color Palette That Looks More Natural on Yellowish Skin Tones
The 2-color palette came with light and natural beige tones; the palette was simple and therefore easy enough to mix and match to our skin tone. However, the colors were both deep and rich and may stand out against pale skin.
Soft Enough to be Used Under the Eyes
However, this concealer couldn’t completely hide our dark circles. It fixed up slight dullness, and that was about it. And even if you were to try for another coat, the product would just crease and cake quickly around your expression lines.
If your circles aren’t that bad, you might be able to get some use out of this concealer if you pair it with a good foundation.
Will Brighten Up Slight Dullness On Faint Shadows Around the Eyes
It came with both a sponge-tipped and brush applicator. You could use the brush to gently lay product over your eye bags; the sponge is best for spot cover-ups.
The case itself was quite large–just something to know if you don’t like it when your makeup pouch gets too clunky.
Mix-and-Match Colors to Match Your Skin Tone
However, it went on quite thin, and while that was good news for the delicate skin around our eyes, it didn’t work on particularly dark circles.
Still, we liked how it spread and blended. It may serve you well if you use it in conjunction with a good primer and foundation–just be prepared to put in extra time in the morning.
How We Tested the Under-Eye Concealers
We gathered 27 popular Japanese and Korean under-eye concealers from various e-commerce sites and tested them for their coverage, longevity, and application.
※bareMinerals was acquired by Shiseido in 2010 and is thus included on this list.
Test ① Coverage
We painted blue and brown dots onto our arms to represent blue and brown under eye circles. We then applied concealer over the dots and looked at how much was blotted out.
We didn’t run a test on black circles—just know that when looking to cover them, you want something with a decent amount of pigmentation and luster. Concealers that work on brown circles also tend to work on black ones. Finally, we tried the concealers out on our own eye bags to see how natural it would look.
Brighter Colors Work Best Around Your Eyes
You of course want a concealer that’s close to your skin tone—but if you go just a bit lighter, you can actually achieve a more natural finish. Concealers we tested that were slightly pink and orange in color helped with dullness and brightened the skin around our eyes.
We also found that dewy concealers were more subtle than matte ones. It didn’t matter if it had pearl or glitter added to it or if it was just a naturally dewy liquid concealer–products that glimmered dispelled shadows and looked natural.
Test ② Longevity
We sprayed artificial sebum onto the products to see how much would come off. We also rubbed at each with a tissue to make sure it’d stand up to friction.
Stick Concealers are the Most Long-Lasting, but Make Sure It’s Not Too Thick
Watery liquid concealers came off with light rubbing right after application. However, if you gave them enough time to set, they tended to stand up to both oil and friction, so we’d say they’re good for dark circles.
Test ③ Application
We tried all the products out on our arms and around our eyes to see how easily they spread onto skin and if there would be any creasing. At the same time, we also considered how convenient the packaging was.
Liquid Concealer’s the Gentlest If You’re Going to Be Applying Around Your Eyes
In particular, The Saem’s Cover Perfection Tip Concealer stood out for its texture and packaging. The tube was small and easy to carry around, and the concealer spread well, so we got a lot of use out of small amounts of product.
Figuring Out How to Hide Your Under Eye Circles
Use Less or No Primer Around Your Eyes, and Work on Applying an Even Coat of Concealer
The trick is to use as little primer and foundation around your eyes as possible. If you need to build a base to help your makeup stay on, feel free too, but don’t apply directly on your eye bags; instead, blend up towards it. That’ll keep your concealer from getting cakey.
Do everything you can to get an even coat of concealer. Fingers are good makeup tools, but they do lead to uneven finishes; sponges and beauty blenders are easier to use. If you prefer brushes, just remember that they can be a bit rough on the thin skin beneath your eyes; make sure that the bristles are soft.
For a Natural Finish, Dot On Your Concealer
Just put three dots of color on any problem areas and gently blend out with a sponge. When covering dark circles, try linings the dots up around 4 millimeters below your lash line, then spread downwards. That way, your concealer won’t be too thick in any one area.
Try not to layer too much product around your eyes. If you must, then aim for specific areas–just where your blue circles are still showing through, for example, or where your brown circles are still looking dull. As before, apply one dot of color at a time.
How to Touch Up and Not Look Cakey
Instead, rid any problem areas of all residue. Face lotion or at least hand cream is best for the job, as you can care for your skin as you clear it off. By applying only onto a clean canvas, you can end the day looking as fresh as you did starting it. For this very reason, it’s a good idea to always have some lotion and cotton pads ready in your makeup bag.
Ways to Deal With Dark Circles That Don’t Involve Makeup
Concealer is a great tool, but sometimes there are days when you don't feel like using it, or don't want to have to deal with the cleanup or the harm it could do to skin.
How to Prevent Dark Circles or Keep Them From Getting Worse
There are ways to prevent dark circles from getting worse than they already are. Here, we'll go over ways to deal with all three types of under-eye circles.
Warm Up Your Body to Prevent Blue Circles
Stretch, take a bath, whatever you have to do to get your temperature up. You can also target the area around your eyes with a massage or a warm compress.
Look for Easy-to-Remove Makeup for Brown Circles
That also means looking for eye makeup that’s easy to remove (no waterproof products, as you usually have to scrub at them). Use dedicated removers so your eye makeup will slide right off.
Use Face Lotion or Eye Cream for Black Circles
Improve Blood Flow Around Your Eyes With a Hot Towel
Wet a towel and wring it so it’s not sopping. Then microwave it for 40 to 60 seconds. After testing it out on your arm and ensuring that it isn’t too hot, place it on your eyes.
After it’s cooled down, replace it with a cold towel. Once it’s warm, replace with a hot towel. This alternating between hot and cold towels works wonders for tired eyes.
Just don’t burn yourself. Make sure to test the towel against the inside of your arm; it should feel quite warm, but not scalding hot.
Looking for More J-Beauty Products?
Japan is known for its makeup and beauty product quality. If you're looking to add more items to your skincare or makeup routine, then take a look at our other articles below!
Top 5 Japanese And Korean Under-Eye Concealers
No. 1: Etude House｜BIG Cover Concealer Skin Fit PRO
No. 2: MiMC｜Mineral Concealer
No. 3: bareMinerals｜BarePRO Coverage Concealer
No. 4: Tv&Movie｜Moist Mineral Concealer UV
No. 5: BCL Kakushi Must｜Ultra Cover Concealer
View Full RankingThe descriptions of each product are referenced from content available on manufacturer, brand, and e-commerce sites.
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