I decided to do a comparison of 7 products used as primers. You can find my previous primer comparison here.

Now, these are products that I think a lot of people use as primers, so I wanted to compare how they work on me.

These are the three eye shadow colors that I used for the comparison:
Meow Eerie – bright purple with blue iridescence and blue sparkle
Aromaleigh Bluespark – bright peacock blue with a literal dollop of blue sparks
Morgana Druscilla’s Sister – very hot pink with a violet sheen & twinkles of turquoise

Let me show you what all the primers look like on my skin.

Now, let me show you how the eye shadows look on the primers. I applied the eye shadows using cotton swabs and dabbing directly onto the primer. I tried to pack the color onto each primer.

This is indoors, with flash.

You can click here to see a larger version.

This is inside, indirect natural light, no flash.

This is outside, direct sunlight, no flash.

You can click here to see a larger version.

Here are all of the ingredients for the primers.

Too Faced Shadow Insurance Ingredients:
Isododecane,Talc, Cyclopentasiloxane, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Glyceryl Triethylhexanoate, Polyethylene, Trihydroxystearin, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, Isopropyl Lanolate, VP/Eicosene Copolymer, Propylene Carbonate, Dimethicone, PEG-40 Stearate, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol. (+/-): Mica, Bismuth Oxychloride (CI 77163), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499).

Detrivore Ingredients:
Titanium Dioxide, Yellow Oxide, Mica, Glycerine, Castor Seed Oil, Cetyl Stearyl Alcohol, Olive Fruit Oil, Beeswax, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Gycine Soybean Lipids, Lauryl Saurate, Carnauba Wax, and Candillia Wax.

Aromaleigh Light Primer Ingredients:
Ingredients: mineral oil, petrolatum, talc, beeswax, ozokerite, paraffin, kaolin, propylparaben, bht,
may contain titanium dioxide, iron oxides.

Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer Ingredients:
Ingredients: Isododecane, cyclopentasiloxane, trimethylsiloxysilicate, Polyethyelene, disteardimonium hectorite, Phenyl trimethichone, dimethicone, Hydrogenated polyisobutane, Propylene carbonate, lecithin, trihydroxystearin, tocopheryl acetate, BHT,
May contain: mica, Titanium dioxide, Iron oxides, Carmine, ULtramarines, Chromium oxide greens, Chromium hydroxide green, Ferric ferrocyanide, Ferric ammonium ferrocyanide

MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study Ingredients:
Ingredients: Isodocecane, dimethicone, polyethylene, hydrogenated polyisobutene, quaternium-90 bentonite, dimethicone silylate, octyldodecanol, silica, trihydroxystearin, retinyl palmitate, tocopheryl acetate, lecithin, carnauba wax, propylene carbonate, triethoxycaprylylsilane.
May contain: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxides, bismuth oxychloride, blue 1 lake, carmine, chromium hydroxide green, chromium oxide greens ferric ferroxyanide, manganese violet, ultramarines, yellow 5 lake.

Urban Decay Primer Potion Ingredients:
Isododecane, Talc, Cyclopentasiloxane, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Trihydroxystearin, Triethylhexanoin, Isopropyl Lanolate, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, VP/Eicosene Copolymer, Dimethicone, PEG-40 Stearate, Propylene Carbonate, Phenoxyethanol, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Propylparaben, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Butylparaben, Methicone, Isobutylparaben
May Contain: Mica, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (Iron Oxides), CI 77163 (Bismuth Oxychloride)

Cream Eye Shadow in White Ingredients:
Isododecane, Polyethylene, Trimethylsilocysilicate, Cyclomethicone, Ozokerite, Ploymethylsilsesquioxane, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Quaternium-18 Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate, Phenyl Trimethicone, Tocopheryl Acetate, Lecithin, Propylparaben, BHT.
May contain: Mica and Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide, Ultramarine Blue, D&C Red No.7 Ca Lake(on box but not in formula), FD&C Blue No.1 Al Lake, D&C Black No.2.

