Makeup Monday–Primer – Hive and Nest

Today we’re going to talk about makeup primer. For a lot of you the response will be “say what?”. Primer is one of my favorite products; the whole point of it is to make your skin perfect for applying makeup. It goes on after your moisturizer/sunscreen (you’d better be wearing something with sunscreen in it or else I’m going to spank you!). It’s made out of who-knows-what but it glides on and makes your skin feel like velvet. Seriously, I could sit and pet my face for hours after I put this on. But instead I put on my foundation. Or if I’m having a less-is-more makeup day, I put on my blush, concealer and powder over the top. Either way, it helps the makeup do its job better by keeping your face smooth and silky-looking. It also helps the makeup stay in place and not look too shiny. If you live in a hot sweaty climate, it’s a must in the summertime. Especially since it’s oil-free.

Another great benefit of primer is that it sinks down into any fine lines you have, making you look a little less wrinkly. Perfect for light lines like crows feet. It also works well on big pores.

My favorite brand is by Smashbox. It’s called Photo Primer and the product I like best is the basic clear primer. (There are tinted ones as well, but I don’t like to mess with colors; I’d rather use my makeup to color-correct.) It’s not cheap ($36.00 for one ounce) but it lasts a long time. Sadly this is kind of an upscale item and the drugstore brands haven’t really jumped on the bandwagon yet. But they will! This is such a great product that it’s only a matter of time.

If you want skin that stays dewy and radiant looking all day and keeps your makeup in place, this is the thing for you. If you want to try it out first and make sure it’s something that you like, try buying a sample tube of it on ebay. Sephora sells it too and you might be able to snag some samples there.