40 Days and 40 Nights of Primers

photo from beautynewsnyc.com
review by cavewoman

Primer 1, Day 1

Annieytown and Cavewoman are obsessed with primers. We are always stopping at all the makeup counters to see if there is a primer and we are always smearing them all over our hands (and occasionally, I will try them on my face.) We are sure we need them. We talk about them. We trade opinions and experiences about them. And we have been on the search for The Perfect Primer for over a year now. It's our secret and now we are letting the world know.

Annieytown has bestowed upon me the honor of being her Beauty Editor, and I take this responsibility seriously! And so we embark on a huge undertaking, a major project, to review and opine on all things Primer. So far I have tried 24 of them. Some thin, some thick, some shimmery, some opaque, some tinted, some of everything, these primers represent.

Prefacing all of these reviews should be just a sentence or two. I have *ahem* maturing skin with large pores and extreme combination dry to oily. I don't have breakouts on my face. I'm just a girl looking for the perfect flawless complexion. And so the pursuit of perfection has led to this.

Primer 1, Day 1
To me a primer should go on smoothly (smooth is a word you'll see alot during the Primer Reviews), dry quickly, fill in little lines, pores, and imperfections, help foundation to be applied evenly and not turn color, stay on longer, and look as natural as possible. Much depends, of course, on the foundation to be applied over top, and so to be fair I will test every primer with the same foundation, La Prairie Concealer Foundation.

Number 1, rating 10, the standard by which I measure any other primer, is Smashbox Photo Finish Primer in the clear version. Packed with silicone, this translucent gel-liquid comes in a poor pump bottle or a small tube. I prefer the tube. Smashbox smooths over the skin and makes it feel like the finest silk velvet. Flakiness disappears. Pores minimize to the point of disappearing. Little crinkles and crepiness are gone. And all of this is even before foundation is applied! It dries quickly so that there isn't a delay in finishing makeup application. Foundation can be applied almost immediately, and I find that I need less foundation over the Smashbox product than I would if I were not using a primer. Foundation floats over the primer and there is no creasing, sinking into large pores, or unevenness. Foundation does not change color or wear off unevenly. It does not add weight or feel uncomfortable. This is exactly where I wanted to start with the Primer on Primers, because to me, this is the best. I have used seven bottles of this primer since I discovered it. If I found out that it were to be discontinued, I would buy cases of it. I would sell my Marc Jacobs bag in order to buy as much as I could. Yes, it's that good. And with 23 others to go, some may have come close, but none have ever equalled Smashbox. It's perfection in primer. It is the Uber-Primer. Prime-issima!

The end.