For when part of you needs to go into hiding.

Every girl has her beauty “thing”–perhaps the perfect lip, the smokey eye, the gelled or shadowed brow–that she concentrates on most in her daily routine. For Real Girl, it’s concealer. “I get it,” said the lady at the Laura Mercier counter. “Concealer’s your thing.” She guided me away from the Secret Camouflage I’d been eying and toward the genius little Undercover Pot, an amalgam of two concealers and a powder that combined allow my deep under-eye circles to nearly melt away.

The two secrets to the perfect concealer are color and texture, and at least in texture, the Undercover Pot knocks all other concealers out of the ballpark. Because it’s adjustable. Like an artist with a palette, the Undercover Pot’s two concealers allow you to mix their textures until you find the exact right one. On the left, you find Laura Mercier’s award winning Secret Camouflage, and on the right is the creamier Secret Concealer, created just for the under-eye. Mixed together on a good concealer brush, the resulting combination provides impressive coverage that’s just emollient enough to melt into skin without the pasty effect of a more matte concealer. I prep my under-eye area with light moisturizer before application, which allows the brush to more easily glide the product on and blend it in.

The final step in the concealing process is to unscrew your delightful little Undercover Pot and find a hidden stash of loose setting powder. A dusting over your careful work with a small powder brush (I use a large eyeshadow one) keeps the product firmly in place, smooth and flawless. If you have dry skin, you might want to skip the powder — concealer never looks quite right on dry skin — or use it only in summer.

The Laura Mercier counter girl guided me toward color #3, a slightly darker one than I’d been using, insisting that the lighter the color the more puffy the under-eye will appear. “It’s like when you wear white,” she said. “Darker colors are more slimming.” I’m not sure if my puffy eyes have been slenderized by this closer match to my overall skin tone, but the choice was the right one, and day after day people still look at me like I’m crazy when I complain how bad my under-eye circles are. “Your nonexistant ones?” one friend asks.

Shhhh. We don’t have to tell her I’ve been living Undercover.

THE DETES

Two concealers combine for the perfect texture

Setting powder is included (a step to skip if you have dry skin)

Make sure to use a good concealer brush.