Cute Cheap Stuff

I’m just going to say upfront that this post is not that cheap. But it is cute, so let’s just go with that.

I’ve never been into buying expensive make-up. But in the past year or so, I’ve taken more of an interest in buying make-up that you can’t buy at Target or Walgreen’s – mostly stuff sold at Sephora. I like perusing the Sephora website because of the reviews and comments. Granted, for every positive review, there’s a negative review, and that can make it hard to make accurate judgments about products based on reviews, but I still find it’s helpful.

But enough about Sephora. The point of this post is eyelash primer. Eyelash primer, people! Get excited!

I have to go back to Sephora for a second though. Last year I took the plunge and because of the glowing reviews, I splurged on mascara: Dior mascara at $24. It pains me a little to say that I spent that much on mascara, but I viewed it as an investment. My eyelashes are sparse and short, and I really wanted to find something that would help them stand out.

While I liked the way the Dior mascara looked on my eyelashes and its scent (who knew make-up didn’t have to smell gross?), there was a problem. After a few hours, it would flake off – and that’s not very attractive. But I still really liked it, so I settled for only wearing the Dior when I was going out at night for just a few hours – before the mascara had a chance to flake off.

While the Dior flaked off faster than other mascaras, the flaking issue wasn’t isolated to Dior. Most mascara I tried flaked off after several hours, so I never bothered to wear it during the day. I decided that this needed to change. I’d heard about mascara primers but never bothered to try it. My eyes are really prone to getting styes, so I assumed that anything extra I added to my lashes would cause immediate styes. However, I eventually decided to just give it a shot.

I hesitantly purchased Clinique Lash Building Primer, and boy am I glad I did! It adds length, thickness, and curl to my lashes (without even having to use an eyelash curler), and it makes the Dior mascara stick all day and all night. It’s $13 well spent! You just put it on your lashes (it’s white, which I find to be a fun novelty), and then you wait a few minutes for it to dry and then you put on your mascara like usual. And it hasn’t caused my eyes to develop styes either. It’s pretty awesome.

I’ve been using the eyelash primer for a month and a half now, and I love it! There are probably cheaper brands of eyelash primer too – I just haven’t looked into them. I’m happy with the Clinique, and I think it’s going to last a long time, so I don’t view $13 as too expensive.

I also picked up Bare Escentuals bareVitamins Prime Time Eyelid Primer ($16) because my eye shadow tends to crease at the end of the night due to oily skin. This stuff also works great, but I would caution that if you’re not good at putting on eye make-up, this primer can be a problem because if you put on eye liner and you do a shoddy job (which I always do), it’s really hard to wipe off. But that also means that it helps your make-up stick! Just make sure you do it right the first time.