Beauty Clinic: How can I conceal bruises for an interview?

Q. I fell down in the street and bruised my face quite badly, particularly around my eyes, which are a fetching combo of purple and red, with an area of bright-ish yellow just for variation. I have an important interview and need to know how to conceal this please. A. Poor you. We do hope it is not too painful (arnica cream is brilliant BTW). However, we can do something to help with the colour scheme…

MAC Cosmetics have been well known for many years not just as a fantastic beauty company but also for the quality and effectiveness of their camouflage products. So we asked MAC Senior Artist Rebecca Butterworth for her step-by-step guide.

Rebecca says: ‘The two things you need to know about when covering bruises of any kind are colour correction and coverage. You need to colour correct the bruise to bring it closer to your natural skin tone before you cover it.’

You'll need three products:

• MAC Studio Conceal and Correct Palette, which comes in four shade options, choose the one closest to your natural skin tone.

• A firm bristled concealer brush: Rebecca likes the MAC 252 brush , which is large enough to cover quickly and soft enough to give a smooth professional finish.

• MAC Translucent Powder to set everything.

The MAC Studio Conceal and Correct Palette contains four shades of full coverage concealer and two shades of full coverage colour correctors - one that's pink based and the other yellow based. So you have everything you need in one place

MAC Translucent Powder Study the bruising: on purple or pink areas, brush on a small amount of the yellow-based colour corrector. In areas that are yellow or green or blue, brush on a small amount of the pink-based colour corrector. These colour correctors neutralise the unwanted tones and bring them closer to your natural skin colour.

With a small powder puff, press Translucent Powder over the top of the areas that you've corrected, brushing away any excess powder with a soft brush. This will set the correcting layer to make sure it doesn't lift up with the next step.

Using your concealer brush, dip into the four shades of concealer and start to cover the areas you've corrected. You can use the colours alone, or mix two or more: you're aiming to create a shade that exactly matches the surrounding skin. This concealer packs some serious coverage so you want to use a little bit at a time, building up thin layers until you get the coverage that you need. When you achieve that, set it all with a light dusting of the Translucent Powder.