Eye primer is a subtle additional step that can vastly improve your eye look, especially if you have oily lids like me. It intensifies the shadow color and provides a tacky surface for powder to cling on to longer.

You probably already know this, but face primer and eye primer are different beasts. You may use face primer on your lids if it is ophthalmologically safe. But you canNOT use eye primer for your face! It's too sticky for that haha.

I'll be comparing the four primers in my possession: Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer, Lorac Behind the Scenes eye primer, and Urban Decay Primer Potions in Original and Greed.

Packaging

Etude House is in a small plastic bottle with a doe foot applicator. It's not the most hygenic, and it's a pain to scrape out the last bits of primer. Carina of Softly Sometimes shares her depotting method.

Lorac has a slanted tip, which results in some product wastage as you can see by the rim of dried-up primer around the opening.

Urban Decay used to have doe foot applicators as well but have switched to nozzle openings, which are the best kind for primer because you really only need a tiny bit of it.

Base Color and Finish

Etude House and Lorac are both pale pink. Etude has a shimmery finish typical of Korean cosmetics, while Lorac dries matte.

Urban Decay Original is a pale peach that has a subtle satin finish. Greed is a brilliant yellow gold shimmer.

Performance

Here are the primers under two layers of my most difficult shadow, NARS Kuala Lumpur. Interestingly, Etude House and UD Original both somewhat lighten the shadow. (This effect varies with the shades used.) Lorac makes the shadow more vibrant without altering the color. UD Greed adds a duochrome quality to it.

Etude House has been touted as the cheaper dupe of Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original. In my experience all the primers fare comparably when it comes to creasing and shadow longevity. (Here's my full review of the Lorac primer.) One thing I have noticed with Etude House and Lorac is that as time goes on, the primers become more tacky and prone to balling up. I haven't used the Urban Decay ones long enough to say the same.


Etude House Proof 10 eye primer retails for Php 298.

I got the Lorac Behind the Scenes eye primer mini (5.5 g) as part of the Pro palette but the full size (14 g) retails for US $21 (~Php 906).

These Urban Decay minis were packaged as a Black Friday set for US $10 (~Php 450). Minis (5.7 g) retail for $12 USD while full sizes (10.5 g) retail for $20 USD.