How To Hide a Pimple

I went to college with a woman who had a unique way of disguising her pimples.  If a pimple broke out right before a big date, she would color it brown with an eye pencil and pretend it was a beauty mark!  No matter where the pimple erupted, she just ran with it-I remember seeing her one night and thinking she was entering a Cindy Crawford lookalike contest.  If the pimple was particularly rebellious, she would apply a fake beauty mark and call it done.  I'm not sure if she ever had to explain the change come the second, third and fourth dates-knowing her, she probably didn't say a thing and didn't think twice.  But for those among us without quite as much chutzpah, follow these tips to camouflage a comedone:

1. Always use a clean cotton ball or swab or cosmetic sponge-and not your finger-when applying any product to the area around a pimple.  Using your finger might introduce germs that could lead to infection.

2. Before you apply any product, put some toner on your pimple to dry up any excess oil.
   
   
3. Once the toner is completely dry, dab concealer directly on top of your pimple.  Consider using a medicated concealer (which will contain anti-blemish ingredients such as bentonite and salicylic acid). 
4. Allow the concealer to dry, and then blend the edges of the concealer with a cosmetic sponge or cotton swab.  Alternatively you can use a makeup brush with a tiny dab of concealer on it to paint out the edges.  The point here is to soften the edges and make them less obvious.
5. Once the concealer is completely dry, use a powder brush to set it.  Loose powder is preferable to pressed powder as you can just fluff some on top with a powder brush.  You want to minimize the amount of contact you have with the pimple as contact will only irritate-and therefore redden-it further.
6. If you apply foundation around the pimple, use a foundation with a yellow base, as yellow will reduce the redness.  (The color green also counteracts red.) 
7. As tempting as it may be to try to make the pimple smaller by popping it, remember that popping a pimple is a temporary solution that can end up producing more permanent problems later (think pock marks!).  But if you really can't resist, at the very least, read How To Pop a Pimple for best results.