As today is the 150th anniversary of the London underground, what better time than to write about the undergroundings of my makeup: primers! Which, like the Tube itself, should be efficient and unobtrusive in smoothing one's way, but which at their worst are often irritating, clogging, frankly sweaty and full of strange and overpowering stenches....
Okay, okay, we will drop the metaphor. for now....
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As you can see, they all blend invisibly into my skin, even the worryingly orange Shu Tsuya peach and pigmented Suki lavender. This is why I won't be posting facial before-and-afters -- the differences -- so immediately obvious in reality, which fuels my addiction to priming not just before but above and often instead of foundation -- are beyond my photography skills at the moment.
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Okay, okay, we will drop the metaphor. for now....
The Products
left to right:
Suqqu Makeup Base Creamy (£33 for 15ml, ingredients) is the most moisturising, with a feather-light gel-cream texture. It's hideously expensive for a tiny eye-cream-sized pot, and has recently been discontinued, so I now reserve mine for special events in winter -- a pea-sized amount miraculously smoothes over flakes as well as handling the basic pore- and line-blurring and skintone-evening which are my other bottom-line requirements for primers. (With my dry skin, I don't have problems with lasting power or oxidisation.) The pale, neutral pink tint is a great brightener for prone-to-dullness winter skin, and barely registers as a colour even when I'm at my palest.
Shu Uemura Under Base Cream Pink(£29 for 30ml) Currently being auditioned as a future replacement for the Suqqu primer. The tint is slightly warmer/peachier and the texture has a more conventional light siliconey slip, unlike Suqqu's almost water-light cream [which I can't describe adequately because it's so different to most of what's out there, but if you've tried their Creamy Glow lipsticks, you'll know what I mean], and this isn't quite as moisturising, but it's the best substitute I've found so far. If you've any recommendations, please leave me a comment!
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| Shu Uemura Under Base Cream Pink ingredients |
Shu Uemura UV Underbase Mousse Tsuya (Peach) and Brightening (Pink/Purple) (each £29 for 50ml) are both part of Shu's range of fun aerosol-dispensed mousse bases, which come in several other priming shades as well as three 'foundation/BB' shades catering to NC15-NC25. The ingredients differ for each shade, but in general the mousses are lightweight and meant to create a lastingly flawless satin-matte base, with good sun protection (SPF30/PA++) for oily skins in summer heat/humidity.
The Tsuya (Peach) mousse is an evolution of this line, a skincare/makeup hybrid (incorporating Shu's Tsuya Skin serum), marketed at mature normal/combination skin. Its combined alcohol and silica content sadly proved too drying for me. Shame, as the light apricot shade was fantastic at knocking out redness and gave my skin a fabulously healthy 'bloom' which usually requires a lot of careful bronzer and blusher blending to achieve. And the light peach scent was a nice dose of psychological sunniness too.
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| Shu Uemura UV Under Base Mousse Tsuya (Peach) ingredients |
The Brightening (Pink/Purple) version shares actives with Shu's Whitefficient skincare range and is aimed instead at dry skin: the most moisturising of the mousses and actively glowy (without shimmer), with an unusual pale lilac tint to correct the sallowness, uneven tone, and overall 'dullness' which Japanese skincare wisdom conventionally links to dehydration and aims to counter with these 'brightening' products. Unlike the Tsuya mousse, this has a light floral scent.
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| Shu Uemura Brightening UV Under Base Mousse Pink/Purple ingredients |
At the Selfridges Shu masterclass last May, I was advised to use a ball closer to the size of a pea than the walnut advised on the Shu site, patting it on with a small flat brush from the centre of the face outwards (they used a #12 Synthetic). Which was fantastic advice -- the patting motions meant that pores really did vanish before my eyes and the tiny amount used prevented any ashiness (on darker skintones) or Violet Beauregarde cast (on paler ones). It takes a bit of practice to master the milisecond-press needed to dispense a pea rather than golfball, but well worth it. This does contain alcohol quite far down in the ingredients list, and on my very dry skin, is best reserved for warmer temperatures/climates; even so, it leaves me a softly luminous satin finish rather than an all-out glow. In winter, it is too matte/drying, and I mix the lavender-tinted Suki CC cream02 Brightening into my foundation to get some of the similar red- and yellow- tone correcting benefits. (More on the Suki later, in a post dedicated to base mixers.)
Swatches
left to right: Suki, Shu Pink/Purple, Shu Peach, Shu Pink, Suqqu
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| semi-blended |
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| fully blended |
For now I will transparently circle back to the anniversary of the Underground, and leave you with this cast pic from the upcoming BBC Radio 4 play of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere:
.... James McAvoy to head! Benedict Cumberbatch as The Angel Islington! Anthony Head as Croup! Sophie Okonedo as Hunter! And that's just a partial cast pic! More details here.