Beauty Battle: Collection VS Urban Decay Eye Primer.

“The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.” – Yves Saint-Laurent.

I don’t usually compare two products side by side, but when I heard that Collection had a new eye primer out I knew I had to try it and see how it compared to Urban Decay’s Primer Potion. I mean, at a quarter of the price of Urban Decay, the Collection one is definitely worth a try.

Cost:

The Collection Illuminating and Reviving Eye Primer costs £4.99 for 15 ml (although I bought it for £3.99 due to an offer being on in Boots). Meanwhile, the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion is £16 for 10 ml, so not only is it almost four times the price, but you actually get a third less of the product.

Packaging:

The packaging of both products is slightly different. While with the Collection eye primer you squeeze the tube to get to the product, the Urban Decay primer, similarly in a tube, has a wand in it to get the product out and transfer it directly onto your eyelids.

First impressions:

The Collection eye primer is clear in colour while the Urban Decay has a tint to it (generally a nude tint, except for the shade Sin which matches the eyeshadow of the same name). This means that the former product is used solely as a base for eyeshadows, while the latter can be used to even out the colour on your eyelids and as a cream eyeshadow itself.

I also noticed that the consistency of the Collection eye primer is thinner than the Urban Decay one which suggests that it may not be as effective at keeping eyeshadow in place, or that you may need to use more of it in order for it to work as well as the Urban Decay Primer Potion. To test out the eye primers, in order to get the most accurate and reliable comparison, I tested them side by side, applying one to each eye.

When applying eyeshadow on top of the eye primers, I found that my eyeshadow was easier to blend on the eye with the Collection primer. As a result, the application and blending of eyeshadows was a lot smoother and I think that this might have had something to do with the fact that the formula of the eye primer was a bit thinner.

Effectiveness:

Throughout the day I checked on my eyeshadow hourly since applying it. On some occasions I updated any changes on Snapchat (oh yes, I’ve recently made a blog Snapchat – driftinglexi – so feel free to add me on there). It wasn’t until six hours after applying my eyeshadow that I noticed any kind of difference. The eye with the Collection eye primer gave the tiniest sign of the beginnings of creasing. However, my eyeshadow was still in place for the most part, so I didn’t end it here.

I didn’t notice much change again until the eight hour mark where creasing was becoming more evident and about forty minutes later I checked again and the effectiveness of the product had clearly worn off. Meanwhile the eye with the Urban Decay Primer Potion had stayed perfect throughout.

Conclusion:

As you can tell, the Collection eye primer was not as effective as the Urban Decay one. However, it wasn’t entirely useless. I did get a solid six hours wear from my eyeshadow before the product started to budge. As a result of this, it would be very ideal for everyday use, plus it is a lot cheaper. If you needed your eyeshadow to really last the whole day and/or night you would be much better off with the Urban Decay Primer Potion (which still hadn’t budged after twelve hours, though I didn’t keep it on any longer than that), but since that’s rarely necessary for me, I think I will stick to the Collection one for the majority of the time.

I did also compare the Collection eye primer to my eyelid without any kind of primer, not even concealer. I found that the eye primer made a different to the appearance of my eyeshadows as it really picked up on the colour and it was easier to pack more eyeshadow onto without losing the pigment. I also found that my eyeshadow did end up lasting better on the eye primer, although again it did start creasing around the six hours mark.

I hope that you found this post useful. Let me know in the comments below what your favourite eyeshadow primer is!

Have you used either of these products before?

-driftinglexi

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