Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
Urban Decay has quickly become a makeup brand that I feel I can always rely on to provide a superior product. Their pencil eyeliners are by far the absolute best eyeliners out there. Urban Decay makes some of the greatest eyeshadows too. Ever heard of a little revolutionary product called the Naked Palette? How many millions of dollars do you think Urban Decay has made off of the Naked and Naked 2 Palettes? I don't have either of those (yet), but I do have Naked Basics, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite products, and is just as quickly making me want to invest in a "real" Naked palette. I've used a couple of non-eye products from Urban Decay (for awhile this was my concealer of choice), but I'm focusing on how great Urban Decay's eye makeup is because they make another product that allows your eye makeup to stand out while standing the test of time: Eyeshadow Primer Potion.
I've used a regular face primer before my foundation for a few years (since I made the switch to Bare Minerals), but I never gave much thought to my eyes. After all, if I wore any eye makeup other than mascara it was eyeliner, and Urban Decay's 24/7 liner already has major staying power. But as my skin started to clear up (look forward to some major Accutane coverage next week) I got back into wanting to play with makeup, and that meant eyeshadow.
As a makeup/skincare junkie, I read a lot of makeup blogs, watch a lot of YouTube tutorials, and tend to make it my business to know about ALL THE MAKEUPS. So I'd heard about Primer Potion for a long time. Then I noticed bins and bins of the stuff at Nordstrom Rack, for just $8 a tube instead of $20. How could I resist? I grabbed a tube and waited for my life get infinitely better.
A quick aside: The primers available at Nordstrom Rack are the old packaging with a sponge applicator, as opposed to the new and improved tube packaging. It's the same stuff, it's just in a different container. It's also ever so slightly smaller than the current packaging. I think, though, that you can get even more out of a squeeze tube than a tube with a sponge applicator, so I'd wager when it comes to useable product, the new tube provides even more than 0.03 fl oz more. Basically, the $8 tube is great for trying out Primer Potion or for grabbing an extra tube for travel or something, but I think the new full-price tube might actually be a better buy. It certainly seems easier to use. Also, I heard a rumor that Nordy Rack is going to stop carrying Primer Potion, but I go there all the time and it looks like (at least at my store) they either have a huge stock of the stuff or they're going to keep carrying it for the foreseeable future. I was there before Christmas and a guy bought EVERY tube they had in the store. We're talking like 100 tubes of Primer Potion. It was a sight to behold.
Urban Decay's Primer Potion also comes in a few different varieties. I tend to prefer the basic primer that (at least on my complexion) blends to be invisible, but I also picked up a tube in Sin, which is a coppery-gold (Urban Decal calls it "Shimmering Champagne"). They say that you can wear the tinted primers alone as an eye color, but I've found with Sin that I need to pile on a whole heap of it before it comes through as an eyeshadow. I haven't tried the others, but with so many fantastic REAL eyeshadows to choose from, I'm not too interested in using different primers as eyeshadow replacements.
Primer Potion makes your eye makeup last all the live long day, but I've discovered that if I put it on under my eyes in addition to on my eyelids, it helps even things out and allows my concealer to go on smoother. Using this primer also makes my undereye concealer stay on FOREVER. Seriously, I think it's worthwhile to get some Primer Potion just for an undereye concealer boost, even if you never wear eyeshadow.
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion: $20 (or $8, if you're lucky enough to find a Nordstrom Rack that stocks the old tubes)