Makeup Review: Benefit Cosmetics POREfessional (Pearl Primer) Face Primer

Let’s welcome each other to the world of primers. You’ve been there for quite some time? A novice or a pro? I admit I’m still on the quest to find the best primer there is on the market. I’ve only tried a few primers, and none of them I swear by. I’ve repeatedly mentioned my skin type, which is a combination of normal to dry, on my previous posts. Now that the climate here in the Philippines leans more towards the cooler side, my skin is at its driest. As a result, makeup keeps on clinging to the dry patches on my chin, and sits annoyingly on my nostrils as my skin on that area starts to peel. Even the skin on my whole body is peeling – how annoying.

Sometime early January, I came across an ad about this pearl primer from Benefit Cosmetics. Upon hearing the words “pearl primer” I knew right away I had to get it. I wanted my skin to radiate amidst the dry patches so I had high hopes that it would help me, alongside my skincare routine, achieve a better and healthy-looking skin. I tried this; hence I wanted to share my thoughts on this primer. If you’re planning to buy the Benefit Cosmetics POREfessional (Pearl Primer) face primer, this review could help you!

Makeup Breakdown:

Packaging: The primer comes in a tube. It’s easy to control the desired amount of product and I find it travel-friendly.

Shade: The product’s color looks pink-ish nude.

Smell: The smell is a bit off for me. It smells like the air freshener in public buses or jeepneys that’s suffocating… to be honest.

Application: It glides so smoothly on the face but not like an oil. It’s easily absorbed by my skin.

Performance: The primer claims to brighten dull skin, and lessen the appearance of pores and fine lines while prolonging the wear-time of makeup. It admits to perform just like the original POREfessional face primer, which comes in a blue packaging, but with a hint of radiating properties. The directions tell to apply it on the face as is or before makeup. It can also be applied over makeup to touch up (interesting).

I tested this product on three (3) different foundations. First is ELF’s Moisturizing Foundation Stick (labelled as 1 on picture) which is a cream formula. Second, or number 2 on the picture, is Maybelline Fit Me Matte & Poreless Foundation which has medium coverage and dries a bit tacky. The third one is Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation which has medium to full coverage and dries completely without the need to set.

My skin’s current issues are the following: I have no pores but textures on my nose, fine expression lines on my forehead and fine laugh lines. My chin is very dry and dull and my right nostril is peeling. I have breakouts on my left cheek and left jaw near my chin.

• The primer did not blur or lessen the appearance of the texture on my nose. It’s okay since it did not claim to do so. However, I observed that the primer made the texture more obvious with the ELF and Maybelline foundations. With the Fenty Beauty, the texture blurred out and was the best looking among the three foundations.
• The fine expression lines on my forehead were blurred a bit when I used the primer alone. My expression lines remained blurred when I applied the ELF and Maybelline foundations while appeared cakey, and remained that way until the 8^th hour mark, with the Fenty Beauty Foundation.
• The primer did not address my fine-laugh-lines issue. It looked most obvious, hence the worst, with the ELF foundation.
• This primer did not address the dryness of my chin and nose. Seems like the chin area was driest when I used the primer with the ELF foundation while the nose with the Maybelline foundation. In addition, the dullness of my chin was cancelled out only after I applied the Fenty Beauty foundation.
• The primer did not do anything with my breakouts.

The foundations still looked good even until the 8^th hour mark.

Value for Money: I bought this 7.5 ml primer on Sephora for P800.00. Given all the circumstances and my skin’s situation, is this worth the price? It’s not. I think there are better performing primers far cheaper than this.

VERDICT:

Its first claim: to target pores through minimizing. Due to the reason that I have no pores to fill, I shall pass on this.

Its second claim: to defeat dullness. I observed the primer as is on my face and I see a soft-matte finish, however, I see no radiance at all.

Its third claim: to lock on makeup. My makeup looked good for 8 hours. After the 8^th hour mark, makeup started to fade away.

Am I going to use it, repurchase, or purchase the original size? No.

Do i recommend it? No.