Eye primers are GREAT investments when it comes to making up your eyes. Eye primers enhance the colour of your eyeshadow, prevent eyeshadow from creasing and make it last longer. I would never wear eyeshadow without an eye primer underneath. Because eye makeup usually takes the most time – it is not worth it without a primer underneath (in my humble opinion). There are many different types of eye primers such as invisible liquid primers, cream bases, MAC Paints, MAC Paintpots, MAC shadesticks, NYX Jumbo Pencils etcetera.

The first picture has all the eye primers and the second picture has MAC Electric Eel eyeshadow on left and MAC Shimmer Moss eyeshadow on right.

Eye primers from top to bottom:

1. Urban decay Primer Potion (can’t be seen since invisible)

2. Too faced shadow Insurance (can’t be seen since invisible)

3. MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque

4. MAC Paint in Sublime Nature

5. MAC Shadestick in Beige-ing

6. NYX Jumbo Pencil in violet

7. Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner (don’t know the name)

8. Vincent Longo Eye Shimmer Souffle in Babelon

Invisible eye primers:

Urban Decay Primer Potion: UDPP is beige coloured but goes on invisible once you blend it in. UDPP enhances the colour of the eyeshadow – makes it a lot more vibrant. Eyelids tend to get oily throughout the day and eyeshadow creases on the folds of the eyes. UDPP prevents any creasing of eyeshadow. Normally a powder eyeshadow disappears by midday. UDPP also makes eyeshadow last throughout the day. It makes the value of the eyshadow (no matter what brand or type) a lot more than what it really is. It is $17 USD/ $22 CDN for 0.34 oz product.

One disadvantage is the packaging that UDPP comes in. The tiny bottle is genie inspired and very cute looking. The straight sponge tip applicator can only go straight in the tube. Where as the tube is curvy. So a LOT of the products get stuck in the curves of the bottle. And you would think you have used all up. But if you cut the bottle open in the middle you will find one 10 g jar full of product inside. But cutting the process includes using a knife. So the hassle and danger involved to get all the product out – to make your money worth ticks me off.

Too Faced Shadow Insurance: TFSI is also beige coloured and goes on invisible on skin. It also enhances eyeshadow colour, prevents creasing and makes eye makeup last longer. TFSI is $17 USD/ $24 CDN for 0.35 oz product.

TFSI has two advantages over UDPP. The first one is that I think it is better for oily lids. But a lot of people think both products are the same. So I might be totally wrong. Second advantage is that it comes in a squeeze tube. So you don’t have to cut it open – you can all the product out just by squeezing the tube. I absolute can’t live without this.

Coloured eye primers:

MAC Paint: It is a transfer-resistant creamy base than gives a powdery finish. It comes in a squeeze tube. Be careful when you use it for the first 10 times. A lot of the product comes out with just a little bit of squeeze. It lasts for a LONG time. It is totally worth my money. Some has a satin finish (almost matte -with very slight slimmer) and some are more shimmery. These come in mostly skin tones colours and I love this product too. It is thick and pigmented- covers the eye area well evening out the skin tone. I use Sublime Nature Paint (a satin finished paint – my skin tone) almost every day over Too Faced Shadow Insurance before putting on eye makeup.

One con is that it tends to dull the eyeshadow colour a little bit. But I will always love it because it evens out my skin tone.

MAC Paint Pot: It comes in a small jar. It comes in a lot of colours including skin tones colour. It comes in matte/cream, satin and frosty finishes. They are really good to enhance the colour the eyeshadow. They are so pretty I would all of them if I could afford it. However, I don’t find myself grabbing them as much when I do my eye makeup.

MAC Shadestick: The packaging is like a mechanical eye pencil. But it is too big to be used as an eye pencil. It is a cream base that comes in a stick. But I personally don’t like it because it doesn’t blend well. It goes on flaky on my eyes.

NYX Jumbo Pencil: These are great alternative to MAC Shadesticks. These are not mechanical – so you have to sharpen them. But the Jumbo Pencils are very creamy and very pigmented and easy to use. I like using them a lot.

