After Claire’s brilliant post yesterday (about the dark side of Instagram), it feels a bit wrong to be diving in with a beauty product review. Because, you know, the issues I have with primer are definitely up there in terms of importance. While I’m throwing myself willy nilly back into beauty blogging, I do recommend you give her post a read and let us know what you think.

So.

As usual, I’ve managed to get caught up in the hype of Maybelline’s ‘Baby’ range. I’m not sure what it is about this bandwagon, but ever since the Baby Lips fiasco (which, lets be honest, was just Vaseline in nicer packaging), we’ve all been keen to see what Maybelline would bring out next. When the Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser Primer (HOW MANY WORDS) popped up on beauty blogs and in stores, I was like “yes, get on my face”. I hurled myself to Boots as soon as I possibly could and bought it. What a mistake.

I worry that Claire and I are becoming a bit too free with our bad reviews (check out our From Bag to Bin post as an example), but the fact is we like to complain and if something isn’t right, we will most definitely share it with you. And probably use quite a few adjectives in the process.

I am just not impressed with this primer at all. AT ALL I TELL YOU. As a serial primer user, I’ve used a lot of different products over the years. From high street to high end, I’m casually working my way through what’s on the market to find the best primer out there. Unfortunately, Maybelline’s offering is way, way, way down my list.

Maybelline has described it as a “lightweight primer” for “smooth, poreless looking skin”. Personally, I like to use primers for both keeping makeup on my face for longer and reducing the size of my face caverns pores. So, the fact that Maybelline haven’t mentioned much about it making makeup last rang a few warning bells in my tiny head. While I agree that pores are a terrible problem that many of us struggle to deal with, I don’t really see the point of a primer that doesn’t help makeup length in any way. And unfortunately, the Baby Skin Primer doesn’t do anything for helping my foundation last. I still find myself powdering my shiny bits throughout the day and lasting wise, things still look a bit on the worrying side by the time I get home from work.

Another one of my problems with the Baby Skin Primer is the way it feels. I put a picture up on our Instagram the other day and mentioned that I found it quite greasy. With oily skin, I really hate anything that feels remotely greasy on my skin so I wasn’t massively keen on how it felt initially. Also, the gel is quite stiff, which is a bit odd when you squeeze it from the tube. After our blogger pal Imogen mentioned it felt ‘silicone-y’, I realise that is exactly what it’s like (partly because it does actually contain silicone) – it doesn’t feel nice and fresh like other primers, but rather like you’re smearing solid petrol on your face.

So…apart from it being like petrol and generally rubbish, what are the good points? Fair play to Maybelline, it does help to reduce the size of my pores. As that is supposed to be the main aim of the product, it does do quite well and it gives a nice ‘blur’ effect to my features. However, I’ve found that other primers do the job better (Seventeen’s Flawless Poreless Primer for example) and there’s no way by the Queen’s pantaloons that I would go out just wearing Baby Skin. For that, I would rather use the magical Skin Perfect Primer by Dermalogica and rest assured that my face looks mega.

This may even be the most damning review I’ve written to date (although Barry M’s TRAGIC AND WRONG Eyebrow Pen might come close), but I will finish with this: it is not a dupe for Benefit’s Porefessional. It’s not a dupe for anything, apart from maybe the tears of an Orangutan.

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