Container Designs:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance – really useful squeeze tube
Detrivore Primer – easy to use jar
Aromaleigh Light Primer – easy to use jar
Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer – easy to use jar
MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study – easy to use jar
Urban Decay Primer Potion – cute bottle shape but a complete pain to get all the product out, lots of product waste
Cream Eye Shadow in White – easy to use jar

I really prefer the squeeze tube or the easy to use jar, because you can get every bit of product out of the containers.

Now, on to my observations on how these primers work on me and appear to work to me.

Most Vibrant Primers:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Detrivore Primer, Aromaleigh Light Primer, Urban Decay Primer Potion

Primers that seem truest to color:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Detrivore Primer, Aromaleigh Light Primer, Urban Decay Primer Potion

Primer that seemed worst:
Cream Eye Shadow in White

Primers that seemed to dull color:
Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer, MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study, Cream Eye Shadow in White

Primer that I normally use for swatching:
Aromaleigh Light Primer

Primers that crease on me:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Cream Eye Shadow in White

Primers that sometimes crease on me:
Aromaleigh Light Primer-I can sometimes get this to not crease if I apply by tapping it on, which takes extra time.
Detrivore Primer-this does not crease if I put Too Faced Shadow Insurance on first.

Primers that never crease on me:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study
Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer

Pricing:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance – $17.00 for .35 oz of product
Detrivore Primer – $6.00 for 5 gm net weight (might be .17 oz)
Aromaleigh Light Primer – $9.50 for 5 gm net weight (maybe .17 oz)
Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer – $10.00 for 3 gm net wet (maybe .11 oz)
MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study – $16.50 of .17 oz of product (in 5g jar)
Urban Decay Primer Potion – $16.00 for . 34 oz of product
Cream Eye Shadow in White – $6.95 for .11 oz of product (in a 3g jar)

The Price Per Ounce:
(This is the price per ounce assuming my estimations above are all correct.)
Too Faced Shadow Insurance $48.57
Detrivore Primer – $35.29
Aromaleigh Light Primer – $55.88 (25% off would be $41.91)
Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer – $90.91 (25% off would be $68.18)
MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study – $97.06
Urban Decay Primer Potion – $47.06
Cream Eye Shadow in White – $63.18

Both of the Aromaleigh Primers can be purchased at 25% off if you wait for Aromaleigh to have a sale on them. I’m actually pretty surprised by how expensive the Cream Eye Shadow, MAC Paint Pot and Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer turn out to be.

For the record, while I don’t have oily skin, my eyelids and eye area seem to be very oily. I believe that this is the reason that some primers just don’t work well for me.

The Detrivore primer actually seems to be the most vibrant, with Too Faced Shadow Insurance & Aromaleigh Light Primer very close to it in terms of vibrancy.

The Detrivore primer and the Aromaleigh Light Primer seem to have the same texture, and unfortunately both crease on me if I don’t spend extra time on them. I am able to get the Detrivore to not crease by using Too Faced Shadow Insurance under it. I can get the Aromaleigh Light Primer to not crease by tapping it lightly onto my lid. However, I always end up having to take extra time to carefully tap Aromaleigh Light Primer onto my lid and it takes me longer than my TFSI.

One of the reasons I love Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and to a lesser extent MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study and Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer, are that I can just easily and quickly apply them and I don’t have to worry if I get a tad too much on, because it won’t crease.

My favorite primer is still Too Faced Shadow Insurance. It’s the easiest one for me to use. I can just apply it and go. It’s pretty vibrant and colors last all day on me without creasing.

However, you can see that Detrivore and Aromaleigh Light Primer are very, very good primers, especially if you don’t have problems with oily lids and creasing like I do.

Urban Decay Primer Potion appears to be a pretty good primer, BUT I absolutely hate the waste from the bottle. Having to cut that sucker open to get out primer is not appealing to me. What surprises me is that it’s not as vibrant as Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Detrivore or Aromaleigh Light Primer. I know so many people who prefer UDPP to anything else that it’s surprising because of my results from this comparison.

Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer is nice because of its multipurpose uses. It does work pretty well on the lips with lipstick and I really prefer it for that use. The MAC Paint Pot is nice because you can use it as an eye shadow if you like.

If I was asked to recommend primers I would recommend:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Detrivore
Aromaleigh Light Primer
Aromaleigh Eye & Lip Primer

What do you think?
Which do you use?
Which would you like to try?

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