Eyeshadow Base and Eye Primer Differences

Do you ever experience some creases on your eyelids, or eyeshadows that didn't last longer than you expected, although you swear you had applied eyeshadow base before hand? Well, many people tend to generalize the function between eyeshadow base and eye primer. They are basically the same and can be used interchangeably, but there are slight differences between these two. Let's see what they are.

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EYE PRIMER

Eye primer is used to prime your eye lids to create an even or smooth surface. Thus create a smooth and oil-free canvas for your eyeshadow, preventing it from creasing and makes the eyeshadows easier to blend. 

Eye primer usually contains silicone/silica that covers the eye lines/crevices. It works as a barrier between your skin and eyeshadow, preventing the natural oils on your eye lids. It's like a face primer that fill in your pores and make your face appear smoother. I even sometimes wear my face primer by Revlon as an eye primer (review here) and it really helps to prevent eyeshadow from creasing. 

Aside from their smoothing effect, eye primers can also intensify your eyeshadow color and lengthen their staying power.

Some great eye primers recommended by experts and beauty blogger and sadly are still on my wishlist note, are:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Urban Decay Primer Potion

NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base

and many other

My eyeshadow primer. Find the review here.

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EYESHADOW BASE

So, an eyeshadow base is basically used as a color base under your eyeshadow to get greater color pay-off. It really intensify the eyeshadow color but doesn't always helps to prevent creasing nor lengthen the eyeshadow staying power. Although some companies also produced an eyshadow base that can be used as eye primer, but not all of them do the same. 

Basically if you don't have an eyeshadow base, you can use almost ahything sticky or moist as an eyeshadow base, like Vaseline, cream eyeshadow, lip/eye pencil, gel liner, or the infamous NYX Jumbo Pencil. I usually use the same color base as the eyeshadow applied on top, for instance: red lip pencil under a red eyeshadow, but this is not necessary.

Some colored eyeshadow base will create different result. For example, a nude eyeshadow base will erase any skin discoloration, and a black eyeshadow base will make the eyeshadow appear darker.

My NYX eyeshadow base. This is a great color intensifier but doesn't help to prevent my lids from creasing. Read the review here.

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So, basically, it's really okay to generalize between eyeshadow primer and base. Some people don't have any problem using only either one, but the result may vary from person to person.

Another thing you have to stick in mind is to apply just enough eyeshadow base/primer on your lids. Not too much nor too thin to prevent any creasing, and the right amount is also different for each person.

Hope this article is resourceful. If you have any question feel free to ask by commenting or sending me email. Or maybe if you find something not quite right about this article, don't hesitate to feedback me.