Welcome to Makeup Favourites Week! A couple of months ago, I did a week of skincare favourites and seeing that many of you enjoyed the mini series (thanks for the support, folks!), I thought I’d do a week of makeup favourites too. This is a round-up of my favourite makeup products thus far and it ranges from primers, foundations to eye makeup and makeup brushes. Since I get a lot of questions on what some of my makeup favourites are, I thought I’d share what they are with you.
Before I move on to the first instalment of my makeup favourites, I thought I’d give you a heads up of what you won’t be seeing in this mini series. I will not be covering concealers (hah!) bronzers, highlighters and lip products. I seldom use concealers (I hear many of you gasping there) and while I do have my favourites, I just don’t have enough to make up 10 products for that category. Bronzers and highlighters aren’t really my thing either and although I do use them from time to time, again, I don’t use enough to make up for that category. As for lip products, I’ll be doing separate mini series for that like I did for my Rudiments of Rouge mini series so I’ll save lippies for the upcoming new mini series instead.
Alrighty, enough talking, let’s get started with Day 1, and that’s my top 10 primers for the face and eyes. I don’t use face primers each time before I apply foundation but on occasion, I will use primers especially when I need my face makeup to last for many hours. As for eyeshadow primers, I never apply eyeshadows without having primer on first. My eyelids are extremely oily and eyeshadows very rarely stay on my lids for long if I don’t have primer on.
Most of these primers are long-time favourites and a couple are recent discoveries. Regardless, they’re well tried and tested to ensure my makeup stays put for hours.
Here they are in no particular order.
Garnier Perfect Blur Smoothing Base Perfector
This is a typical high-silicone primer. It goes on the skin like velvet, dries to a powdery yet non-chalky finish. This covers the enlarge pores on my nose like spackle and my foundation lasts for hours with this on. It’s an affordable primer and is comparable to many mid-range to high-end brand primers. (review here)
Face of Australia Face Base Primer
A great foundation primer without the hefty price tag. In fact, it’s the cheapest primer I’ve used and it’s one I still enjoy using because it helps foundation stay on the skin for hours without streaking or fading. This isn’t one of ’em high-silicone type of primer (even though it does contain silicone) so it wouldn’t “blur” the skin out. Nevertheless, it’s still a good primer to use and it’s something I highly recommend especially if you’re on a budget.
Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Pre-Foundation Skin Primer
This is a bit of a cheeky addition because the only reason I have this in my list of favourites is that this Napoleon Perdis primer is pretty much the same as the Face of Australia Face Base. Don’t believe me? Check out their lists of ingredients; they’re pretty much the same. The only difference is the fragrance. I have a travel-sized version of the Auto Pilot primer which I bring with me when traveling and it works swell.
Shu Uemura Tsuya Skin UV Under Base Youthful Radiance Mousse
This is a lovely foundation primer that adds radiance to the skin. Sometimes I don’t bother with foundation; I’d apply this on my skin and then a layer of BB cream or tinted moisturiser and I’m done. My skin glows when I have this on and not in the grease-pot way.
Urban Decay Primer Potion
You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t know what the ubiquitous UDPP is. This is an eyeshadow primer and a jolly good one, I must say. Whenever I have this on, my eyeshadows don’t budge. Well, most of my eyeshadows. There are a few really crappy ones that even the UDPP cannot save. 😛
Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer
This is my Holy Grail of foundation primers. It’s bloody expensive but my foundation looks damn good with this on and it stays on for hours on end. I used this for the 2 weddings I attended last year and my foundation still looked good after many hours. Even though I had a makeup artist do my makeup for one of the weddings and she used her own makeup on me, I insisted that she used this primer instead of the one she had. If you’re looking for just one makeup primer that does everything and then some, this is the one. (review here)
Nanoblur
This is one heck of an interesting primer because as far as primers go, this doesn’t go under makeup. This actually goes OVER it. As weird as it feels applying this over foundation, it actually works. My skin looks Photoshopped especially around the nose where my enlarged pores are most prominent. Like the Garnier Perfect Blur, this is also a high-silicone primer that gives the skin a velvet finish. (review here)
NARS Pro-Prime Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base
I discovered this eyeshadow primer late last year and it’s a really good one too. To be honest, I can’t decide whether I like this more or the UDPP because this too does a fine job in making my eyeshadows stay on my lids without creasing or fading. At the time of writing, the NARS Pro-Prime is easily available to me as we aren’t able to get Urban Decay in Australia yet so for now, my pick between the UDPP and the NARS Pro-Prime would be the latter due to availability.
