Coming Out Of The Shadows: Eyelid Primer Review

I absolutely love eyelid primer. Its stops your eyeshadow from fading, cuts down on creasing and ensures the colour of your eyeshadow looks more pigmented and fresh for longer.
As with all make up and primers the price you pay for this product can vary wildly so I thought I would put three brands to the test from the expensive through to the budget to see how each one performed and if you really get what you pay for.
In the spirit of conducting a fair review I wore the same three colours from the Sleek Au Natural palette with each product and the photos taken are after five hours of wear.

Urban decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion £14.00

Urban Decays Primer potion is one of those products that seems to be universally loved. At £14 for a fairly small tube its not cheep but its many a beauty bloggers hero product and one of Urban decays biggest sellers.

The consistency of the primer is a paste and its in a nude colour (although you can now buy colour variations) Now I had already been warned by Lilly Von Pink that you had to work very quickly once you had put this on your lids and boy was she right. The first few times I used it I put it on and then did my usual faffing around and found that the texture of the applied shadow especially on my brow bone went almost lizardy in appearance.

Urban Decays Primer Potion does make the pigment of your eyeshadow look very strong.

Once I had sussed out I needed to put it on just before I began blending the results were much better but I still found it had a slightly cracked appearance above the crease line.

Urban decay-Amazing staying power but slight lizard skin appearance above the crease line.

the mottling wasn't hugely noticeable but not ideal. In terms of staying power this is where the product does really come into its own. My eyeshadow barely moved and was almost crease free even after a long hot sweaty day doing lots of ladies make up and teaching a workshop.

Urban Decays Primer potion would work particularly well with a smokey eye or dark eye make up but blend it in quick.

I think this would be wonderful if you were going for a block colour or very smoky eye as your shadow does not budge, however I found the fact I had to almost rush my eyeshadow application to get the best out of the product irritating and I'm not sure it justifies the £14 price tag
Betty's Scores on the doors 7/10

Elf Eyelid Primer £1.50

Ive been a huge fan of Elf for a good few years. When I teach at my hair and make up workshops I always tell people about them and both my personal make up bag and my professional kit contain a lot of elf. Their mineral face primer is absolutely brilliant, one of the best on the market and so inexpensive. Ive had this eyelid primer for a while and its a great little product.

Unlike a lot of the other lid primers around it has a slightly more greasy consistency but does quickly dry. This actually makes it very easy to apply with no pulling of the delicate skin on your lids.

Elf Eyelid Primer-A budget loving £1.50

At £1.50  a tube it seems churlish to be too critical of this product and it does make your eyeshadow look slightly more pigmented which is great when you are doing a smoky eye or want to create subtle definition using your neutrals.

My eyeshadow looks slightly more pigmented but there is creasing with elf's lid primer

It did keep my shadow on and looking fairly fresh all day but I did get creasing after only an hour or so and I'm not sure it any more effective than just using your normal face primer to be honest and if you are going to fork out for a separate product you really want it to earn its keep but for a budget conscious option its pretty good.
Betty's Scores on the doors 5/10

Too faced Shadow Insurance Anti Crease Eyeshadow primer £16.50

I hadn't heard of Too faced until recently and whilst this primer retails at over £16 I actually got mine from eBay for about a fiver.

I absolutely love this product. It throws Urban Decays primer potion into a cocked hat in my opinion. It is a similar consistency to the Primer Potion, a pink coloured paste but is slightly less thick.

Toofaced Anti Crease eyelid primer-Beautiful smooth consistency

The beauty of this primer is you can put it on your eyelids, go off, do your hair etc and then put your eyeshadow on and the results are really smooth.

Toofaced Eyelid primer-amazing staying power-look ma no creasing

It has fabulous staying power and didn't cause my shadow to look mottled or dry.

Toofaced primer-My top of the pops for eyelid primer

I would happily pay full price for this and am going to buy some for my pro make up kit. Toofaced I salute you.
Betty's Scores on the doors 9/10

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