I have insomnia and this affordable concealer brightens my face even on the dullest of days

As someone who often experiences bouts of insomnia, I rely on my beauty products to help me appear less tired. I throw everything at the problem - my best eye cream for dark circles, face masks guaranteed to give me glow and I keep my best concealer on me at all times. 

My concealer goes into overtime at this point, so I always use a formula that can do a lot - covers areas of redness and blemishes, but also works to brighten my dark under-eye circles from lack of sleep. 

The problem is that many of the formulas I've tried that do all of this are rather pricey, so finding a hardworking, all-doing high street concealer that's affordable is a definite challenge. 

Luckily, the NYX Bare With Me Concealer has been serving me well – here's why.

NYX Bare With Me Concealer: the details

NYX's concealer works on camouflaging the areas you want hidden, whilst also adding luminosity. In other words, you can use it on several areas of the face.

What's unique about Bare With Me is that it's formulated like a serum with skincare ingredients, which makes it a brilliant skincare make-up hybrid. It's powered by tremella mushroom, cica and green tea extract; all of which are brilliant at soothing and calming skin.

Texture-wise, this feels creamy and blendable, sinking into skin easily. I sometimes struggle to find concealers that effectively blend to hide spots rather than actually draw more attention to them, and this is elite. 

As a beauty editor, one of the things that I have learnt over the years and that I always reiterate to friends and readers is that coverage and formula is key with concealers. Regardless of how much you need to cover, a light-medium coverage formula that can be built up is far better than a very heavy coverage formula worn in one layer. Unless done right, high coverage buys can make skin dry and attract more attention to those areas we wish to hide. 

The NYX concealer has a medium coverage, but one that feels featherlight and plays on the 'less is more' makeup trend. It is buildable, depending on how much coverage you need for different areas of the face. 

How I use the NYX concealer

You can of course use NYX's concealer in the most obvious ways. For example, I reach for it to hide bothersome blemishes I want to detract attention from. I usually apply this onto the spot, wait a little (often moving onto my eye make-up) to let it set, then blend with a small, dense brush. 

I also use it under my eyes, applying delicately with my ring finger, in light patting motions to blend. If my dark circles are particularly bad one day, I sometimes apply a thin layer of under-eye brightening corrector first. Thankfully, this concealer works beautifully on top too. 

But I've been using this concealer in a completely different way. Because of it's serum-like hydrating formula, the brand says it works well as an all-over base too. Which is what I've been doing. And I have been pleasantly surprised. It has added brightness to my dull skin that I normally can only achieve using an illuminating primer. 

I'd never really been into the whole 'concealer as foundation' trend before, but this has helped me to turn the corner. I used it in the picture above instead of a base, and before my bronzer, blusher and highlighter for all-over bright coverage. Dab it on and blend, as shown in the video above.

The formula is an absolute steal at just over £10, depending on where you buy it, meaning you get the ultimate bang for your buck. However, my one complaint is that it is in need of a shade extension - the current 13 is not good enough.