Rimmel Fix & Perfect Primer
I really didn’t think I’d like this primer given how shockingly peachy it looks when I squeezed it out of the tube. However, when I blended it on my skin, it gives my skin a hint of a glow and my foundation looks great over it. I especially enjoy using the L’Oreal Nude Magique Eau de Teint foundation over it. I’ll go even as far as to say it’s even comparable to my favourite Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer. I know this looks shocking when swatched in store but it does a great job as a primer. (review here)
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
If I had to choose my #1 eyeshadow primer among the UDPP, NARS Pro-Prime and the Too Faced Shadow Insurance, the Too Faced Shadow Insurance wins that spot. It’s very slightly thicker than the UDPP and NARS Pro-Prime. The reason I prefer this to the other two is that there’s less wastage with this packaging. In order to get as much product out of the UDPP and NARS Pro-Prime, you have to saw the bottom of the tubes off and that’s no easy feat. The Shadow Insurance’s tube makes it easy to simply cut the bottom off with a pair of scissors to get as much product out as possible. In terms of efficacy, this gives me the same results as the other two. (review here)
L’Oreal Lumi Magique Pure Light Primer
If you want your foundation to give you that gorgeous, luminous finish without making your skin look like a grease-pot, mix a little Lumi Magique with your foundation and you’ll end up with beautiful, dewy and radiant skin. To be honest, this doesn’t do as well as the others when it comes to making my foundation last for hours. However, mixing it with foundation adds oomph to the foundation without making the skin look oily.
There you have it, my top 10 list of primers for the face and eyes. Of course, this is subject to change as I keep trying new ones out to see which ones can kick these off the list. That’s the fun part about beauty blogging! 🙂
Stay tuned to tomorrow as I share with you my top 10 foundations!
Have you tried any of the primers above? What’s your favourite primer for the face and eyes? Do you find the need for primers or could you do without?
Catch up on Makeup Favourites Week!
Absolutely love the NP Auto Pilot and NARS Pro-Prime, both are staples in my stash. I really need to get on and try the Hourglass primer, have heard SO MANY amazing things.
Angie recently posted..The Lazy Girl\’s Manicure
Have you tried Face of Australia’s Face Base? Seriously, it’s the same as the NP Auto Pilot! The Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer is amazing, you have to try it out. I bought the smaller tube even though it was more expensive per ml but I figured just in case it doesn’t work out, I wouldn’t waste that much money. Now I want the bigger bottle. 😛
Too Face Shadow Insurance is my HG! No eyeshadow budges or fades when I use it. But the Nars one intrigues me too. I might give it a go once I run out of TFSI.
gio recently posted..Product Review: Sleek Makeup Eye & Cheek Palette In See You At Midnight
The NARS Pro Prime is similar to the UDPP, only that the UDPP is beige and the NARS is white. Lots of wastage in the packaging though, especially since a lot of product get crusty on the side.
As someone who has severely oily skin, I’ve been adoring the BareMinerals Brightening Prime Time and BioDerma’s Sebum range Primer too. Glad to see we overlap a few in faves haha less adding to my beauty wishlist – which the TooFaced Shadow Insurance shall be joining 😉 yay!
Dustyn recently posted..A Month of Makeup
Hehehe I’m just enabling the heck out of you, aren’t I? Try Hourglass’ Veil Mineral Primer. That one’s awesome.
If I ever go to Australia, I will raid the place for Napoleon Perdis and Face of Australia. That looks like a good one to try.
I haven’t tried most of your choices because I don’t find much need for primers. My only face one is Benefit’s That Gal, and it is serving me so well so far. As for eye primer, I am very loyal to Urban Decay. I have brands like Lorac and Too Faced, and other random ones. But UD just seems to be doing such a great job that I never venture far.
I do use M.A.C paint pot in Soft Ochre quite frequently though. I think it beats UD at being sticky and crease-free all day. I also like that Soft Ochre conceals the brown-red tones on my eyelids due to lack of sleep. I know UD has a coloured one, but I just never buy that since I have way too many original ones. (Plus I now have two pots of Soft Ochre because M.A.C gave me one for free.) This is the reasons I never get the chance to buy NARS!!! LOL. Every time I pick up NARS primer, I put it back, telling myself how I have a dozen free ones lying at home, and all are high quality UD and Lorac ones… …
Jyoan recently posted..LUSH Ultra Bland – The most thorough of all cleansers
Just get the Face of Australia one. It’s the same as the NP Auto Pilot but a whole lot cheaper. 😛
Benefit’s That Gal is actually really pretty to wear on its on. The pink tone makes my skin look super radiant without looking greasy.
I’ve heard so much about MAC’s Paint Pot (especially the one I think is called Painterly?) and am wondering if I should at least give it a go. You know me and MAC; definitely don’t go together like peas and carrots. But I’m also very curious to see why people say it’s so good. I’ll swatch that and the Soft Ochre you mentioned. Hahaha I just added the Lorac primer to my stash too. My very oily eyelids say it’s okay to buy. Ahem ahem. 😛
By the way, will you do a Top 10 Concealers?
Jyoan recently posted..LUSH Ultra Bland – The most thorough of all cleansers
Nah, no top 10 concealers, at least not this time. I, erm, don’t use nor experiment enough to make up 10. Next year most likely. 🙂
Wanted to recommend DHC’s Velvet Skin Coat: http://www.dhccare.com/velvet-skin-coat. I’ve had very good results and it’s quite inexpensive. Only mail-order I’m afraid (for the US, anyway).
Thanks for the recommendation, Julie. I’ve not heard of that before (have heard of the brand); unfortunately, DHC isn’t available in Australia. But I’ll be visiting Malaysia soon so hopefully I’ll be able to find this there. 🙂