40 Days and 40 Nights of Primers

photo from mybeauty.com.tw
review by cavewoman

Sometimes I have a hard time overcoming my visually-oriented brain, and I don't fight it anymore, since I am an artist. Pretty things just lure me right in. Packaging is as important to me as what is inside the package. Girly things will grab me faster than a toddler can grab a lollipop! So, at a Sephora store in NYC in December, my eyes led my feet to the Anna Sui display, where the pretty things come in black packaging with roses, boxes in pastels with beautiful lettering and gilded edges, and stylized butterflies in delicate silhouette.

I purchased the primer untested that day, along with many other beautiful things from the Sui line.
Anna Sui Foundation Primer comes in a one-ounce squeeze tube that is matte antique gold. The product itself is a highly (and I mean very highly) rose-scented, thin and milky liquid, so fragrance-sensitive people, just be warned. Application is easy and no product gets wasted due to the ability to control just how much you want from the tube.

At first I said to myself, well, I don't see much on my face other than this sheen. It's not sticky, and it does not fill in the lines and pores like the Smashbox PhotoFinish, but it does have great light-reflecting qualities. The milkiness disappears as you smooth it on the face.

It is a very moisturizing formula and I do not need any other moisturizing product when I use this primer. Over top, my La Prairie takes on even more dewiness. The Sui primer works well to help foundation last longer, my face looked as fresh and dewy at the end of the day as it did when I finished my makeup application in the morning.

I'd recommend this product for the driest skins only, because it is a very thin but oily-feeling texture. It's shiny. Not in a metallic or frosted shine, no opalescent effect, but an oily shine. If you prefer a matte finish or even just a subtle glow or a satin finish to your foundation, maybe this isn't the one to try.

But I continue to reach for the Sui Primer, because it's so girly and it smells so pretty. The primer sits in my Anna Sui Vanity Box, a black retro-style open container that matches all of her brushes and compacts, on a table in my very retro green, pink, and black bathroom. What a pleasure to wake up and smell AND see the roses!
Rating, 7.