Geek Chic Cosmetics Power Up Primer

So, I was going to go ahead and just add this onto the end of the previous Geek Chic post, but it got long after doing two rounds of testing, and then I realized that I had only done black based shades,  and then I had questions about what swatches with this primer would look like compared to elf's Lock and Seal. In the end, I decided I would just make it a whole post of its own.



This is their new primer, and the only indie primer I have tried so I can't exactly compare anything else to it,but it has done the job for me.

You can see in the jar on the right that it is solid. It doesn't start out sticky, it feels just like a sort of balm,but as it dries it becomes very sticky. I put this on by itself for experimentation purposes, and when I blinked after a few seconds I could feel my eyelid sticking to itself. That is what you want in a glitter base though, because it will keep the glitter in place.

 For my first round of tests I chose Innocent and Twisted Alchemy's Illusionary Stars because it is dark, has enough glitter and color shift that I said in my review it could benefit from a better primer, and it's in a jar so it was easy to work with.

Left to right swatches of this shadow on bare skin, applied over elf primer, and using Power Up Primer. The bare skin swatch got some light color, no shimmer, and a few sparkles which would most likely fall into your eyes. The elf primer swatch enhanced the color, caught some color shift but lost the sparkles.  Finally, the power up primer brought out the whole shade range and the glitter, expressing the shadow as intended.

I also went ahead and swatched the power up primer against just wet application. The photos don't do the shimmer justice on these. Both applications held onto the glitter well, but you can see the left swatch (using power up primer) lets the back show through a lot more, while the wet application really brings out the blue of the shadow.











For my secondary tests I chose to use Clementine Will Remember because it looked like such a beautiful shade, but also like it could really benefit from a good primer.I transferred it into a jar for this experiment.

So, from right to left, bare skin, over elf primer, applied wet, over the power up primer.

The sticky base really brings out the true beauty of the shade, but I also think that applied wet or over elf primer it is very wearable so you could make multiple looks out of this one shade.

(I don't know what is up with the little black spot, but the red dot is a burn from me not knowing how to use a toaster oven)

This third set of swatches is from Aromaleigh's Sooo Changeable from her Sherlock collection. From left to right, bare skin, over elf primer, over power up primer, applied with Elf's Lock and Seal.

Elf's Lock and Seal is a fixative, but it is also wet, it is like super glue water and so it grabs and exaggerates all the shifting colors until you have no base.





Finally, I swatched Aphrodisiac from Brazen Cosmetics. I never thought it was a shadow particularly in need of a sticky base, and it is a lighter color that I haven't yet tested.

From left to right, bare skin, over elf primer, applied wet, over power up primer.

You can see it went on patchy over the traditional primer, applied wet it is a lavender type shade, while over the power up primer it becomes a deeper purple.