Facial Primer is one of those products that many people disagree on its importance. I discovered this NYC Perfecting primer from the Allure. It received the Allure 2012 Best of Beauty award. You can imagine my excitement on finding a budget friendly primer that many Allure readers & editors loved. With a price of $3.89 at CVS I couldn’t wait to see if it lived up to its clams of evening skin tone, boosting radiance, minimized line, imperfections, dark circles and enlarged pores while smoothing and moisturizing skin. Whoo… that was a lot.
But the problem is that it doesn’t reduce the appearance of pores. The biggest thing that I don’t like about this primer is that it has a lot of shimmer in it. In my video review I joke that I could be Edward’s black sister. While the shimmer is subtle indoors, walk outside and you have something else. When squeezing the primer out of the tube you can see that it is white pearly finish that is smooth to the touch. When I first rubbed the primer into my skin, I didn’t notice anything off about it. The true test is using it on the face. By the eighth day of application I notice that my face was shimmery. The shimmers are not that obvious when you add medium or full coverage foundation. However, if you wear tinted moisturizer or sheer coverage foundation you will see the shimmers. My first thought was that the product didn’t mix completely and that the shimmers settled, but why didn’t I see them in the test swatch?
I will continue to use up the product but I will not repurchase it again because for me It doesn’t do what it says it will do and being oily it doesn’t reduce oil production (though it’s not listed as a benefit of the product).
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| Primer out of tube |
Primer rubbed into hand with light from window
Here is what the primer looks like around my eighth application. Where did the shimmer come from? They were not there for the other applications?
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While the primer shimmers are subtle in front of the mirror using
day lights; when I walk outside it can be easily seen. Again when you
apply foundation on top they disappear. I didn't notice any increase in luminosity for glow to the face when using this
primer.
CONCLUSION: If you have normal or
dry skin and want a basic bare bones product you could use this. There
was no reduction of pores or fine lines and the appearance of shimmers does not provide any
benefit to your makeup application. I personally would recommend Rimmel Fix and perfect or Black Radiance Oil control primer over this and they are only $2
more. Skip this and go for something that works.
Let me know what your experience is with
this product. There is always a chance that I simply got a bad one.