Benefit Creaseless cream Shadow/Liner: It’s a cream base and doesn’t crease. I like it a lot.

Vincent Longo Eye Shimmer Souffle: It is a very creamy and shimmery base. I tend to use to under colourful eyeshadows.
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So not everyone can afford the best makeup and you don’t need to buy expensive makeup exclusively. Only some staple products in your makeup vanity should be enough. So the products I think are the most important and thus I would invest money in are:

1. Foundation: Foundation is the base for all your other makeup. It is totally worth it to spend some money towards it. Even if you don’t have a face primer, even if you have a cheap concealer, a great foundation will make you look fabulous nonetheless.

2. Brushes: Brushes are very important. Yes, foundation can be applied with hand, but you apply more, waste product and it goes on cakey. Yes eyeshadow can be applied with a sponge tip applicator, but colours won’t blend and won’t last long. Brushes achieve the details needed for a complete look.

3. Eye primer: Eye primer will enhance the colour of your eyeshadow, prevent eyeshadow from creasing and will make it last longer. An eye primer will increase the value of your eyeshadows even if you have budget friendly eyeshadows.

4. Waterproof eyeliner and mascara: Most women have eyeliner and mascara anyways. When you run out of them and make your next purchase, consider getting waterprood liquid and pencil eyeliner and waterproof mascara. It will prevent smudging.

5. Clear Lipliner: You don’t need to waste money getting every coloured lipliner for every lipstick that you own. Get a clear one – I recommend Revlon ColorStay Lipliner in Clear. It will go with every lipstick/lipstain/lipgloss. Line the edges of lips and then fill your lips in with it. It will prevent lipcolour form bleeding and will make it last longer.

That’s all I remember right now. I will edit this post if I find something new. You don’t have to get all these in one day. I call these investments because they are worth a bunch of money. Get one product per paycheck and you will have all the staples within a year or so. Enjoy the weekend.

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Eyeshadows can look great if applied correctly. Eye shape is very important when doing an eye look. If you have droopy eyes, then winged eyeshadow in the outer corner is a great trick to give it a lift. If you have no crease, then doing an overall colour makes it more apparent that you don’t have a crease. If you have hooded eyes, doing light shimmery lids is the way to go. There are tons of different brands and tons of different textures of eyeshadows to choose from. I am going to start doing eyeshdaow reviews by brands soon.

Basic eyeshadow application can be very difficult to explain on a blog. So I will try to take pictures in the future. For today I will choose brown colours from MAC.  I recommend brushes, but sponge tip applicators are fine if you are just beginning.

Step 1. Apply an eye primer with your fingers. Eye primer prevents any creasing of the eyeshadow, enhances the eyeshadow colour and makes it last longer. Urban Decay Primer Potion or Too faced Shadow Insurance (Both found at Sephora) are both GREAT eye primers.

Step 2. Apply a shimmery colour on the eyelid. When you close your eyes, everything that’s under the fold of the eye is you lid. Use a flat eyeshadow brush (ie. MAC# 239) to pack on the colour. Pat it on, don’t move the brush back and forth. This will give a solid pigmentation and prevent fallout. The colour I choose today is Woodwinked eyeshadow by MAC.

Step 3. Apply a darker and less shimmery colour on the crease (or fold) of the eyes. With a fluffy brush (ie. MAC #217), start from the outer corner and go towards the inner corner. If you have close set eyes, then stop at halfway. I choose Satin Taupe eyeshadow by MAC

Step 4. Apply the darkest colour only on the outer corner of the eyes with a pointy but fluffy brush (ie. MAC 226 brush). I recommend Sketch eyeshadow by MAC. Take 217 brush again and start blending the harsh edges of all colours. If colour is not blended it looks awful, but over blending can make it look muddy. So practice is key here.

Step 5. Take a skin toned shimmery colour to highlight brow bones and inner corner of the eyes – makes you look awake.

If you choose to put eyeshadow under your bottom lashes as well, then line the bottom lash line with a brown eye pencil (Rimmel makes creamy eye pencils). Apply Sketch eyeshadow over that with a pencil brush (Ie. 219 brush by MAC) and smudge it for a smoky effect.

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