The Temptu brand is widely known as a manufacturer of airbrushes for makeup and everything that is connected with it. Including cosmetic products. Including a makeup primer, which I’ve tested for regular, not for airbrushed makeup. Here’s a sample format of 7.5 ml.
I love samples more than full-sized packages. Here the cute plastic vial looks like straight from a hi-tech lab. It offers a minimum of information on it. I wish I could re-use it once I finish it, but, unfortunately, it would be impossible to wash it inside.
So, let’s get back to the contents. The makeup primer. It’s said to be smooth and matte.
The vial is too small for the ingredients list, that’s why I copied it from the official website:
Aqua, Isododecane, Dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Butylene Glycol, Silica, Vinyl Dimethicone/Methicone Silesquioxane Crosspolymer, Glycerin, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cyclotetrasiloxane, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol.
It’s just a regular silicone-based makeup primer, which doesn’t even pretend to be eco-friendly or natural. I was surprised to see Glycerin among the ingredients - it makes the texture sticky by touch, besides the product doesn’t sink in due to it. In my opinion, there are many other filming agents in the components, which are already enough. Well, we’ll see.
The mini dispenses the formula through a narrow nozzle, which is hidden with a screw-on top.
For a reference, the full-sized tube has a fixed brush at the end and the product comes out through that brush only. I have a foundation packed with the same brushed-tube and I claim that this is the most unhygienic packaging ever: the brush is impossible to wash off, otherwise water and soap will get into the formula and stay there inside forever. Can you imagine that it’ll still be kept with all that mixture of organic and inorganic components, which you later apply on your skin? And yes, don’t forget that bacteria feels nice in such sustenance, let alone the cozy dark room under the top cap!
All in all, I’m really delighted that the mini comes with an economy option and doesn’t have any fixed brushes.
As for the primer itself, well it looks exactly like many other face primers - white gel-like cream.
It’s easy to distribute over my skin and I have to say that a little goes a long way. But it doesn’t want to set and remains over my skin with an oily film. (I know that’s the glycerin to blame)
I took this shot with my phone and you can still make out where I applied the primer. It does shine, nasty bit!
It doesn’t smooth my skin out much, though it creates a good sticky base to apply my foundation. But all that stickiness devours a ton of face powder! I have to powder my face all the time to set that stickiness and my foundation, that I applied over the Temptu primer beforehand. Each powder layer disappears from my skin too quickly and yes, again, hello stickiness.
Even when my complexion already looks cakey, within 3 minutes I’m still sure to see that oily shine on my cheekbones.
All in all, no matte effect from the product.
But, there’s something more than this.You’ve probably already noticed a dark spot on the tube in the pictures.
When I was taking these shots I didn’t even pay any attention to this. But, the more I used this primer, the brighter the spot became. And here it is, now it’s well visible.
And the answer lies not on the tube, though, but inside of it.
At first, I supposed that it was mold. I was surprised since an abundance of silicones isn’t actually its favorite food or sustenance.
I poked up the nozzle of the primer and got out a metal bearing. It was already oxidized and looked super unpleasant.
Usually, they use such metal balls for glitter nail polishes to shake them and mix the glitter with the formula.
But makeup primers aren’t infused with glitter. There isn’t even any mica in the components.
Silicone-based primes don’t flake away. Why the hell do they put that ball inside? I don’t get it…
Probably a sticky base is a must-have for the airbrushed makeup (I confess that I’ve never faced airbrushing neither as a makeup artist, nor as a model), but it doesn’t work for regular makeup. And yeah, that nasty metal ball… Well, no Temptu. Just no.
The full-sized product infused with the unhygienic brush cost $35 on the official Temptu website. Well, for such money I’d better buy the Urban Decay primer or opt for the Benefit Porefessional.
