Last Updated on March 30, 2025 by Giorgia Guazzarotti
In the past few months, we talked about pink, yellow and orange color corrective concealers. It’s now time to find out what purple concealers do.
As usual, to understand how this color can be used to hide imperfections on your face, we have to refer to the colour wheel.
If you’re read the previous posts, you’ll know that to counteract a color you need to use the one opposite it on the colour wheel and purple is just opposite of yellow.
Wait, What Is Purple Concealer?
Let’s back up for a sec. If you’ve never used one before, you might be thinking, “Why would I put purple on my face?”
Fair question.
A purple concealer is a colour-correcting concealer that comes in shades like lilac, violet, or lavender. Its job is to cancel out any yellow or dull tones in your skin. And don’t worry, you’re not going to end up looking like a cartoon character. Once it’s blended out properly, it disappears and just leaves your skin looking fresh and bright.
You can find it in both concealer and primer form. Primers are usually more sheer and meant for all-over use, while concealers are more pigmented and great for targeting specific areas.
What Are The Benefits Of Purple Concealer?
Unlike green or pink concealers, purple concealers only have one job – and they do it well. Purple concealer counteracts and brightens sallow skin.
If you have any sallow tones or yellow discoloration in your skin, then purple (in all its range of hues from lilac to mauve) concealers or primers, are your best friends. They help counteract and hide them, evening out the skin tone and giving it a healthy appearance.
In addition, if you have olive-toned skin, then purple concealers will brighten up your skintone beautifully and naturally. Just apply a small amount when needed, set with powder and you’re good to go.
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How Do You Use It Without It Looking… Purple?
Here’s how to make it work:
- Start with moisturised skin
- Dab a little purple concealer on the areas that look dull or yellow (like around your mouth, forehead, or even under your eyes)
- Blend it out with a damp sponge or brush until the colour melts into your skin
- Let it sit for a sec, then go in with your regular foundation and concealer
- Finish with powder so it all stays put
That’s it. No special tools, no crazy tricks. Just a little colour magic.
Should You Use Purple Concealer?
If your skin leans yellow, looks dull or sallow, or just needs a pick-me-up, purple concealer might be the missing step in your routine. It’s especially good for olive skin tones that sometimes need a bit of brightening.
But if your skin has more pink, red, or peach undertones, it might not do much for you. In that case, you’re better off with something like green (for redness) or peach/orange (for dark circles).
What Are The Best Purple Concealers?
- L.A. Girl HD Pro Corrector Concealer in Lavender ($5.49): Available at Ulta
- Tarte Shape Tape Corrector in Lavender ($32.00): Available at Tarte and Ulta
Have you ever used purple concealers or primers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The Bottom Line
Purple concealer isn’t something you need every day, but when your skin’s looking a little meh or leaning yellow, it can make a big difference. It’s one of those products that quietly does its job and just makes everything else sit better. Easy to use, kind of underrated, and honestly… nice to have around for those blah-skin days.
Purple? Oh man… I just started using beige concealer again. The prospect of purple is scary. But since I don’t have any yellow patches, I don’t really need to worry about it, huh?
Trisha, purple is a scary shade indeed! But there’s no need to use it if one doesn’t have yellow patches, so no worries. 😉
I’ve always wanted to try purple concealer to brighten up my dull skin, but its just the fact that its purple I’m afraid if I overdue it, I’ll look like a grape, haha. Nice post as always Gio!
Dee, purple concealers aren’t too pigmented so you shouldn’t have too many problems with them. But yeah, it is a weird color to apply on the face and I can see why you’re hesitant, I’d be too lol. But if you wanna try it, you can also buy a concealer palette so even if the purple one shouldn’t work for you, you can always still use the other shades and won’t have wasted money. 🙂
I will do that, thank you for the tips! Do you know of a good concealer wheel by any chance?
Dee, you’re welcome. I know MUFE makes great concealer palettes. They are called 5 Camouflage Cream Palettes and 2 of them contain a purple shade. It is pricey but the quality is good. I know Sephora also makes a concealer palette. It costs $20 but the coverage is sheerer than that provided by the MUFE palette.
Say what!??
I’ve always steered away from weird coloured concealers because of lack of knowledge on how to properly use them or what function they serve.
Really should brush up on Concealer 101. 😉
P.S. Hi Gio, how are you? Hope things are going well 😀
Mary
Mary, some concealers colors are weird indeed! Luckuly most people only need flesh-tones ones to cover imperfections.
I’m fine, thanks and I hope you are well too. 🙂
Haven’t used any purple ones till yet.
