The Make Up Chronicles: Primers

Tweet

Before bricks are placed to start building a house, a good foundation is required for it to hold. Applying a perfect base before your make up is as important as that solid foundation of the house.


Today, I will be discussing the first element that makes the ‘foundation’ solid and that is the primer. Now personally I do not use primers when I do a make up for my course but I do use it occasionally on myself.


So, as you all might know (well I hope you do know)… before every make up application you need a clean slate therefore always cleanse and moisturise your face, this really does a difference, your make up will look 10 times better than if you had to put it on without having a clean face. The next step that many usually take is applying a primer in order to prepare the face for makeup.
A primer’s job is to smooth fine lines on parts of the face and helps make up go on smoother! A primer usually contains certain ingredients such as wax or silicone which bonds with the other ingredients found in your foundation, blusher etc causing them to stay put longer than before.


Women who suffer from scarring especially acne scarring can find that primers are quite useful since a primer can temporarily fill in and level the skin.
There are several forms and ways in which a primer can come in for example you can find transparent primers and even tinted primers to match your skin tone which can be used on their own without the need to apply foundation over them.

There are three types of primers:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-       <!--[endif]-->Face Primers

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-       <!--[endif]-->Eye Primers

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-       <!--[endif]-->Lip Primers

Face primers as I have already mentioned before are used in order to fill up fine lines and level the face and keep your face make up on for longer.




With regards to eye primers these are big must have if you have oily lids like myself since it helps your eye shadow to stay put and not crease also if you are using mineral eye shadows this will help you to build your eye shadow up. Also, apart from all these things you eye shadow looks brighter than if you had to apply it without primer.




Lip primers on the other hand help your lipstick appear fresher and to stay put on longer without bleeding. Also, when applying lip sticks you may note that you don’t necessarily get the same colour you are seeing in the tube since the lipstick adjusts to your natural lip colour, with the lip primer you are creating a blank slate and you will achieve the colour that you actually see in the tube.

I hope you found this review useful!!

Martina o.b.o The Fabulous Team

Martina’s Review:

Eye Primer:

As an eye primer I use the e.l.f Mineral Eye Primer. I had tried this eye primer for the same reason as before since I had heard so much good things about using an eye primer that I decided to try one so I had to decide between the Mineral and the Regular line eye primers. 

So I started looking up reviews and I saw a lot of negative comments about the regular line eye primer but people raved about the Mineral line eye primer, I honestly cannot say that the Regular Line eye primer is bad since I have never used it but what I can say is that the Mineral Eye primer is to die for!

The primer is a beige liquid consistency and is held in a small tube with a foam applicator. Again it is reasonably priced for the amount given (€ 3.50 for 4.5g/ 0.15 oz)

What e.l.f says about the product:

This gentle and completely sheer Eye shadow Primer has key vitamins A, C and E to help prevent aging and moisturizes the skin. The formula glides on easily and disappears instantly to create longer-lasting, crease-proof eye shadow. The Mineral Eye shadow Primer is designed to be used with your favourite mineral eye shadow to provide ultimate staying power for beautiful and vibrant colour that lasts. 100% mineral based with no parabens, no preservatives and no chemical dyes.

My Views on it:

I agree with the description e.l.f  says it does have a good staying power and makes your eye shadow colour more vibrant and all you need is just a little dab and you can be sure that your eye makeup will not crease!! Also this eye primer is amazing when it comes to using it with mineral eye shadow, the way the eye shadow looks and the stay put factor it has is something which will make me keep buying this product over and over again!

Lip Primer:

Denise’s review:

Eye-primer:       I have started using an eye-primer only until recently. Before, I have only put concealer and foundation over it before applying eye-shadow. Now, I’m using E.L.F mineral eye-primer. It blends easily and adsorbs fast (unless you put loads of the stuff on your eye sockets) and I really like how my eye-shadow is more long lasting.

Lip primer:     Since I am not a lipstick fan, I have never used a lip primer. I prefer using lip glosses and when applying lipsticks, I do apply a lip balm beforehand. I have just discovered just how much I the E.L.F lip stain, so might try something from the same brand. 

Stay tuned . . .

Face Primer: I don’t actually use a face primer, but I do apply Olay complete care daily UV fluid. I love this stuff. The texture is so light and doesn't feel sticky when applied on the skin.It’s also great because it has an SPF 15 and essential vitamins for the skin. I will definitely keep buying it, (it’s not that expensive, approx. €10.00), although in summer, will layer it with a higher SPF sunscreen!

So I bought the e.l.f Lip Primer and Plumper a while back since it looked innovative so I wanted to try it out! The product comes in a black sleek portable tube which has to caps on either side where one is market prime and the other is marked plump. The prime side is like a beige lipstick and when it is applied the colour is like a nude lipstick but the colour is denser whilst the plump side is like a transparent lipstick which smells a bit weird and when applied is a bit sticky. This product is €4.00 and is reasonably priced for the amount given which is Primer- 1.6g/ 0.05 oz and Plumper- 1.7g/ 0.06 oz

What e.l.f says about the product:

Achieve longer lasting lip colour and sexy plumped lips. The Primer creates a base for lip colour for no budge, no smudge pigment that lasts all day. The cinnamon scented Plumper enhances your lips with a subtle plumping tingle effect for fuller, larger looking lips.

My views on it:

At first I had no idea how I was going to use it so I tried the Primer first and put the plumper on second and the lipstick last and I hated how my lipstick appeared so before writing it off I tried using the primer first, lipstick second and plumper last. The primer was absolutely stunning since it really brought out the exact colour of the lipsticks that I wanted that before I used to write off but the plumper I wasn’t quite a fan of since it was oily in substance and although it did make my lips look plumpier I didn’t like it that much so I ended up writing it off. The primer I still use it though from time to time when I want to achieve a certain colour of the lipstick but I rarely use it because I would be constraint with time or I just forget it but I have promised myself that I will use it more.

With regards to primers these are the only primers I ever used so I cannot compare from one another.

Face Primer:

The primer I use for my face is the e.l.f Mineral Face Primer. Since I had never used primers before I didn’t know exactly what results I would get but after a long time of hearing e.l.f fans raving about this product I had to try it out for myself.

The primer in itself is a transparent gel and the amount given for the price is quite reasonable (€6.80 for 14g/ 0.49 oz)

What e.l.f says about this product:

Transform your face into a flawless and smooth canvas with the mineral Infused Face Primer. Developed to combat excess oil, flaky dryness, enlarged pores and fine lines to result in a natural and youthful looking radiance. This clear multipurpose skin primer will prepare your skin so makeup goes on evenly for a lasting finish.

My View:

The first time I used it I did the mistake of using too much of the  product which left me with an all oiled up sensation and a really red face! I didn’t really like how it felt so I ended up taking it off and didn’t try to use it again on that first time but I didn’t want to write it off that easily so I researched what others thought of it and quickly realized that you only have to apply a bit of primer. The second time around that is exactly what I did and although I still got the red face (since that always happens to me whenever I wash my face etc) it quickly calmed down and I started applying my make up, I quickly realized that my make up was going on quite smoother and some fine lines that I have primarily a little under my mouth had vanished. So I went out with my full make up and where usually I ended up appearing as if I don’t have any blusher or my foundation had magically disappeared, at the end of the night when I came back home my full make up was still there!