The Best Ever Primer?

Last week, the movers and shakers at IMAGE Publications shared their must-have mascaras with ye loyal followers. This week, we’re all about primers. Why? Because you could have all of the best beauty products that the world has to offer, but without the right primer, over time, it will simply disappear. Not ideal when you’ve made such an investment, right?

With so many primers popping up on the beauty aisle shelves, it’s hard to know what’s worth your money and what’s not. Rest assured, we’re here to help. Here’s our top 5.

MAC Prep & Prime Skin $37
Again, MAC will always be one of our favourite as it just never lets us down. This primer glides on effortlessly, creating a smooth, hydrated base for your make-up. Why we also like it is that it gives you a very subtle dewy glow, adding a bit of life to your skin on these rather dull mornings. It blots away any excess oil, evens out your skin tone and calms down any areas of redness, before you apply your make-up to perfection. The real test of a primer is how it holds your make-up. While silicone based primers don’t always get the thumbs up, we can safely say that this does the trick.

Faces Perfecting Skin Smoother €45
Oddly enough, this wonder product from Canada’s finest beauty export isn’t exactly marketed as a make-up primer, but boy is it worthy of your attention. A hazlenut-sized amount of this is all you need. It smoothes over your skin like a veil of silk (honestly, nothing feels more soft) creating a protective layer between your face and moisturiser and your make-up, ensuring your pores don’t wind up soaking in all of your foundation. This one’s packed full of jojoba oil too which, as you know, is the superfood of skincare ingredients. Works on all skin types and smoothes out any imperfections.

Urban Decay Complexion Primer Potion – Brightening and Tightening €27
This is Jo Linehan’s (IMAGE Magazine Junior Editor) go-to primer for a night on the tiles. She’s been hooked on this for a while now, safe in the knowledge that a night spent tearing it up on the dance floor won’t affect her picture perfect make-up look. It sets your make-up with ease, ensuring that your powder, bronzer, eye shadow – the works – stays in place through the evening.

Make Up Forever HD Microperfecting Primer €33
You’ll find this bad boy in many a professional make-up artist’s bag of tricks. It’s especially wonderful for photographs as it makes use of?innovative formulas to?create a new generation?of makeup which is both?invisible on HD cameras?and to the naked eye.?In the same manner as?a skin care product,?the HD Primer nourishes,’moisturizes and softens?the skin, creating a?glowing effect. It creates?a protective layer on’the skin allowing the?foundation to glide on easily and to last longer. A lot longer.?It’dries quickly, allowing?you to slap on the make-up straight away. Hurrah!

Clarins Instant Smooth €24
Finally, we’re going to take Liz Dwyer’s word for it (IMAGE Magazine’s Beauty Editor). “My go to is an oldie but still unsurpassed – Clarins Instant Smooth. It’s like an invisible putty for your face which fills in crows feet, large pores and minimises laughter lines, so when you put on your foundation on top – it glides over skin and makes your base look Instagrammed. Plus it works as a protective barrier between your skin and your foundation, so your sebaceous glands need to work double time to break through it to gobble up your foundation, in other words you make-up lasts thrice as long. So it’s a win win.”

What’s your favourite primer? Share below.

@CarolineForan