This One Makeup Trick Makes My Zits Practically Vanish Instantly

Even if your skincare is on point and you have been blessed with great genes, zits happen. And they often pop up at the worst times (before a first date, big interview, wedding, etc.). Many of us have been covering up pimples since middle school. My go-to zit routine: Spot treat (with something way too harsh, oops) at night to dry that honker out, then dab on concealer during the day. I’ve been rinsing and repeating this process for years until I recently scrolled upon a video by one of my favorite makeup artists, Nam Vo, and had my beauty editor brain blown.

Nam Vo is best known for her mesmerizing “dewy dumpling” highlighter looks (on celeb clients, including Aimee Song, Kylie Jenner, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Chrissy Teigen), but it was this how to cover a pimple video that stopped me dead in my tracks. Turns out, I’d been doing it all wrong.

Nam Vo’s Hack for Making a Pimple Peace Out

I tried her viral trick and it actually works.

Use a darker concealer

Chances are, you are using the wrong concealer shade (I was!) to hide your zits. “Most concealers are brightening for under the eyes, but you actually want to go darker when it comes to covering a pimple,” she explains. This makes total sense. I usually use a concealer that’s a shade lighter than my skin tone so that it helps cancel out my dark circles. But that’s also the exact same concealer that I reach for to hide my pimples. And we definitely don’t want to be brightening those suckers. (BRB, I’m adding another, darker concealer to my makeup bag ASAP.)

Swipe right

Nam Vo uses a small, flat makeup brush to swipe on her concealer (she uses a matte Nars’ pot). While I’ve seen artists dab on the tiniest pinpoint, Nam Vo swipes it on multiple times—we want to hide this sucker after all.

Blend

Using a damp (this is key; never use it dry!) Beautyblender, “blend the concealer around the surrounding areas,” she says. If you only treat the zit, you can still see it, but by doing the surrounding area, you get a way more flawless finish.

Set it and forget it

Now grab a small, fluffy brush and pick up some pressed powder. Like the concealer, opt for a shade darker than you usually would (for all of those reasons listed above). Then pat the powder over the pimple and the surrounding area. Ta-da! In the video, you can see her forehead zit disappear, and when I followed her steps, I couldn’t get over how these little tweaks made such a big difference.