Under Review: Too Faced Primer

Last week I was asked if I could review a face primer - the new Urban Decay Complexion Primer Potion that minimises the look of pores in an instant... Well I did some research and I thought it would be a hit considering the success of their Primer Potion for eyes! Slowly but surely I realised that maybe that wouldn't be the case...

As it's not so easy on the wallet as well I didn't want to burst in and buy this stuff without a few decent reviews... I haven't tried this stuff on my face so I can't vouch as to whether it minimises the look of pores, but instead I did try it on the back of my hand and I can tell you this:

I wasn't a fan of its texture - this stuff is very greasy and it takes a while to soak in. In my opinion a good primer should be easily absorbed into the skin and needs to be light - you don't want it to create a super greasy sheen or your foundation will slip-slide all over the place. That's the whole point of foundation primer - to act as a barrier between your skin's natural oils and your foundation so it lasts longer - not to create oil! Funnily enough, this is unfortunately one of the bad things I'd heard about this product before I even tried it for myself.

Plus anyone with large pores usually has the skin characteristic of combination to oily skin. You don't want oily, greasy products going on your face if you suffer from this skin trait. It might be okay for those of you with dry skin of course, as it may provide a barrier for your skin to stay nice and moisturised especially during the colder months. But I can't see this withstanding the heat in summer and I can't see it agreeing with my skin - which leans toward the oily side.

Second of all, it's not colourless - it's white. Because it doesn't absorb very easily it ends up leaving a white cast on your skin when you've spread it over your face. This isn't a good look. Primers need to be discreet - they either ought to be transparent so that they don't affect the colour of your skin at all, or they can have a peachy/creamy hue to enhance the job of your foundation without making it look darker. My skin is pretty fair so I don't need to have a white wash over it haha!

All in all I found it to be too thick and greasy - the white sheen it created on my skin wasn't flattering so I wouldn't dare put it on my face. Sadly I think Urban Decay have unfortunately missed the mark with this one, which is a shame because I think a lot of us had high hopes for this product considering its predecessor! There is also a brightening version available but from the product description I can tell that this would be better suited to anyone with drier complexions...

But I never like to disappoint - my work here is not done! My aim was to find a winning product, so instead I'll be reviewing a close contender to Urban Decay's face primer - Too Faced's Primed & Poreless Face Primer.

So watch this space as I'm going to buy some of this and give it a go - I'll get back to you with the results very, very soon!...