The Perfect Primer

In the summer months primers become the top of most beauty enthusiasts list of essentials. Primers help to stop your foundations from running down your face after three minutes on the sweaty tube (YAY for no aircon) and also provide that flawless finish after foundation is applied. I always use Clarins instant smooth as a primer for my foundation, in a past life I worked as a Clarins beauty therapist in the West End, actually a West End mobile was my official title - fancy! The Instant Smooth is the only product that I continue to repurchase again and again and again. Not that I don't enjoy the Clarins products it's just after so many years using them, and now having to pay for them (ouch) I've moved on to pastures anew!
If you haven't come across this product the word for it in the know is 'polyfiller' charming hey? It literally does do just that though. It fills all of your pores in so they no longer exist and it even has a crack at your fine lines. Disclaimer this product will not back you look 18 again (unless you are 19-20 then maybe) however it does take the edge off and I wouldn't be without it.
It is quite a thick substance and therefore I do not use this over the entirety of my face so I have been on the hunt over the last month for a more full face friendly primer. I have purchase two and they are both very different, honestly for what I want a primer to do there is a clear winner here in my mind but I will talk about both and you can make up your own mind.

PIXI Flawless Beauty Primer
I ordered this on a bit of a spare of the moment decision. ASOS had a 20% off everything day (love those) and I know delievery from there is good. I am using the PIXI glow toner and love it so I already knew a little bit about the brand so I went for it.
This primer leave my skin feeling hydrated and fresh, it contains light reflecting particles so adds a glow to your skin without leaving it too shimmery (little 90s body glitter you know that look? Not the one) however in terms of evening out skin tone and slight coverage this doesn't do the job. It is also not particularly long lasting I don't feel like it holds my foundation in place by the afternoon I am ready for a top up.

For my personal needs this primer doesn't really meet my expectations of what a primer should do I would rather use a highlighter for the area's I want to encentuate.

Stila One Step Correct 
So I had been using the PIXI primer for about a week but was feeling a bit meh about it and then during a little haul on beauty cult (new fave because they give you samples with your order yay) this product caught my eye. Firstly the packing is genius there is no way you could walk past this product and not want to pick it up and find out what this beautiful thing does. Basically this primer uses three colour correcting brighteners. A green tone to cover redness and imperfections, a peach tone to brighten and illuminate the skin and a lavender tone which counteracts sallow undertones.

In terms of evening skin tone and providing a light coverage before you apply your foundation this product is fabulous and I have definitely been reaching for it more than the PIXI primer. It is holding my foundation in place for longer and the finish is as flawless as it gets. The only thing that this primer doesn't have is a highlighting effect the peach tone is supposed to cover this function but if it is it isn't too much!

Gemma

xx