Sephora Mini Haul

I've been on the hunt for a good primer for a while now. My first experience with a moisturizing, non-silicone based primer was the Too Faced Hangover Primer. That experience was so bad that I started questioning my need for a primer in the first place. In my hunt for a new primer I recently hauled two Smashbox Try-It-Kits from Sephora and I've spending the past week or few playing with the things I snagged. Being in desperate need for an eyeshadow primer and wanting to find a new foundation primer I grabbed the Smashbox Try it Kit-Primer Authority and grabbed the Try-It-Kit: Bestsellers while I was at it (for a couple of backups and things I might use).

In my past experience, most primers don't really do too much for makeup longevity, only pore filling. I am a staunch advocate for silicone based primers for myself since I have cavernous pores that each support small villages of miners, but even then there is a specific, almost lubricating quality (if you work with graphite you will know what I mean) that I look for. I like clear, thick yet spreadable pore filling face spackle that mattifies and is almost entirely unlike lotion or any type of moisturizer. A common top ingredient I've found in these primers is Cyclopentasiloxane, a huge no-no if you are trying to avoid silicones in your beauty routine, but then I'm not. In this case  Cyclopentasiloxane serves the purpose of filling in large pores beautifully and fortunately Smashbox did not disappoint with their quality and ingredients list.