Makeup Revolution Prime & Lock Longwear Eyeshadow Primer Review

Well hello there and back to the blog I am! - on a side note, how fast is Christmas approaching?! It's a makeup blog post today and today is a review of the Makeup Revolution Prime & Lock Longer Eyeshadow Primer. In need of a new eyeshadow primer and on the hunt to find a replacement for the original Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion I decided to make a wild card pick and grab this which caught my eye, the Makeup Revolution Prime & Lock Longwear Eyeshadow Primer. As the name suggests, it sounded full to the brim of hardcore, lock-your-shadow-in-place-all-day power and that I like!

Being a fellow oily lidded person, with hooded eyes that lets go of shadow at the sight of a tear, this sounded right up my alley. What I loved so much about Urban Decay's original Primer Potion was how well it kept my eyeshadow locked in place, without budging! So of course, as with any beauty product I use, I had a spark to review this fully and see how it faired up as a match for my holy grail, but since changed formula, Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion!

Intrigued and with some strong feelings brewing after first use, here's my review of the Makeup Revolution Prime & Lock Longwear Eyeshadow Primer.

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What does the Makeup Revolution Prime & Lock Longwear Eyeshadow Primer aim to do?

According to it's product description on Makeup Revolution's website, the Prime & Lock Longwear Eyeshadow Primer aims to create a tacky base that keeps your eyeshadow in place for longer, while also balancing out redness with a slight tint of colour to it.

What's the texture like?

I didn’t really know what to expect with this eyeshadow primer as I hadn’t come across it before. It’s actually got quick a thick and creamy texture to it and blends out quite nicely, with a gently velvety finish. It dries down to more of a matte finish though, that's minimally tacky (not tacky at all really I noted).

How much do you need?

From trial and error I’ve found about a good big pea sized dollop does the trick for both eye lids, to get the best coverage out of it.

How I apply it...

As with any eye primer, just my ring finger! It actually recommends in the product description to apply it with fingertips or a flat brush but I feel like you’d loose a fair bit of product if you applied it with a flat brush.

How does it feel on the eyes?

In terms of ease of wear, it's lovely. It’s not heavy at all but feels thick enough to do a good job. I have ever so slightly sensitive eyes and it works really well for me. There’s no scent and it causes no irritation for me. It sits comfortably and actually feels quite satisfying with its thick and creamy formula. It DOESN'T feel oily despite being a thicker eyeshadow primer and it doesn’t budge around in a creamy mess once applied. It feels pretty undetectable.

How effective really is it?

Okay, so we're off to a good start with how it applied and I was really impressed with the Prime & Lock Longwear Eyeshadow Primer at first. It certainly seemed to cement my beliefs in it's hardcore, lock-your-shadow-in-place power with how it first applied. All sounding good application-wise, I was left feeling a little deflated with its performance unfortunately. On first use I noted that it's fairly warm toned and came out quite dark, which can be a noticeable factor on me as we all well know, of those of us who've been here before, I'm as pale as paper! Prior to this, I was using the Peaches & Cream Eyeshadow Primer , which was fairing up as a decent post-Urban-Decay eye shadow primer and also had a bit of a tint of colour to it. The warm toned Prime & Lock is similarly warm toned to the Peaches & Cream but it didn't blend out as seamlessly with my complexion. I find it can give a noticeable, slightly orange toned difference between my eye area and surrounding complexion. 

  

On first uses I really felt like the Prime & Lock didn't have much coverage too. Now coverage isn't a massive factor I look for in an eyeshadow primer (I'm not looking for a P Louise or MAC Painterly Paint pot wash-out), it's all about the power it has in keeping my eyeshadow in place and increasing its longevity of wear, but I do like it to even things out a little, to compliment a seamless shadow look. I was surprised that with its darker, warm toned shade, the Prime & Lock seemed to look quite translucent on my lids yet still noticeably orangey. The Peaches & Cream Primer whereas does offer coverage, whilst also having a slightly warm toned tint to it but one that does blend in seamlessly with my complexion. Later on, seeing myself apply this in a video I was surprised that I could notice a difference to my eye area in coverage after I applied the Prime & Lock Primer but I think the more I've used it the more I've leaned towards using a more generous pea-sized amount, which in turn maybe gives the eye primer a bit of  oomph in it's coverage.

