Review: Estee Lauder’s Little Black Primer

I’m back beauties!!! The end of the semester was mental and I’m sooo happy to be back at it and have some time for myself again. Luckily during this ‘break’ from the blog, I got so many great ideas that I can’t wait to get started on 🙂 But today I have a product review for you, which I have been able to test thoroughly over the last couple of weeks – Estee Lauder’s Little Black Primer. The product is a mascara primer which is black instead of the usual white. How obvious yet innovative at the same time lol Estee Lauder is the first (and probably now won’t be the last) to release a totally black mascara primer.

I love mascara primers because while I have long lashes, I crave volume. Primers thicken up your lashes because you are of course adding an extra layer to your lashes, but it shouldn’t make your usual mascara look clumpy or crusty. Mascara primers are usually enriched with some added treatment ingredients, to help condition your lashes. Because my favourite mascara in the world is the original Dior Diorshow mascara, I have also been using the Dior Diorshow Maximizer Lash Plumping Serum (what a mouthful!). The Dior mascara primer is good, however I didn’t feel to bad giving another primer a whirl, because who isn’t on the look out for something a little better? 😉 I used to also use the Clinique Mascara Primer back in the day which was fabulous (and cheaper) but it was a pain in the butt to find and repurchase, so I just gave up on that mission.

Here is what Estee Lauder claim their Little Black Primer will do for your lashes:

“Think of it as the little black dress for lashes. Unlike traditional lash primers that are white, this primer is tinted black, so you can use it on its own.

Three ways to wear it:

Tint: Colours and lifts bare lashes so they stay silky black throughout the day and even overnight.

Amplify: As a primer, it’s the optimal mascara base for volume, lift and length.

Set: Brush over mascara for a long-wearing, water-resistant topcoat that helps reduce smudging and flaking.

No well-dressed lashes should be without it.”

When I excitedly opened up my very new new mascara primer, I was actually disappointed by the brush. It just looked so ‘meh’. Nothing fancy indeed. It looks like an ordinary curved mascara brush, that ‘curling mascaras’ always have. The bristles are quite short and this isn’t a silicone brush. I’m used to seeing big bristles on mascara primers because those brushes usually go with volumising mascaras.

Above: The wand and brush of Estee Lauder’s Little Black Primer. I had a very difficult time trying to get my camera to focus on the brush lol I think the white flowers behind it were to distracting…

However, I found the brush to be pretty darn good at applying the primer to the lashes! My lashes have a natural curl to them, so I can’t tell you if it does indeed help to curl lashes (and hold the curl), but it separates them well, applies without any clumps or glugginess. You could as Estee Lauder suggests, wear the primer on it’s own for very natural but yet defined lashes. The primer on it’s own doesn’t add any volume to my lashes, but it does add some length. If you are after simplicity and perhaps a multi-tasker – this guy is it! The primer layers beautifully under your regular mascara and does give your regular mascara that little bit of ‘lift’ (both length and volume). I couldn’t find any info on the mascara primer working as a lash conditioner, but that isn’t a deal breaker for me. Here is how the primer works on my lashes!

Photo one is me with no product on my eye lashes. Because I used a little bit of black eyeshadow on my lash line, the camera didn’t pick up any of my natural lashes lol I naturally have quite long lashes, but they are light at the base and darken as you go up the lash (so they do look mostly black).

With one coat, as I mentioned, lashes look defined but very natural.

With mascara over the top, I get the effect that I am after – thicker, longer and more defined lashes.

Not bad eh?

Estee Lauder’s Little Black Primer will set you back $45 in Aus. Usually I would pair any mascara primer with my fav mascara – the original Diorshow mascara – but when my boyfriend was off to the States I asked him to pick up the EL Little Black Primer primer along with Dior’s Diorshow mascara, but the poor lad got confused and bought me Dior’s Iconic mascara instead, so I’ve been wearing that lately (and it’s what I’m wearing with the Estee Lauder Little Black Primer in the photo above). It’s not bad and gives a very similar effect to Diorshow but it does transfer a little onto my brow bone unlike Diorshow, so once I’ve used it up, I will go back to my tried and tested fav!

Would I buy the Little Black Primer again? I would 🙂 I would say that it’s very comparable to Dior’s Lash Plumping Serum. I also heard that the Smashbox mascara primer is fab, so just maybe I will give that one a go next.

Here is my finished makeup of the day look btw 🙂 You may have seen the photo as I posted it up on FB showing off my new haircut 😉 Join me on FB if you haven’t already!

I noticed of course that Estee Lauder got Kendall Jenner to be the face of this new release. How do you you feel about celebrity endorsed products? I can see that her current popularity might be well received by the ‘younger generation’, but I almost feel like using her as the cash cow is a little… tacky? I don’t know, I just don’t see the appeal but whatever floats your boat! I only buy a product based on the product itself, not on who is endorsing it, but the celebrity endorsements do get irritating…

Do you use a mascara primer ever? Does the Little Black Primer look appealing to you?

Catch ya next times beauties!

Beauty Bee~

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