Primers Decoded #makeup #primers #forallskintypes

One of my friend asked me the other day "what are these primers? I have heard of using a primer before painting the walls but whats the hype about these primers for makeup...."

So my peeps here is primers simplified for you!

These days, it seems like primers are all over the beau­ty mar­ket. And it’s no won­der—they work! Think about it: it’s nor­mal for the skin’s sur­face to be tex­tured from pores, fine lines, and inflam­ma­tion. In other words, the com­plex­ion isn’t flat and smooth. So when you apply foun­da­tion over bare, un-primed skin, you may find it more dif­fi­cult to blend the prod­uct out. The foun­da­tion might then set­tle into every crevice, accen­tu­at­ing flaws and enlarg­ing the appear­ance of pores (espe­cial­ly with a heav­i­ly pig­ment­ed for­mu­la). Adding to the chal­lenges of foun­da­tion appli­ca­tion is your skin type—those with nor­mal, oily, and dry skin will get dif­fer­ent results.

Orig­i­nal­ly, primers were invent­ed to prime the skin for a smoother foun­da­tion appli­ca­tion, much like you’d use primer on a wall before paint­ing it. Eye­lid primers are also pop­u­lar nowa­days, meant to make eye shad­ows go on smoother and last longer. Whether mar­ket­ed for the face, the eyes, or both, the anato­my of a primer will be sim­i­lar.


CHOOSING A PRIMER:

• If you have really oily skin and your major concern is oil control and large open pores, the best option for you is Pore Minimizing Primers and Mattifiers.
• If you have excessive red/yellow tones in your skin, a color correcting primer is the best choice for you.
• If you have no major skin issues but just need something to extend the wear time of your foundation, smoothening primers are the best choice for your skin.
• If you need some extra glow or your skin is prone to dullness, an illuminating or brightening primer is the best for your skin type

APPLICATION:

Primer is typically applied as the first step of makeup after all the skin care products have been applied.

After moisturizing and applying sunscreen (if its day time), wait a few minutes for the products to sink in and then apply the primer in small dots all over the face and neck leaving out the eye and lip area.

Now you can use your fingers or a brush to blend the product.

I prefer using my fingers as it warms up the product and it sinks in better into the skin. Use soft patting and blending strokes to massage the primer into the skin till it is completely absorbed.

If you’re using a brush, moisten the brush with a few spritzes of a face mist like MAC Fix+ spray or The Body Shop Vit E spray for easier blending.

With most primers (Esp brightening ones), it takes a few minutes (8-10) for the product to sink in so wait for a few minutes before you apply your foundation. You could do your eye makeup in the meanwhile.

EYE PRIMERS:

Eye primers too work in the same work where they are applied before the eye makeup. This evens out the skin tone and makes the eye shadow last longer and accentuate the color. In the below image you can see that the eye shadow on the left side are the ones with a primer (colours illustrated are golden and black). You will notice that the primer helps to bring out the best in the color apart from making it long lasting.

The eye shadows on the left side are the ones with primer. 

KEY INGREDIENTS: SILICONE 

Primers form a film on the skin that are usu­al­ly soft, cush­iony, smooth, and silicone-based. Sil­i­cone deriv­a­tives are used in major­i­ty of primers because they pro­vide a slip­pery feel that helps foun­da­tion and cream blush­es glide like magic over any skin tex­ture rather than absorb­ing into the skin. They also help to min­i­mize the appear­ance of pores and fine lines.
There are also primers that don’t con­tain sil­i­cone; gen­er­al­ly they’re 
bet­ter for good skin that doesn’t require much cov­er­age. Silicone-free primers rely on either gelled oils, which may feel a lit­tle greasi­er on the skin than sil­i­cone (with sil­i­ca) or gelled water-based for­mu­la­tions (with acry­lates or C10-30 alkyl acry­late crosspoly­mer).

BRANDS IN INDIA:

Oriflame Beauty Perfecting face primer: Rs. 398/-
Loreal Paris Magique Base: Rs. 850/-
MAC Prep and Prime: Rs. 2,250/- (approx)
Bourjois Flower Perfection Translucent Smoothing Primer: Rs. 710/-
NYX Eye Shadow Base: Rs. 625/-

There are many more primers slowly coming into the Indian Market. Primers are also know as makeup base or eye shadow base.


















Disclaimer: Images and certain content is sourced from various websites.

A Pit Stop at Claire's

Hey gorgeous!

On my lazy weekend outing, I had been to the Phoenix Mall, and the mall had pretty much the same stores as any other mall  (no I am not gonna review the infrastructure of the mall thank goodness for that!). So after visiting all the regular stores, I visited the Claire's Store which I am supposing is specific store to Phoenix mall as its only located there and it doesn't have any stand alone stores either.

This wasn't my first visit to Claire's, I have picked up some products earlier and I like Claire's as it has certain things which are very pretty and also some quirky stuff for a fancy dress party or Halloween!  However, some things according to me are over priced! Anyhow, I ran into the cosmetic "rack" of theirs, which clearly implies that they hardly have any. The cosmetics are sold under their own brand "Claire's"

My eyes were glued to a particular thing which is the glitter eye shadow palette. It consist of 5 colors and had various permutation combinations in the palette. I ended up buying 2 of them (oh come on! I really wanted those!!! )  I know they are glitter and you might shrug your shoulder and tell me its not for an everyday use! but hey! festivities are just around the corner, so party makeup anyone?! Plus did you know that glitter eye shadow was sported at the Fashion week 2013 by Dior and many other makeup artists for various shows this season!?!

At the 2013 fashion week

PRODUCT REVIEW: Like I mentioned earlier they were available in various permutation combinations so there is something for everyone! I picked up a basic palette of silvers and black and another colour palette which has fun colours like yellow, green, blue etc. (I have christened those palettes as they have no name or number on them!)  They are high on glitter and have a creamy texture which makes it easy for application. 
The are priced at Rs. 350/- each. It includes a sponge applicator.
It has a transparent top which attracts to the 'bling'!!!!
My rating:  3/5



HOW TO: So how does one use these glitter shades, first apply a shade of your choice and then apply the glitter. Ideally, you would like to apply the same shade as the glitter. Else, for the two silvers, a dark shade at the bottom would also be great. You can sport this look for dinners, parties and dates!!!! With Navrathi season around the corner you have plenty to experiment with!!

i love the carry bag!!!!! :)

Happy colour palette (L-R) Pink, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple

Basic Colour Palette (L-R) White with golden glitter, Silver, Violet, Fushia, Black

Thanks for reading! 

xoxoxoxox




Disclaimer: Pictures are sourced from Google and various other websites.