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.

Geek Chic Cosmetics Swatches

Not going to lie, I got a huge batch of indie orders in at once, photographed and swatched everything, and then totally forgot to write up this post. Anyway, this is an indie which specializes in- you guessed it- geeky makeup. I ended up trying one blush and a few eyeshadows, but they also have their own lip glosses, lippies, a small shade range of foundations, solid scents, nail polish, finishing powder, and they recently came out with their own eyeshadow primer!  Since having made this order I have already made two more orders as gifts.

On the sample jars there is only the back label with the ingredients, but even the ingredients labels are adorable and themed, which I love. In addition they sent me a sticker and a button as well.

 I tried to swatch by fandom, which I managed to do with all except these two eyeshadows. For the record, this was done over elf eyeshadow primer like always. These are some of the most pigmented and easy to apply indie shadows I have ever seen, and the colors are amazing.

The top one is We Are Coming from their Timey Wimey collection. The swatch catches the base but there is some truly gorgeous red and gold sparks in there.

The bottom is Samwise the Brave, which I got because Samwise is the true hero in Lord of the Rings. Also, this is a beautiful antiqued gold color.

 From the Superneutrals collection, the top color is Rock Salt which is a very heavy-on-the-glitter highlight. This swatch doesn't capture how beautiful the shimmer is though,

Idjits over Power Up Primer

The bottom swatch is Idjits which I expected to like a lot more than I actually do. The green/gold sparkles don't show up very well, even over the appropriate sticky primer. You might as well not be committing to green at all.

The top swatch is Clementine Will Remember. Now, as someone who has never played the Walking Dead game I don't know all of these references, anything having to do with Clementine included. However, the shadow was very pretty. It has a deep black base with tons of gold sparkles (look to the bottom of the swatch). This shade could really benefit from a glitter primer.

Inked in Pink in a vertical swatch,
He's Korean over Stay Don't Stray
horizontally. They intersect in the
upper right corner. 

The bottom swatch is He's Korean, it is gorgeous and sparkly and easy to apply. It reminded me a lot of the inked in pink Maybelline Color Tattoo so I did those swatches for you as well.





This is a terrible swatch of the nerdgasm blush, which according to Geek Chic is supposed to be their take on the Nars Orgasm blush. I don't have the Nars blush to swatch for you, but I've swatched it at Sephora a billion times, and  the Nars blush is so sheerly pink it may as well just be a highlight. Geek Chic has a very orange color to it, I will definitely experiment with it.