by BR Kellie
Back in the days when I was a Beauty Review member, there was one Beauty Review saying that caught my eye and stuck with me: It's a crime not to prime.
Having never primed a day in my life, but being thoroughly obsessed with all things makeup, I began my search to find my favourite primer. The one that would blur and hydrate and smooth and give me the look of my then-baby's super soft, super silky skin. Reader: I was asking for the impossible, however that did not stop me looking, and I long ago settled on hydrating primers as being the best for my face. My eyes though? Applying primer on my peepers? I just didn't see the point.
Turns out I was blind to the truth.
In what could be only described as a gentle nudge from the universe, recently during a declutter I discovered two eye primers. Both ignored, both unopened... both daring me to prime my eyes, to give it a go, to prove myself right...or wrong.
Not one to ignore a dare, I cracked open the first of the eye primers, popped it on, let it set, then applied my usual eyeshadows. Here's what happened:
My eyeshadow stayed in place. ALL DAY. The colours remained vibrant. There was minimal shadow migration. The shadows did not blend together to become a muddy shadow soup.
For those who have drier lids, or non-hooded lids, this might be the norm. For me? A lass with barely any lid space (albeit loads of under-brow space), oily lids, and the ability to have her eye makeup look like she's been out dancing all night even though she applied it at 7.30am and it's now 10am, this was a revelation.
The problem? Said eye primer was a sample from NARS, and the full size version costs $44 a tube - that's if you can find it. It's out of stock everywhere I've looked on line.
Thankfully, I had the other tube of eye primer sitting around. This one from TheBalm. Much like the NARS eye primer, it had a silky consistency that dried down nicely. Much like my previous experience, my pretty lilac shade of shadow with a hint of sparkle did not migrate into my crease, it did not disappear into thin air, it stuck around all day! One hitch: it's no longer available to buy in New Zealand.
What's a girl to do? Go drugstore. Just to see if I could save a few dollars while also living my best eyeshadow application life. Enter Rimmel Magnif'eyes Eye Primer. A bargain at $14.99.
My thoughts? It was tackier to apply, it didn't dry down as well as the other two, and you did have to work harder when blending out as the primer caught and held the colour... BUT... dare I say it? The pigment had more pop AND it managed to stick around even better throughout the day.
My takeaway? The unexpected truth about eye primer? It works. My goodness, it works. All of it. All three I tried, anyway. Where once I found myself spending loads to discover tonnes of face priming fails, my experience with eye primer has instilled in me once again that it truly is a crime not to prime!
So, my eyeshadow loving beauties, do tell... Do you use eye primer? And if so, what's your favourite brand? If not...Are you tempted to now give it a go? Get chatting below!
I bought a milani one recently.