In 1770, the English chemist Joseph Priestley suggested calling the gum caoutchouc by a new name, rubber, because it could rub out pencil marks. Until then, people had been using bread crumbs. Somebody looked at a smudge and a soft, springy material and saw the fix. It has been the same idea ever since.

The Instant Age Rewind Eraser is that idea for the shadows under your eyes, and I think it is the reason a Maybelline concealer is still in half the makeup bags I know. The brand itself started as a fix. It was founded in Chicago in 1915 by the pharmacist Thomas Lyle Williams, who watched his sister Mabel darken her lashes with Vaseline and coal dust. It has been a L'Oréal company since 1996 and is based in New York. A brand born from a kitchen table experiment keeps making problem-solving basics, and that is what I want from a concealer.

Maybelline describes the Eraser as medium coverage with a moisturizing finish and up to 12 hours of wear, infused with goji berry and Haloxyl and applied with a sponge tip. Allure named it a Best of Beauty winner and praised the thin, pigmented formula, while noting that the extras are welcome and you should not ditch your eye cream. I agree with all of that.

The trick is to choose by texture. The Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment Concealer is the hydrating one for the eye area. The Fit Me Natural Finish Concealer is the easy everyday one, and the Lifter Serum Concealer is the serum-style choice. On the foundation side, the Fit Me Matte + Poreless Liquid Foundation, Super Stay 24H Skin Tint + Vitamin C, the Lumi-Matte longwear formula and the Lifter Plump & Glow Foundation give you a match for each mood.

One rule for under-eye concealer: use less than you think, and put it only where the shadow is. A dot in the inner corner and one at the outer edge, tapped out with a finger or a sponge, does more than a stripe across the whole lid.

The hydrating group is where the texture gets nicer. Tower 28's Swipe All-Over Hydrating Serum Concealer promises 18 hours of wear. Givenchy's Prisme Libre Skin-Caring 24H Hydrating + Radiant + Correcting Creamy concealer packs three jobs into a name, and Armani Beauty's Luminous Silk Hydrating Face and Under-Eye Concealer is meant for both places in its title. Haus Labs' Triclone Skin Tech Hydrating + De-puffing Concealer is the one for mornings when your face looks slept on.

REFY's Brightening and Blurring Serum Concealer with Plant-Derived Squalene and Laura Mercier's Real Flawless Weightless Perfecting Serum Concealer are the two serum-style ones I would compare side by side. Danessa Myricks Beauty's Yummy Skin Lift & Flex Hydrating Concealer comes with hyaluronic acid, and Rare Beauty's Liquid Touch Brightening Concealer is the one I would reach for when I want a quick lift.

A pairing I like: your usual eye cream, wait a minute, then one of these. Allure said not to ditch the cream, and I would not either.

What I would skip: a dewy brightening concealer on a blemish. It is built for the eye area and will only slide off a spot.

Try this: put two concealers next to each other in daylight, one on each side of the same inner corner. Look at both in a bathroom window after ten minutes. The one that has not creased or gone orange is the one to keep.

L'Oréal Paris has three worth knowing: the Infallible Full Wear Waterproof Concealer, the True Match Radiant Serum Concealer and the Infallible Skin Ink 2-in-1 Foundation Concealer. The last one is for people who would like to buy one bottle and be finished. Kylie Cosmetics' Power Plush Longwear Concealer and Laura Geller's The Ideal Fix Concealer are the longwear options, and Morphe's Wakeup Artist Under Eye Correcting Concealer says right in its name that it is for the under eye.

Sephora Collection has two Best Skin Ever concealers with different jobs: the Multi-Use Hydrating Glow Concealer for a soft look and the Ultra Slim Precision Concealer for small, exact placement, like a blemish or the corner of a nostril.

A pairing I like: the Best Skin Ever Precision on spots and the Maybelline Eraser under the eyes. Two tools, each one doing the job it is built for.

What I would skip: trying to make one concealer do the eyes, the nose, the chin and a spot. It rarely can.

A habit worth borrowing: press powder in, do not sweep it. Use a small puff or a soft brush, tap it under the eye, and let it sit for a minute before you touch anything else.

Maybelline has three powders that pair with the concealers in the first grid. The Fit Me Loose Finishing Powder is a loose finishing powder, the Lasting Fix Banana Translucent Setting Powder is the one with the name that people already know, and the Fit Me Matte + Poreless Powder is the pressed one for a bag. L'Oréal Paris's Infallible Blur-Fection Longwear Loose Setting Powder is a loose option with a blurring promise.

Kylie Cosmetics' Setting Powder, IT Cosmetics' Bye Bye Pores Translucent Pressed Setting Powder and ILIA's Soft Focus Setting Powder cover the translucent side, while Rare Beauty's Always an Optimist Soft Radiance Setting Powder is the softer, more glowing option.

A pairing I like: a banana-toned powder only under the eyes and a translucent one over the rest of the face. The yellow tone can brighten, and the translucent one leaves you alone.

What I would skip: setting a hydrating concealer with a heavy matte powder on very dry days. Use the soft radiance one, or nothing.

I think the Eraser is the concealer I would keep in a drawer for years. It has a sponge tip, a thin formula and a name that says exactly what you want it to do, which is rare in a makeup bag.

Start with your shade, add the Neutralizer if you have deep shadows, and set it lightly. Give it a week of real mornings before you judge it, and check it at lunch in a window. Priestley swapped bread crumbs for a better eraser. You can do the same with a smudge under your eye. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Maybelline Mascara Sky High, Lined Up Against Lancôme, Prada and Rare Beauty and Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink, From Mabel's Lashes to Your Lips.