So, down to the nitty gritty... is it good a getting my eyeshadow to stick in place and increase it's longevity of wear? It's taken a lot of umming and ahhing after a few trials and tests but ultimately, I don't think it's the strongest eye primer at keeping your shadow in place. The first time I wore the Prime & Lock I wore a winged liner and I noticed throughout the day my lids seemed to get a bit oily and the eye liner did transfer to my upper crease. Now I was wearing this eye liner for the first time too but it's a pretty decent one (NYX  Epic Ink Liner) though I don't know if I can attribute it's transferring wholly to the eye primer as both of them were new products to me. On next try though, I tried it with eyeshadow but I felt like the shadow looked a bit lacklustre. It was a little bit of a lacklustre eyeshadow its self to be fair but the primer didn't help it I felt. Since, I've kept trying the it with my daily eyeshadow and different eyeshadow looks and although it is by far not the worst eyeshadow primer I've tried, my eyeshadow does tend to crease and get a bit patchy by the end of the day. With other eyeshadows the colour payoff is not bad but because my eye lids seem to get a little oily as the day goes on wearing this, things become patchy on the lid. 

I notice that the shadows I wear over the Prime & Lock Primer tend to break down kind of quickly on my eye lids throughout the day and my eyeshadow just doesn't look as intense. I must say, my eyeshadow blends well over it as a base to start but the seller and whole purpose of an eyeshadow primer to me is it's ability to increase the longevity of your eyeshadow wear and unfortunately the Prime & Lock Eye Shadow Primer just wasn't the best I've tried at doing that for me.

It had high hopes but just wasn't quite as good as I envisioned.

How easily is it removed - the end of day cleanse battle?

Now, bearing in mind that I've been on a bit of a first cleanse and road test in recent months, the Makeup Revolution Prime & Lock Eyeshadow Primer has been too troublesome of an eye primer to remove. It's behaved pretty okay with different makeup removers and cleansers and not posed any significant issues when I've cone to remove my eye makeup. it's maybe ever so slightly a little tougher to removed and clings or in essence causes shadow to cling minimally on removable but I really am talking minuscule matters here - also surprising considering my shadow does wear down pretty fast when using it.

Price and value for money?

At £6 currently on the Makeup Revolution website, for 6ml, I feel like it's in a pretty affordable bracket, paired with the fact that it seems to have lasted me a long time. Now I haven't been using it every day but I feel like the fluffy doe foot applicator is really effective at getting all the product out, whereas squeeze tunes sometimes make it a little trickier to finish all the product. I definitely say this is a plus of the product.

Overall thoughts...

Weighing everything up, it was a promising start I had with the Makeup Revolution Prime & Lock Longwear Eyeshadow Primer but it just didn't end up doing what it said on the tin. I really liked the formula of it but I just wish it had a little better coverage and a little less of an orange and more of a neutral tint to it. Compared to other eyeshadow primers I've tried, it didn't really stand out in any way at making my eyeshadow last better than other and it tends to leave my eyeshadow looking a little deflated and fast-fading on the days I use it. Although a good bargain that lasts well, I just don't think it's one I''l repurchase personally for its slightly lacklustre performance. The being said, it may well have not been he best performing eye shadow primer for me because I do have quite hooded eyes, which makes eyeshadow movement a really tricky issue to master. As noted, I'm also someone definitely prone to slightly oily lids as the day goes on an that's a tricky completion to fair up to. For an eyeshadow primer that promises to be long-wearing though it didn't provide long-wearing for me.

It was great to try and it's by far not the worst eye shadow primer I've tried but I will be continuing on the hunt for something that's going to stick my eyeshadow in place throughout the day. For lighter shadow looks I'm going to keep using this up and reserve my Urban Decay Primer Potion (although the new and slightly not as good as the old - my poor heart breaks - formula) for the heartier eyeshadow looks.

Ahhh it feels so good to be back to writing again... 

As we're heading into the festive season there's many more beauty posts like this lined up to come and I cannot wait to get festively blogging sharing my thoughts and all things Christmas beauty this season!

Until my next, very soon to come post (I can assure you!),

Ellie x

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