I review emerginC red carpet primer… for my grey carpet life.

From time to time I’m sent products to try out and review, and emerginC red carpet primer has been the best product I’ve been sent in some time. In this (admittedly poorly lit) video I talk through my minimal make up routine bringing the primer product into my collection of Things I Put On My Face.

Transcript follows:
Hi! So today I’m going to do just a little review of a product that I was sent in the mail. It’s called emerginC red carpet primer. Now I am not a beauty blogger but I am someone who does use beauty products and I think it’s important that people who don’t have “beautiful, gorgeous” skin get involved in talking about beauty products and if they actually work. So many of the vloggers that I see talking about beauty products are just frigging stunning and make up artists, but you know I’m not an expert I’m just someone who buys things like this.

Now I was kind of surprised to get this in the mail, somewhere along the line I got signed up for a beauty blogger thing (which was surprising!) but it kind of fits in, in a strange way, to how I talk about body image. Now, I still use make up because in the whole scheme of things I still feel like I need to use make up (sometimes need and sometimes want) because it does make me feel better about myself and I’ve had bad acne since I was about 12 or 13 so I spent a long time trying to cover that up. It’s only just in recent years that I’ve been confident enough to go out without make up but today I want to try out this primer and I want to show you how I feel about it.

I’ve tried out a few primers in the past, one of them being the Napoleon primer which I thought was excellent but it is quite expensive; and then I saw a tip that you could use Monistat chafing cream as a primer and I was like “WHAT! I thought you could only use that on your thighs or other places that chafe!” I bought some on eBay, it was only about $8 and I think that included shipping from the States, and used it on my face and it works pretty much the same way.

Now this emerginC one is actually tinted and it’s probably darker than my actual skin tone so I was a bit concerned with that at first and I was actually wondering if they do even darker tints because I’ve heard so much from women of colour about how difficult it is to find tints and foundations that actually match their skin. I’m always surprised when I get tinted things, they seem to be a “one size [colour!] fits all” type thing. This product is kind of dark when you start putting it on but as you blend it in it seems to go ok and I don’t know if you’d wear this alone (I probably wouldn’t) but it seems to blend in fairly well. It’s still got that very typical slippy feel that most primers have, and that’s the whole thing, they go on your skin and fill up parts that need filling up and help the make up adhere (I guess?!) I don’t know, I’m not an expert! I actually have a sister who trained as a make up artist and she would probably be able to tell me more.

It takes me a few squirts to get full coverage, that’s just because I’ve got a big face. I’ve actually been using this off and on for about a month, and I stopped using Monistat just because this was always at hand and it’s got a little pump, which I really like. I just find it handy and I quite like it.

So once you’ve applied it just do your hair or something and let it set on your face. It feels quite – er it’s not “light”, it’s not very “heavy” either but you can definitely feel that something is on your face. I don’t know if you can see any kind of difference; some people claim that putting on primer helps even out skin tone but I don’t notice that a whole lot. I guess you can judge for yourself.

The make up that I use, it hasn’t changed in many years. It’s Revlon ColorStay and I haven’t been paying attention but I think somewhere along the line the colour formulas changed and I had to actually go lighter in the spectrum and I don’t know how to say this but I think it’s “150 Buff Chamois” (I pronounce it as sham-ee!) I can’t say French, I’m too Austrayan!

This looks like it’s quite light on my skin but once I’ve applied pressed powder it blends in a lot better. I’ve got a lot of red undertones in my skin and also some yellow colouring so it’s very hard to find something that matches me exactly. I just use my fingers, I’m not a make up artist, I don’t get very particular about this kind of thing. So I just pat it in. I was actually a make up model for my sister when she was training and the way that they were taught was actually to just pat the foundation on. They were taught to use brushes and sponges and what-have-you as well but the make up artist said she just liked to pat the foundation into the skin. So I guess everyone does it a different way.

So I’m just going to finish off my make up here.
(Time passes magically.)

I’ve finished putting foundation on, I haven’t put any powder on to set it yet but I find with this ColorStay stuff you just let it sit for a while and some people leave it there but I like my make up to look extra matte so I apply the ColorStay powder as well. I can tell a difference after I use the primer, it just feels like the make up is not settling into my quite large pores and sometimes blemishes. I really enjoy using it but then again, I don’t know if all primers are the same! They do seem to do the same kind of job and the only difference is, I don’t know, price?! But I enjoy using this all the time now. I never really thought about using a primer before a few years ago and now that I’m getting older and my skin is still the same as when I was a teenager except now I’ve got additional scars and large pores. Primer just seems to even out the surface and provide extra coverage. Also, without adding powder to set it can actually make your make up feel a little bit more dewy, so that’s a different look if you feel comfortable with that, but I’ve never actually felt comfortable with dewy skin!

(More time magically passes and I have mascara and dark plum lips.)

Ok so now that I have done all of my make up for today I will wrap it up. I just applied some Revlon Just Bitten in Midnight on my lips and a mascara I just bought, Maybelline The Falsies Volum Express. It’s waterproof, I don’t know, and it gives me more lashes than I really have.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my review and my approach to beauty which is quite like “whatever”! The emerginC primer – I enjoyed using it and I can tell the difference when I use it underneath my make up. Some tips are: Blend it well, allow it to dry and yep, just wack on that make up afterwards and GO!

See you later!

emerginC red carpet primer retails for around USD$44 on their US website.