Readers Ask: Dear Lucky

A: Makeup artists often give the deeply unhelpful and uncheering advice that everyone can see it anyway so why try to cover it up? Bear in mind that these are people who spend their days creating images that end up getting photoshopped, so they don’t ever actually have to worry about covering anything up—they know it’s going to get erased anyway. Plus, I’ve been on a zillion shoots; I still have yet to see acne go unconcealed at one. So there: Let’s ignore them. That said, you want to do as little as possible. Too much concealer on a breakout can act as a highlighter, playing up precisely what you want to play down.

I like dry. Any wetness or oiliness to the concealer and it’s going to migrate elsewhere after about five minutes, so you’ll spend the day stressing and reapplying—i.e., in a pit of despair. Bobbi Brown makes a thin concealer stick that I carry everywhere because it is dry, dry, dry, and it is the perfect shape: You swipe it on, you pat gently to blend—and then you twirl confidently away from the mirror and into your life a clearer-skinned person. I also love this tinted powder from Bare Escentuals, which you brush on; it’s drier than dry, and it treats the acne as it conceals. (It is—for me anyway—most definitely an apply-this-at-home item yet well worth the effort. But bring the Bobbi Brown in your bag.)