Concealer Shade Matcher & Dupe
MAC NC42 → Fenty, NARS, Maybelline, e.l.f. Find your concealer in any brand.
Pick a brand + shade above to see cross-brand concealer equivalents.
What this does
Concealer is the product people most want to dupe — a $30 NARS Radiant Creamy or Fenty Pro Filt'r does the same daily job as a $9 e.l.f. Hydrating Camo or Maybelline Instant Age Rewind, if you can find the matching shade. The problem is every brand names shades differently: MAC uses NC/NW, Fenty uses numbers, NARS uses named shades. The Concealer Shade Matcher gives you a curated cross-brand lookup — pick your current shade, see equivalents across major brands ordered by closeness, with drugstore dupes flagged.
This is curated mapping, not AI doing color theory at runtime. Matches are built from swatch comparisons and undertone descriptions, and labeled exact, close, or best available so you know when to swatch before buying. One honest note: most people size concealer about a shade lighter than their foundation for under-eye brightening — so treat these like-for-like depth matches as a starting point.
What you'll get
- Your concealer shade matched across 5+ major brands
- Drugstore dupes (e.l.f., Maybelline) flagged explicitly
- Confidence indicator — exact, close, or "best available"
- Direct shop links to each matched product
Try it with
- MAC NC42
- Fenty 290
- NARS Custard
- Maybelline Sand
How to find your concealer shade in another brand
Concealer conversion has one extra variable that foundation does not: purpose. The same person often wears two concealer shades — one about a shade lighter than their foundation for under-eye brightening, and one matched exactly to foundation for blemishes and redness. Before converting a shade across brands, decide which of those two jobs you are matching for, because the answer moves the target by a full step.
Once purpose is fixed, the method is the same as foundation: undertone first, then depth. Under-eye concealers skew warm — peach, salmon, and orange-leaning shades — because they are counteracting blue-purple shadow. That means the "correct" under-eye shade often looks aggressively orange in the tube and is still right on the face. Do not reject a match because the bullet looks wrong.
Why concealer is the most duped product in makeup
Concealer is high-frequency, low-visibility, and formula-forgiving relative to its price. A $30 NARS Radiant Creamy and a $9 e.l.f. Hydrating Camo do the same daily job for most people, and the gap between them is smaller than the gap between a $60 and a $12 foundation. That is why "dupe" searches cluster so heavily around concealer specifically.
The catch is that the shade ranges are not parallel. Drugstore concealer lines are typically shorter than their prestige counterparts and skew light — the deepest shades in a 12-shade drugstore range often stop where a prestige 30-shade range is only two-thirds through. Conversions in the deeper part of the range therefore fail more often, and this tool will tell you when the honest answer is that the cheaper brand does not make your shade.
Coverage, finish, and why the shade is only half the match
Two concealers in an identical shade can behave completely differently. A high-coverage matte formula on dry under-eyes settles into fine lines within an hour; a hydrating radiant formula on oily lids slides. When you convert a shade across brands you are matching colour, not behaviour, so check the finish description alongside the shade code.
As a rough guide: radiant and hydrating finishes suit dry or mature under-eyes and lighter coverage needs; matte and full-coverage finishes suit oily skin and blemish work. If your current concealer works and you are only switching for price, match the finish first and treat shade as the constraint — a slightly-off shade in the right finish outperforms a perfect shade in the wrong one.
Popular concealer shade conversions
Every shade below has its own page with the full cross-brand match table, undertone notes, and confidence levels.
FAQ
How accurate are concealer dupes across brands?
Concealer matching is imperfect because formulas and finishes differ. We mark each match exact, close, or best available, and flag drugstore options so you know what you are trading off.
Should my concealer match my foundation?
For under-eye, most people go about one shade lighter to brighten; for blemishes, match your foundation. Our matches are like-for-like depth — adjust from there.
Which brands are covered?
Launch coverage focuses on Fenty, MAC, NARS, Maybelline, and e.l.f. We expand the list based on requests.
From the team behind AllerNote
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