While using a good foundation is definitely a key part of putting your best face forward, its amazing what a difference using a solid primer can make in your overall look. Primers act as a barrier between your skin and your makeup, evening out imperfections, filling in pores and locking everything into place. A great primer will ultimately make your foundation glide on beautifully, and keep it from melting, fading, or getting splotchy throughout the day. Given their sort of utilitarian nature, a lot of primers may not be the kind of thing you display proudly on your vanity. Unless, of course, that primer happens to be the Touche Éclat Blur Primer, which is as pretty to look at as it is functional. The Touche Éclat Blur Primer is a silicone based formula that melts into your skin, leaving it incredibly smooth and glowing. It contains four nourishing oils (corn, apricot kernel, passiflor, and rice bran) to hydrate and plump the skin without a greasy feel. It's also generally stunning to look at, with shimmering gold flecks swirling inside, and a luxurious gold metal cap and pump. In this VoxBox I only received a sample sized version of the product, so you definitely should check out what the full sized bottle looks like to see what I'm talking about!
I have to say, I seriously have been loving using this primer. It's incredibly lightweight and has a very silky, slippy sort of feel to it. The tiny flecks of gold you see throughout are actually visible on your skin after application, although whether or not they are visible through your foundation is questionable. Right now my favorite way to use this product is to mix it in with my Cover FX Custom Cover Drops. The end result is a foundation that is feather light with amazing coverage that lasts all day and has a soft, matte finish. A full sized bottle retails for $52 and contains 1 oz of product, which does make me sort of cringe a little bit. I don't think I'll be running out and buying one just yet, especially while I've still got a sample size on hand. But perhaps this would be the kind of luxurious treat I would gift myself for the holidays.
And then, of course, is the Touche Eclat Blur Perfector - a revolutionary balm that sets like a powder and can be used either by itself or with foundation to mattify and blur the look of pores. I've never seen a product quite like this before, which made me even more excited to try it.
First off, let me say that Yves Saint Laurent gets an A+ for presentation with this product. The compact it comes in is absolutely stunning. The pink-on-gold packaging is so classic and feminine, and you even get a little velvet pouch to store it in so that it won't get scratched by other things in your purse. You're also given a small white cosmetic sponge that you can use to apply the product, and there's a separator inside the pouch so you can keep it stored separately from the compact itself. The sponge will get grubby pretty quickly, and I think it's going to involve a bit of maintenance to keep everything clean, but I appreciate the extra touches to make it travel friendly while keeping the high end feel.
The balm itself is quite interesting in texture. It's very light and silky, and does definitely dry down to a powdery feel. YSL claims that you can use this product alone to give your skin a fresh, rosy glow, however with my large pores and blemishes I prefer to use it in partnership with a good foundation. Now, I've also tried using this over my foundation as suggested to mattify oily parts of my face, and have had sort of mixed success. You definitely need to gently dab this on top of your makeup so as not to disturb it (which was the first mistake I made), and then pat it in with your fingers. I don't think this is as mattifying as some of the finishing powders I've tried, and its definitely not as easy to use for a touch up, so I can't say that this is my preferred use for the product either. Personally I like to use this best under my foundation on the T-Zone to help minimize shine and the appearance of pores.
The Touche Eclat Blur Perfector retails for $55, and while it is a beautiful product, I think if I had a choice of where to put my money I'd probably buy the Blur Primer instead. If I had better success with the Perfector as a mattifier I think it would win out, but since I only ever use it under makeup I think the all over primer would be a better investment for me. On another note, it looks like YSL offers a bronze-toned version of this that looks like it would be fantastic. I would really love to give that one a go as well!
If you've also tried either of these YSL products I would love to hear your thoughts. Did you find that the Blur Perfector worked well for mattifying makeup, or were you on my side of the fence? Also, for those of you who are more familiar with the brand, what are your favorite YSL products? If you could only buy one thing from the line, what would it be?
In the meantime, be on the lookout for an everyday makeup post that will be featuring both of these products in case you'd like to see them in action! Hopefully it'll be up sometime in the next week.
*These products were sent complimentary to me from Influenster for testing purposes. This post contains affiliate links. For more information regarding my affiliations and disclosures click here.
