The Part of Your Face That's Making You Look Tired Is Not What You Think

And I learned the hard way.

By Lauren Valenti

May 26, 2016

I recently snapped a photo of myself in which I look I've slept all of five hours in 2016.

At first blush, I didn't understand (although it didn't help that I was smizing next to glowing Balmain god Olivier Rousteing). I'd gotten a reasonable amount of beauty sleep the night before and smoothed on plenty of concealer over my dark circles. What gave? Then, I zeroed in closer on my face, namely my eyes, and realized my problem wasn't what lies beneath. The culprit was the inner corner of my eyes, a part of my face I'd never really thought of when it came to concealing.

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Because oh my god, how am I just noticing this?—I immediately sought the expertise of celebrity makeup artist and Violet Grey brand ambassador Kira Nasrat who helped me, for lack of a better term, see the light.

"The inner corner of the eyes can make you look tired if they are red or dark," she explained. "They can make your eyes look a lot closer together if they are dark."

All with me now: 😱.

The good news is that if you, like me, have a cavernous inner eye situation, it's easy to cover up—and it calls for one of the biggest trends of the past year, strobing. Here, find three easy steps to looking more awake than ever before:

1. Color correct. If you're finding redness in the inner corners of the eye, your best bet is a green concealer (I'm obsessed with Yves Saint Laurent's new Touche Eclat Green Neutralizer) as this will cancel out the redness and thus even out your skin tone. Another nice diffusing shade is pink, as it brightens and masks darkness all at once.

2. Conceal. After color correcting, Nasrat likes to bump coverage up with a concealer, like Glossier's Stretch Concealer. "I like using a small, pointy brush for the inner corners of the eyes and applying in a gentle circular, motion. That way you get right into the zone that needs to be taken care of."

3. Strobe. "To brighten up the eyes, I like adding a slightly lighter shade of concealer in the inner corner of the eyes," she explains. "Instead of setting with a pressed or loose powder, I use a highlighter in a powder form with a subtle sheen." Her go-to? The one inside Charlotte Tilbury's Filmstar Bronze & Glow Face Sculpt and Highlight.