I wear primers all four seasons, but if you're going to choose only two season when you're going to wear primers it might as well be
spring and
summer. Hotter months mean more sweat, more oil, and perhaps leading to more makeup wearing off throughout the day.
I've picked the best of all primers, the ones that really do the job of keep your makeup looking intact and fresh as long as your skin will hold. I've got two for the face, and one for the eyes.
Hourglass Mineral Veil Oil-Free Primer (SPF15)
Self-explanatory product. It is what it says it is. This stuff is truly amazing, and worth the splurge. I began with a sample, moved on to the $18 smaller bottle. Now, I've gone through a big 1oz. bottle and moved into a JUMBO sized 2oz. It's
that good. This white almost "slippery" substance somehow keeps your makeup on the whole day. I'm not going to say it helps the skin stay necessarily matte the whole time, but even when you put your skin of oil (by either oil-blotting paper or powder), this primer will help your makeup stay on even while you pat the oil off your face. It keeps your skin looking velvety.
This Works "In Transit Camera Closeup"
I'm obsessed with this brand, but that aside. This is some miracle product. It promises a 3-1 job: moisturizer, mask, and primer. It's meant to help your skin stay pampered during flights when your skin can get patchy and dry, so much that even when you land and you're "papped" you still look camera-ready good.
We may not all be paparazzi-ed but there's nothing bad about trying to look camera-ready all the time. It's been awhile since I've had this product, but it's not been recently that I've really tried it out for days on end. This is very different from the
Hourglass primer mentioned above in that this product is very dewy and tightening. After my skincare, I take about two pumps of this product and spread it evenly and gently all over my face. I make sure not to rub this in (don't rub primers into the skin, let them set
on the skin!). Once you put it all over, you'll feel your skin feeling hydrated, dewy, and also tight.
Once you feel that the primer has been
completely absorbed, then that's when you can move on to your foundation. Make sure you wait until the product has been absorbed, so that you don't feel any wetness on your skin. It should be soft and velvety.
This has helped my skin look very fresh throughout the day. I also love using this when my skin is especially tired-looking and feeling dehydrated. This is a skincare-type primer, so for those with problem skin, this may be a goodie!
NARS Eyeshadow Primer
I've blogged about this amazing product before as well. I haven't tried too many eyeshadows, but when I compare this eye primer with the famous
Urban Decay eye potion, the
NARS beats the eye potion by a million miles.
Much like the
Hourglass primer, this also feels velvety and a bit "slippery". How these things work like magic is something of another story. You take a pea-size amount of product and dab in on each eyelid. Then you spread it evenly and gently all over the lid. Wait maybe three seconds and apply your eye makeup (you can wait even longer, doesn't matter).
I swear by this thing. Your eyeshadows will not oxidize, changing colors and making them dull. It won't crease, it won't melt, and it just won't budge. I recommend this to everyone, even if they don't have super oily lids because it'll help the vibrancy of your eyeshadows!
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I'm still a bit clueless as how these products help makeup last. I know they somehow attach your makeup to the primer, and primer somehow attaches to your skin a certain way-- but as to how that works is beyond me. What I do know is that even if the product looks "slippery", it'll help your makeup from slipping off your face.
