It’s no secret that I love primers. They smooth your makeup, fix skin issues, and feel SO nice when you put them on. I’d love to buy some Smashbox primers, but I don’t want to spend $100 on two or three primers, so I use ELF (eyes, lips, face). I’ve heard it’s a nice dupe for Smashbox, and a fraction of the price! I’ve been using the ELF hydrating primer for a while, but I just recently bought the Tone Adjusting Green and Illuminating primers, and I decided to write a review on all three.
ELF Hydrating Primer (4/5 stars)
I love this primer! It comes in a pretty, blue pump bottle and is halfway between white and clear. I’m not sure how well it hydrates, it seems to do okay, but it hasn’t made any major difference. I use it a lot and it makes my makeup go on wonderfully! All of ELF’s primers are pretty silicone-y but I don’t mind that. I didn’t give it a full 5 stars because none of ELF’s primers have a lot of product in the package, and it hasn’t made any major difference in my skin hydration. Overall, a good purchase, and I recommend it if you have normal to dry skin and need an inexpensive primer!
ELF Tone Adjusting Green Primer (4/5 stars)
I really like this one. It comes in a nice, green pump bottle and is a thick, pea-green color. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much for my redness, but I mix it with two other products to make a redness-concealing cream and it works wonderfully (check out the previous post for what products I use). It’s nice and smooth, silicone-based, and is quite reasonably priced (all of ELF’s primers are $6). I didn’t give it a full five stars because it doesn’t do the best job concealing redness, but it’s definitely worth it to mix with the other two products (see above) and it’s a really nice consistency. Overall, it’s a good buy, but don’t expect to get much redness coverage with just the primer.
ELF Illuminating Primer (3.5/5 stars)
So, I’ve got a bit of a love/hate relationship with this one. I was hoping for a glowy, radiant primer to put under or mix with my foundation – instead, it’s teeny, tiny gold sparkles in a shimmery gold cream. I don’t dislike it, necessarily, but I think that one bottle will last me quite a while. Here’s why: if you use it like ELF’s other primers, your face will be chock-full of glitter (if you like glitter on your face, this one’s definitely for you). I like a nice shimmer, but I didn’t want to go overboard, so I mix it with my matte foundation and it gives me a radiant but matte look. If you look closely, you can see the gold sparkles through the foundation, but it’s not very in-your-face. I use a TINY bit in my foundation and it stays matte but it looks like I highlighted my face. If you’re into sparkly highlighter, you might want to give this a try. I definitely don’t recommend rubbing it over your whole face like with other primers, but if you want a little bit of sparkle in your foundation, it really doesn’t look bad at all, it just looks shimmery/glowy. I didn’t give it a full 5 stars because it wasn’t what I was expecting, but I am having fun using it for fall/winter – since I’m using a matte foundation and shimmer is so Christmasy 🙂 Overall, buy this if you don’t mind shimmer on your face, but pass it by if you have an aversion to glitter!
I hope my reviews helped you out!
What are your favorite primers? Have you tried any of these? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!
Lipgloss & Trench Coats 