It’s all about the base, baby. Get your fundamentals right by prepping your skin with luminising lotions and perfecting potions they’ll make a hell of a difference. Click through for all the industry insider tips and tricks you need to get your glow on.
One of the primary pitfalls of packing on the primer? Pilling. “When you slap on too much primer, the odds are it will pill under your foundation,” says makeup master Dollei Seah. The little lumps of product (the “pills” of the pilling phenomenon) are incredibly irksome because they muss up your makeup and are the prime cause of patchy-looking complexion.
My ace advice on preventing pilling? Resist the urge to go on a rampage. Restrict yourself to a raisin-sized ration of primer and all should be fine. Oh, and give your face some time to fully absorb each layer before adding the next. A good rule of “thumb” (and I mean this quite literally): If your fingertips feel damp when you press them into your face, give the primer another minute, then test again.
Not sure how to apply your salves? Check out this incredibly intuitive guide to massaging skincare into your mien for the best beautifying benefits.
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Any beauty buff worth her bathing salts will know that primer’s meant to go under your foundation, but the stuff is also terrific for touch-ups throughout the day – you just need the right swag, like Bobbi Brown’s incredible Instant Confidence Stick, $63, which is packed with potent peptides to plump up fine lines and imperfections.
Patting this “miracle” multi-tasker over any dry patches makes for an instant smoothening fix – but execution is of the essence. When applying primer over your warpaint, here’s a handy maxim: Wiping is wrong. Instead, use brisk “bouncing” actions to pat in your product so it doesn’t ruin your carefully contoured cheeks.
While we’re discussing all things base-related, why not check out my personal pick of cheek-enhancing blusher compacts, the next big beauty blockbusters for a barely there bloom of colour.
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Pick a pink-tinged primer with a subtle sheen, like Blanc Therapy Total Brightener, $119, Biotherm’s beautifully blendable hybrid hero of a product. The universally flattering flush is fabulous as a brightening base on bare skin – on no-makeup makeup days, layering this over your serum and sunscreen should suffice.
If you’re not personally inclined towards eight-step regimens like I am – hey, no judgment – consider investing in these multitasking marvels to protect your face from the rapacious rays of the sun – and get perfectly poreless and porcelain skin to boot.
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A fabulous face primer like Cosme Decorte AW MW’s opulent oil-infused Conditioning Oil Base, $100, does double duty as a soothing salve for your smackers. Your lips will grab colour better with a smooth surface, so be sure to prep your puckers by slathering on a generous glob of said primer as an intensive lip mask. Give it a good 10 minutes to sink in, then expunge excess with a cotton swab.
All about well, word of mouth? Then you’ve got to check out these non-sticky lip balms for your cubicle desk – I’m putting my money where my mouth is when I say they’re guaranteed to leave your lips in fabulous flake-free condition.
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Eye primers can seem like redundant add-ons to your regime, but they work like magnets to magnify the sheen and saturation of your shadow pots, so you get the biggest bang for your beauty buck. To use, simply pat lightly into lids before makeup for better “grab” of pigments, and top up whenever your under-eye region starts to betray signs of fatigue.
What to try, what to buy? Most formulas – my obsession du jour has got to be Shu Uemura’s Stage Performer Eye Primer, $45 – also come fortified with moisturising elements that can be deeply quenching for dehydrated skin, so much so that they function almost like fillers in erasing fine lines.
Right, then. It’s prime time, party people. Good luck correcting your complexion!