The Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer is a sneaky good base
If you love wearing eyeshadows, having a reliable lid primer in your stash is non-negotiable. Even with high-quality pigments it's always a good idea to get the best possible vibrancy and wear time out of your eyeshadows. Applying eye primer, so far, is the most fool-proof way to achieve that.
The Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer with SPF20 PA+++ (P1,600) is intriguing because it not only offers to make your shadows stick, it promises to hydrate, color correct, and protect your eyelids from the sun. It also has a soft silicone tip applicator that feels like a pinkie finger! It's a fun touch (pun, get it?), but in the end I'd still rather use my fingers.
We'll get to that bit later. First, the formula! The primer has a yellow tint that appears translucent enough on the lids; it won't influence the eyeshadow color. It brightens the lids immediately (no shimmer) and can even be used in the under eyes as a concealer if you wish. Coverage is light only, but it functions well enough as an illuminating concealer. So I like that 2-in-1 function! Oh and having SPF in it is smart since really, how many of us faithfully put SPF on our lids before eye makeup?
The BB Cream Eyelid Primer easy to blend as long as you don't dawdle too much. It dries quickly unlike Benefit's earlier eye primer, the Stay Don't Stray. It creates the perfect surface for eyeshadow application - it doesn't "eat" the powder and in fact helps to blend it together better. I find my eyeshadows rarely crease when I have it on. ^_^ I'm pretty happy with the formula.
Eyeshadows look super smooth and become easier to blend on top of the Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer with SPF20 PA+++
The tongue-like applicator though, I find problematic. It's a great idea on paper but in actual it's not as convenient to use. The silicon tip doesn't blend the primer; it just drags it along in a messy, streaky manner. Too bad. I had high hopes for it. Applicators like this tend to be hard plastic or semi-soft plastic; nothing I've tried is this soft, bendy, and smooth. I'm sure Benefit can improve the silicon tip in future products; it's a notable piece of engineering!
Overall, I would recommend the Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer with SPF20 PA+++ to anybody looking for a brightening, non-drying primer for their lids with the added SPF. Actually, even if you don't wear eyeshadow, it's nice to use as a sort of eyelid and under eye concealer to remove discoloration like redness, purple veins, and darkness. It's neat! Lemme know what you think of it!
