Smashbox Photofinish Primer Review

I've completely, 100% used up this product, so I think I can give a pretty good review of this.

I decided to buy this primer before I started college last September and it lasted me until around March, I didn't buy the full-size, but instead the travel size. It cost £12.50 from boots. When deciding to get one, I was faced with the challenge of choosing which one. I've always heard that for acne-prone skin that the photofinish light was great for my skin, and I thought the hydrating one might be something for me as I also have dehydrated skin, so thought that the Hydrating version would be for me. After going through the options with the sales assistant, I decided to buy the original and give it a try, and then I could try a different one if I didn't like the original. 

The packaging is nice, it's sleek and my travel size is perfect for travelling and ml for ml, it's not much more expensive than buying the full-size, as mini's often can be. The only thing I have to say about the packaging is that towards the end of the product, it becomes quite a challenge to get it out of the bottle, however I did think that mine had reached the end a few times, only to be surprised that more could come out. 

I apologise for reusing the photo, but mine is grubby, empty, bent out of shape and topless!

In terms of the effects, I felt this primer gave me a good base for make up, it was smoothing  so helped foundation glide on and sit nicer on my skin. I also think I have quite enlarged pores on my cheeks (my Mum says this is in my head though) and this product has a soft-focus effect on them, making them look smaller. The silicone feeling helps my foundation stay on rather than being sucked up by my dehydrated skin and I'm pretty sure that this has a big impact on helping my make up last longer. Overall I enjoyed using this primer, I really like using primers and felt that this one made a big different. It's texture reminds me of a primer which GOSH makes, which costs the same amount of money but for around double the product, however my skin didn't agree that and it caused my skin to break out and I had more clogged pores than usual. The Smashbox primer didn't do this to my skin and I didn't notice it make any difference, good or bad to my actual skin. 

Now, the question is would I buy it again? I think I would buy a smashbox primer again, maybe not this specific one as I think I'd quite like to try out their hydrating one, or the Laura Mercier Hydrating one to see which I like better.

So a question to you all, when it comes to foundation primer, do you do or don't? I'm definitely in camp 'do'! 

Boring Haul of Boringness

After an extremely long and boring UCAS talk a college, I went to check my bank balance and buy some textbooks (why do textbooks cost stupid amounts of money?) for college and found I had more money than expected, so on friday I decided to haul some essentials I had been after for a while. 


First I took a trip to MAC, I never really shop at MAC anymore as their collections bore me as it's all the same thing over and over again, and it's no longer exciting, but I do still love a lot of things in their regular line. 

Blanc Type Eyeshadow 

Blanc Type is the most boring eyeshadow ever. it's a creamy white-beige with a matte2 finish, it's really smooth, buttery and soft and really opaque, I've tried many other eyeshadows of this type but they're all must sheerer than this one is. I use it as the base for just about every make up look.

Select Cover Up Concealer in NW15 

This is a great concealer, it's light and sheer in texture but has great coverage and a skin like finish, it goes great over blemishes and under the eyes even though it's a pink toned colour. I don't like dry concealers like Studio Finish or Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage , and I hated the collection 2000 one everyone loves, I like a creamy liquid, if that makes any sense.

MAC Bulk Wipes

Oh I'm bad. I will admit that when I have evening classes, I get home, get into my jarmies, tie back my hair and wipe my make up off with a wipe. Yes a wipe. I'm awful, I know. I am really fussy with wipes though, they have to have a plastic lid and they have to be really wet feeling. My favourites are the No.7 ones, or the Soap and Glory ones, I used to like the age perfect ones from L'oreal, but they've changed the packaging. The reason I decided to get the MAC ones, was because they are my favourite and I think they remove make up best, but also because of the price. Per wipe the Soap and Glory wipes are 18p per wipe so 100 of them would cost you £18, the No.7 ones are 23p per wipe, so would cost you £23 for  100, the MAC ones are £19 for 100, and I feel they remove make up much better than either of the other brands mentioned, so to me, they're 100% worth the money. Plus the packaging counts to towards Back 2 Mac
On the subject of Back 2 MAC, I had been hoping to return my empties for Rebel Lipstick, but they were out of stock! as it was the one I really wanted, I've decided to wait and get it when it comes back into stock rather than pick an alternative.

I then took a trip to Boots and I got;

Smashbox Photofinish Primer

I decided to get a Primer as I have really dehydrated skin, foundation skins in and looks awful on my skin, so I decided to try to see if it helps keep my make up on for longer, and create a bit of a barrier to stop my skin looking so crap with make up on! when I wore it later that day my make up looked nice and it felt nicer than when I wasn't wearing it, it also kept my make up on better and stopped me from having that feeling of wanting to wash my make up off the second I am no longer in a public place.

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

I bought this after trying to hunt down the Maybelline Dream Matte powder (Love that packaging) but couldn't, so I decided to go for this one instead. it's a fairly boring product, it works, stops me looking oily but isn't super matte and is quite finely milled and feels nice on the skin.

Real Techniques Blush Brush

I bought this is as powder brush cause it's massive! it's really soft and not super densely packed like my eco tools blush brush (Great to blend, crap to apply) so dusts powder all over the face lightly, I think it is way to big for blush though, but I may try it.


I also bought some metal cuticle nippers, but they're REALLY boring so I won't show you those, they do look like a torture implement though.


So that's my haul, I still have a few bits and bobs to get to be really happy with my make up (Ive condensed down a lot of what I did have) and feel like I have everything I need...one of them is a foundation! I did like the new one from YSL but the colour isn't perfect for me (BR10 is too pink, B10 is too yellow and dark) one day, I'll get one that works for me!