But after reading how it can helps for shallow skin tones I think it would be definitely the right choice to go for.
LatestGirl, if you have any yellow tones in your skin, purple concealers can hide them very well. They’d be a great choice!
Much easier and with a spectacular result in brightening a sallow olive skintone is a slight dusting of lavender finishing dust just before blush.
As my skin has mixed undertones, I found that a primer with a slight blue-lavender hint of color does wonders for my look: lessens redness (not so much as green, but without the risk of overapplying and looking ill) and makes my skintone look almost the same, but brighter. A very light pink powder can work too, but only in days when I don’t have excessive redness.
So, this great advice you gave about concealers is also good for primers and finishing powders with a hint of an unusual colour.
Tgz, you’re absolutely right. Finishing powders and primers in a purple shade work very well too. And they are usually sheerer than concealer so they’re easier to apply and get a more natural result. I’m glad they work well for you. 🙂
I hope you can give me some advice on picking the right colour corrector primer.
I have asian skin (yellow undertones) and in the past i’ve been using a lilac complexion enhancer to cancel out the sallowness in my skinton. It worked fine for my skin and made me look alive and brighter.
But now recently i have started to notice that my skin colour has started to go abit orange which is making me look dull. When i use the lilac primer it doesn’t really brighten up my face anymore like it used to.
So as my skin colour has gone abit orange would i need to use a Blue primer (such as the one from Make up Forever) to cancel out the orange tones OR would i need to stick to a yellow coloured primer to bring some yellow colour back into my skin.
I’m confused on whether i should buy a blue or yellow primer? What do you suggest?
I also noticed that recently kim kardashian posted a picture of herself wearing a yellow primer to give her a brightened look as her skin tone is on the warm/tanned orange side.
What todo?…..
Glittergirl, it really depends on what you wanna use it for. If you wanna neutralize the orange tones in your skin, then go for a blue concealer. If instead, you just want to brighten your complexion and add some warmth to it, yellow would be a better option. Hope this helps.
This colour corrector thing has totally thrown me off this time , it was so much easier when i was really yellow skinned and sallow because i would just put on a lilac coloured primer and it would instantly brighten up my face.
But now that my skin colour on my face has turned abit orange i’m not really sure what colour to add to make me look normal again. I hope the Blue wont turn me green if mixed with my yellow undertones.
or on the underhand I know that blue and orange mixed together on the colour wheel makes brown so i hope it wouldn’t make the orange tinge on my face look even more dull brown. Thats why i thought perhaps i should stay with the yellow primer.
and i have no idea what a pink primer would do!
Glittergirl, this coloured primer thing can be really confusing at first, can’t it? It seems to me that what you want is to brighten your complexion, so I would go with the yellow primer.
Blue primer is more for cancelling out a colour. Like when you apply fake tan and it goes on patchy, you apply a layer of blue primer on the darker areas to make them less noticeable.
Pink concealers can be used to brighten the complexion too. But if you’re in doubt, I would try and ask for a sample of several colour concealers so you can see which one works best for you.
I am a african-American I have a yellow patch on both side of my mouth I want to kno what color conclear can I use because the yellow patch is 3 times my skin color I am a nc 45 in Mac
Linda, I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I would recommend you use a concealer or foundation shade that matches exactly your skintone. If that’s not enough, try applying a layer of purple concealer underneath.
The light area is 3x lighter my skin color when I wear makeup u can still see it I try use in a conclear my skin color but it still does not help I order a lavander conclear and I tried it and I can still see the light area it I don’t know what I’m doing wrong
Linda, if you’re using a concealer that exactly matches your skintone, you shouldn’t be able to see the discolouration anymore. I’d suggest trying a more pigmented formula such as Cover FX foundations and concealers.
I recently started using Neutorgena Pure and Free sunscreen. It leaves a bluish cast. But after in a few mins I notice it makes my skin look great. I have sallow skin with some rosacea.
Purple is just red+blue. Green is just yellow+blue. So don’t be afraid if purple lol!
Mary, I had never heard of a sunscreen that leaves a bluish cast before. How odd! Glad it works well for you. 🙂
I have olive skin tone and occasionally seems to look real yellow. When I put on my make up even when I use a highlighter I seem to look blah after a few hours. It is like the brightness fades in and the olive/yellow is back to dominate. I do not want to change my skin color because I do love olive skin but just need to brighten. Would the lavender concealer work as a good highlighter for me as well as a concealer?
Nancy, yes, I believe it could work as a highlighter too. 🙂