Do I Need This? Glitter Primer (with comparison of NYX Glitter Primer and Too Faced Glitter Glue)

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Welcome to the latest installment of my Do I Need This? series. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinions about whether or not I think a product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least.

It seems like all my posts in this series are about primer lately. Well, there are a lot of different primers out there these days after all. One of the few types I hadn't tried until recently is glitter primer. Um, because I don't use cosmetic glitter, so why would I? But when I had trouble with a lovely, but crumbly, eyeshadow, resident witch recommended a glitter adhesive. From what I can tell, glitter primer originated with indie makeup companies who designed it to work with their loose pigments and glitters, but it's become more widely available in recent years (the Too Faced primer has been around since at least 2011). I am happy to be educated on the real origins of this type of product, however, if you know more than I do, which wouldn't be hard! I picked the only affordable option I'd seen, NYX Glitter Primer ($6), but I also had two samples of Too Faced Glitter Glue ($20) to try out. I'll compare the two products and try to provide some information so you can decide if glitter primer is something that would be useful to you.

Do you need glitter primer?

Short answer: Maybe, if you already own messy eyeshadows and you really want to make them work. Or glitter!

Do I Need This? Lip Primer (Comparison of Too Faced Lip Insurance Lip Primer, e.l.f. Lip Lock Pencil, and Bite Beauty Line & Define Lip Primer)

Disclosure: Affiliate links.

Welcome to the latest installment of my Do I Need This? series. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinion about whether or not I think a product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least. 

One of the ways beauty companies keep us buying things is by continually creating new categories of suddenly indispensable products. Primer is one category that has certainly been growing over the last five years or so. Suddenly we need to prime everything: our faces, our eyelids, and even, apparently, our hair. I'm not going to be buying any hair primer, and foundation primer rarely seems to actually do anything to improve my makeup, but eyeshadow primer has actually become essential for me. I used to rarely bother with eyeshadow because it creased and melted off in a couple of hours, so primer makes a huge difference. But lipsticks and lip glosses can be finicky and fleeting too. Will lip primer do anything to make our lives easier? Or is it just another gimmick?

Do you need lip primer?

Short answer: Maybe, if you have problems with lip color feathering or pigmented glosses fading.

I'm going to compare three different lip primers here--one very cheap and two pretty expensive, one a thick liquid and two waxy sticks. Too Faced Lip Insurance Lip Primer ($20) is a whitish, translucent liquid product that comes in a tube with a doe foot applicator. It's similar to an eyeshadow primer (though I tried using eyeshadow primer on my lips and it was not a success). Bite Beauty Line & Define Lip Primer ($22) and e.l.f. Lip Lock Pencil ($3) are very similar, hard, matte, waxy crayons. The main difference is that the Bite product smells minty. (Note: I have a mini version of the Bite primer, which was part of the holiday Bite Discovery Kit.) No swatches of the primers here, because they are all nearly transparent. All three products make essentially the same claims: to prevent feathering and make lip color last longer. I tested each product with the same tricky lip gloss and lipstick.

Not my greatest photography.

First up, lip gloss. One of my favorite lip glosses is Avon Glazewear in Intense Plum (now sadly discontinued but still available on Amazon). As the name suggests, it's a quite pigmented purplish gloss. The problem is that that once I blot it, most of the color disappears. Wearing a thick layer of it, however, isn't really an option, because it gets messy and smeary. Too high maintenance. So a primer that can keep it in place at full strength would be ideal.

(Many, many photos below, so I will give you a cut.)

Too Faced 50-75% off on HauteLook

Disclosure: This post contains referral links.
Speaking of deals: Too Faced is on HauteLook for the next three days, which is interesting, since they don't show up there very often. There's all sorts of stuff, including eyeshadow palettes, an eyebrow kit, blushes, and foundations. I don't tend to buy things from this brand, because the cutesy packaging turns me off, but I know that they make some quality stuff. Are you going to get anything?

On Friday, there's also going to be a Nordstrom Beauty Bag for sale on HL, so you might want to wait and combine orders. Of course, then you take your chances that what you wanted from Too Faced will be sold out.

Big Too Faced Sale

Up to 70% off. For example, a set of 5 travel size products ("Beauty Editor Darlings") for $9 or the "Bonjour Beautiful" set with matte eyeshadow palette, lip palette, and eyeliner for $18. You can also get free shipping over $25 with code PRETTYPACKAGE (I think? worth a shot at least) and an extra 4% off from Ebates (invite link).

The only thing I've ever used from Two Faced is the lip primer, which I love. Anything else look good?

Too Faced is on HauteLook starting at $6 (up to 70% off)

Eyeshadow palettes, lipsticks, glosses, etc. I don't actually own anything from Too Faced other than the lip primer (which is great but not included in this sale). I know they're popular and expensive, though, so they must be good? Or something? Anyway, 60-70% off is definitely not bad.

The thing with HauteLook is that it can take a couple of weeks to ship, and shipping is about $6. You also need an account to browse, so here is my invite link, in case you want to use it.

Do I Need This? Eyeshadow Primer (with comparison, reviews, and photos of seven primers)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Here is the latest installment of "Do I Need This?", a series about new and trendy beauty products (or just those that might be unfamiliar and baffling to both of us). I'll offer my experience and opinion about whether or not I think the product under consideration is worth shelling out for. Obviously, you don't need ANY beauty products, so the answer is always going to be no, a little bit. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all if you use it? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to give you a starting point at least.

Short answer: Yes, if you wear eyeshadow or eyeliner.

Do you know of a cheap dupe for Too Faced Lip Insurance Primer?

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link.

I got a sample of this stuff from Sephora recently, not expecting much from it, but I was really impressed. Damn! I hate it when I like expensive shit. But this really makes lip gloss work better: it makes it more pigmented/brighter/darker, and it sticks and lasts significantly longer. It's some kind of magic. I've been looking for a cheap alternative without any luck, though it seems like such a basic product. Does anyone out there know of one? I am really reluctant to spend $20 on a full size tube of this (or anything else, really) - but I like it enough that I might have to. I want to make sure there isn't something less expensive out there first, though.

I'm thinking I might try some eyeshadow primer, though most of mine have some kind of beige or white pigment in them. I will report back if I have any luck.

Stila on HauteLook today AND 20% off Urban Decay and Too Faced

I don't own anything by Stila except one eyeliner (a Smudge Stick, which is fantastic), so I can't recommend much to you from personal experience. Here is my HauteLook invite link, if you don't already have an account.

The code for the Urban Decay Friends and Family Sale is FFSPRING13. It's good today through Feb. 16 and is valid on sale items too! Everything I've ever tried from UD has been good, but I particularly recommend the eyeshadow primer.

The code for the Too Faced sale is xoxo20 and it's good until Feb. 14. I own absolutely nothing from Too Faced, so you're on your own here. I know that people also like their eyeshadow primer, though. When I tried to use the site earlier today, it was moving very, very slowly, so you might need to exercise some patience.