Does a girl really need to wear primer on a daily basis? If you're a Lazy Girl like me, the answer's probably no, but the new Dermalogica Hydrablur Primer ($62)—with its skincare benefits and smooth, velvety, lightweight texture—just might surprise you and change your mind like it did mine.
Dermalogica Hydrablur Primer makes a bold number of promises: it claims to hydrate and smoothe fine lines; mattify oil and shine; blur imperfections; and extend the wear of makeup. The colour-adjusting formula is supposed to blend perfectly with your skin tone and impart a luminous finish.
My main pet peeve with a lot of primers on the market is how heavy and silicone-y they can feel. As tempting as the prospect of achieving a poreless complexion can be, at the end of the day I'd prefer to not wear so much makeup and let my skin breathe day to day, and save the heavy-duty HD primers for special occasions.
Dermalogica Hydrablur Primer is definitely not one of these primers. As soon as I put it on, I was immediately impressed by how weightless and silky it felt. My skin immediately looked soft and velvety, a bit more matte and a bit less ruddy. I liked how the colour-adjusting pigments made it blend into my skin flawlessly rather than leaving behind an ashen cast. Although the Dermalogica website recommends using a sponge or brush to achieve a heightened blurring effect, rubbing just pea-sized amount into skin with clean fingertips.
The very sheerness and lightness of Dermalogica Hydrablur Primer is both its virtue and its downfall. It's not pigmented or colour-correcting enough to substitute for foundation or concealer unless you have perfect skin. It also doesn't even out pores as effectively as a heavier primer will, so it's not a great choice for prime photo ops like wedding photos.
All that being said, it makes an excellent everyday primer. The formula imparts a velvety, soft-focus finish on skin, mutes the dewiness of my cushion foundation, and absorbs oil and shine effectively for about 10 hours. I usually have to blot my forehead, T-zone, cheeks, and chin by mid-day, but with Hydrablur Primer on I only experience a little bit of shine around the nostrils. What's more, my makeup looks better than usual because of how it sits on the primer, and the creases in my forehead (usually caused by dehydration) are less pronounced. The fact that Hydrablur Primer is comfortable to wear, feels like nothing on, and is a cinch to apply makes me much more inclined to use primer daily.
P.S. It should also be noted that Dermalogica Hydrablur Primer comes with a little plastic piece intended to slide down the tube and help squeeze out every last bit of product. I'm of two minds on this. On one hand, it's a great way to make the most of a pricey Dermalogica product and it's sized to work with all of Dermalogica's skinny needle-nose tubes. On the other hand though, it seems wasteful to include additional plastic bits with a product instead of just designing efficient packaging in the first place. Besides, the tube has a flat cap so you can stand it upside-down or tap it against the palm of your hand.
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