For almost as long as I’ve been wearing makeup, I’ve been using NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer to tone down my dark circles. I started in 2014 with Vanilla, which at the time was the second-lightest shade, and switched to Chantilly, the lightest shade, a few years ago. Because Vanilla had a slight peach undertone, it was more effective than Chantilly at canceling out the purplish pigmentation under my eyes, but it was too dark and warm-toned for the rest of my face. I realized that if I wanted effective spot concealing and effective undereye concealing, I’d have to buy and carry around two different concealers, and I was simply too cheap and lazy for that. So I made do with only Chantilly until late November, when I lost my tube a few days before my partner and I were to go on a weeklong Thanksgiving vacation with his family.

If I were a stronger person, this would be the tale of how a happy accident forced me to abandon concealer and embrace the twin abysses under my eyes. Instead, it’s the tale of how, the evening before my flight, I walked to the vaguely creepy CVS a mile from my building and frantically combed the picked-over shelves for anything close to my skin tone (drugstore shade ranges still seem to favor tanned white people), not already tampered with, and under fifteen dollars (when did L’Oreal get so expensive?!). At last I found a $7 e.l.f. concealer in a shade that looked like a decent match. Its name, “16HR Camo Concealer,” suggested that it was on the dry and matte side, and I’d been searching for something more hydrating and luminous. However, it was clearly the best option at that CVS, so I paid and got the hell out of there before nightfall.

As you may have guessed from the fact of my rousing myself to write my first post in a month, I was favorably impressed by the Camo Concealer. In fact, I liked it so much that I didn’t even bother buying a new Radiant Creamy Concealer during NARS’ Black Friday sale. A find of this caliber deserves to be shared with the world.

Let’s start with the negatives. I like the packaging much less than I like the formula (though I’m glad it’s not the other way around). The e.l.f. concealer delivers the same amount of product as the NARS concealer does—6 milliliters—but the tube is much thicker and heavier. The real issue for me, though, is the doefoot applicator. It’s enormous, and it has a large indentation to pick up extra product. Since this concealer is so pigmented, I need to dot on a little bit at a time, and the applicator makes that very difficult. I can’t help missing the dainty doefoot of the NARS RCC.

This shade, Light Sand, is described on e.l.f.’s website as “light with neutral undertones,” which seems pretty accurate to me, though the swatch of Light Sand on the website makes it look darker and warmer than it does IRL. If memory serves, Light Sand is a little lighter than NARS Vanilla and a little darker than Chantilly. Here it is swatched on my forearm:

The 16HR Camo Concealer formula is clearly modeled on that of Tarte Shape Tape, a concealer that let me down six or seven years ago. (e.l.f.’s Hydrating Camo Concealer looks like a deliberate dupe of NARS RCC, but that one wasn’t in stock at CVS.) When I tried Shape Tape on my dark circles back in 2017 or so, I found that it became cakey under my eyes and sank into my fine lines. Those lines have only become more prominent since 2017, so I wasn’t optimistic about the 16HR Camo Concealer, but the formula actually blends out smoothly without emphasizing my skin texture.

All this blather is useless without photos, so here are some! First, my dark circles with no concealer at all:

Here I am this morning (just after waking up and just before running out for donuts: excuse my dishevelment), wearing Light Sand under my right eye, with no other makeup but a tinted lip balm. I think you’ll agree there’s a significant difference:

Finally, my completed face, featuring MAC Shadeshifter Duochrome eyeshadow in Right Before Your Eyes!, Glossier Cloud Paint in Haze, NYX Butter Gloss in Cranberry Pie, and festive ornament earrings from Rather Keen. The concealer’s finish is matte, just as advertised, but it doesn’t look flat—there’s a slight skin-like luminosity to it.

As its name implies, this concealer supposedly “stays put for 16 hours straight.” Though I never leave my makeup on that long, I can confirm that the concealer does last eight to ten hours (which my NARS concealer did not) without getting cakey or textured. Here it is after ten hours—it’s faded, to be sure, but in far better condition than my mascara or eyeliner:

Writing this review has made me reflect on how far drugstore makeup has come since I started my makeup journey in 2010. I have no doubt that there are some bad drugstore concealers out there, but I’m still astonished that I could walk into a CVS, choose a concealer essentially at random, and end up with a new favorite.