So, since my Grad Ball is a mere three weeks away, I figured it would be a good idea to switch up some of my products as there were a few in my normal routine that worked well, but were not quite Grad Ball material. First on my list was primer, usually I use Nivea Daily Essentials Hydration Primer, and I do still adore it for creating a good base for foundation, but I was intrigued by the "optical blurring effect" of the Garnier option.
I bought this in my local Tesco for £12.99, but I imagine you could pick it up anywhere selling Garnier products. It claims to visibly blur wrinkles, imperfections, open pores and shine using light reflecting particles. It seems to be marketed more towards mature skin, but my large pores and fine lines seemed like a decent enough challenge for these claims :P.
The texture of this primer is quite bizarre, at least in my previous primer experiences. It has a very light, almost whipped texture, but it's quite dry. This did make me a little nervous at first, my T-zone gets a little oily, but anything this dry in texture usually leaves foundation looking quite cakey and chalky on me.
Before: After moisturiser, before any make up had been applied
After make up.
I was pretty impressed with this in general. According to the box, it can be used on its own just to lightly blur pores and lines, but I didn't really notice much blurring until I had done my full foundation routine. My main complaint with my Nivea primer was that it didn't really stop my concealer from creasing, I use a very creamy correcter under my eyes (Soap and Glory Kick Ass concealer), so it always ended up gathering in my fine lines and just not really helping anybody. The first thing I noticed this time though was how well it smoothed over the lines, I still needed to powder lightly, but it looked a lot smoother than if I had used my Nivea primer. On the rest of my face, it had helped blur my pores quite a bit, but it was a little drier than I usually go for in some places, not to the point where I was unhappy to have it on my face though and that could have just been some of the teething issues you get with a new product.
In the interest of a fair test, this picture was taken after around 12 hours of wear time, at around one in the morning. I was pretty chuffed with the end result, I hadn't actually looked in a mirror for around 8 of those 12 hours so I was pretty surprised that the only redness that had come through was around my nose, it definitely helped the lasting power of the foundation (L'Oreal True Match in C1, Rode Ivory). Also, the camera picked up much more shine than I could see just checking in the mirror, my pores still looked quite well blurred as well, adding more pro's to the already unbalanced scale.
To wrap this up, because it's two thirty in the morning and I would like to sleep some time tonight, I really liked this primer. It blurred my pores and fine lines, and generally made everything go on quite smooth, and held pretty well until well after I should have taken it off. My only complaint is the dryness of the product did make my skin look the teeniest bit powdery, but this was minor and could probably be fixed by either mixing it with a hydrating primer/moisturiser, or applying a more dewy foundation over the top.
Final rating: 8/10
Cheers guys :)
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