Have you noticed that your foundation doesn’t look as nice as it once did? Perhaps it’s going a bit patchy by midday, or accentuating the fine lines around your eyes. Maybe it wears away before you’ve even left work for the day. Or worse, settles into pores and wrinkles and does more to age than to improve.
The good news is that they probably haven’t changed the formulation to your favourite foundation. It’s more likely that you need a primer. A good primer will go a long way to improving the finish and wear of foundation, but it’s important to choose the right one for the task. Here are three I like, each with a specific function.
When opting for a natural look, Hylamide Finisher HR Blur, £19.00, is great for making skin look healthy and flawless. It diminishes the appearance of fine lines and pores, and helps makeup go on smoothly. It’s contains no silicones, so it works well with all sorts of foundations, and it has the added bonus of being full of skin-plumping hyaluronic acid.
If your foundation is quite matt and you’d like to add some glow, Becca Backlight Priming Filter, £32.00, does this beautifully. It’s also hydrating, so if your skin tends to be on the drier side, this will help. It’s a mostly water-based primer and works well with most foundations.
Dr Brandt’s Pores No More, £30.95, works well when you need your foundation to stay put. It’s silicone-based, so it won’t play well with all foundations. However, it will keep any silicone-based foundation in place all day and into the night. It claims to reduce the appearance of pores, and while I’ve not seen any reduction in the size of mine, I can say that it works beautifully with glow foundations by keeping them in place and reducing any overly-shiny spots.
Fig and Pen 