Before I get into it though, let me real quick explain the why’s and what-have-you’s.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a work related Christmas party with my husband. This meant that in addition to purchasing tickets and a parking attendant, that I needed to get dressed up in something other than leggings and Converse, and I also had to go full throttle on my makeup.
Avon carries a True Color Eyeshadow Primer and I used it to keep my eye makeup in place. I also got a little cray and used false eyelashes....because I LOVE how they tie everything together. Apparently, my eyelids didn’t like this. I had the WORST breakout of excema on my eyelids the next day (and several days thereafter) and I couldn’t figure out if it was the Avon primer or the lashes (noteably the glue). All I knew was that the skin on my eyelids was red, inflamed, sensitive, irritated, etc. to the nth power.
So I laid off the eye makeup for the next week, and waited until my skin calmed down and wasn’t feeling so hysterical. Using the primer again, my eyes did get a little irritated. But only a little. I very, very rarely use false lashes, so I’m gonna wager my skins’ reaction was from that. But it got me thinking about the eye shadow primer and how it contributed.
So back to my "experiment" (AKA an excuse to play with makeup:))
I applied my eyeshadow to my arm (I'm giving my lids a break today) both with and without the primer to see if the eyeshadow primer was worth the hassle. Avon eye shadows on their own are nicely pigmented and last a good amount of time (at least through an 8 hour work day for me), so is the primer even necessary? I tested to find out.
First I cleaned off my arm.
Next I applied a dab of primer on my skin and gave it a few moments to set
Applied the same shadow to the primed area
I even did the same "experiment" on the other side of my arm, which yielded the same results.
What a difference! I found that the un-primed area was not as pigmented and blended unevenly compared to the primed side, which stayed deeper in color and while the edges were definitely softened, it "stuck" to my skin WAY more uniformly than the shadow alone.
So is it worth it? Well, at the time of this writing, the primer is priced at $8. I'd say YES, it's worth it, especially when compared to more expensive, big name brands. A little goes a long way, and my eye makeup easily lasted 12 hours. My skin is sensitive and I'm able to use everything Avon offers without any excema flare-ups....except this one item (cue the violin). I *can* use it, and have no intention on returning it even though Avon has a fantastic return policy; I figure I'll just have to limit my use of it and take extra care with my eyelids on my "off" makeup days. I love this product way too much and am willing to work around my skin's "issues" in order to use it. Plus, I now know that the eyelash glue is what set off the reaction to begin with and will steer clear from now on.
