Naturalla Beauty

As I mentioned when I posted my Detrivore eye shadow swatches, I wanted to give the primer a good try before I reviewed it.  I've been using it for about a month now and I'm so impressed!  Pretty much ever since I started using loose eye shadows I've known that a primer would be a good idea to help with adhesion, but as I'm sure a some of you have also found, finding a natural/non-toxic primer that actually works is a huge challenge.  A lot of natural primers are made mostly out of oils and waxes and end up seeming a lot like lip balm.  These kinds might work okay if you have dry eyelids, but for those of us with oilier eyelids, they just speed up the creasing process.

Detrivore's primer contains oils and waxes, but also has ingredients like titanium dioxide, mica, and glycerine, and the end result far out-performs your 'lip balm' style primers.  (Full ingredients are on Detrivore's website.) It's pretty firm, so I've found it applies best with my finger, which warms up the product just enough so that it applies smoothly onto my lids.  I usually apply it to both lids at once and then wait another 30 seconds to a minute before applying eye shadow to the first eye.  Without the wait I find that my eye shadow ends up applying a bit patchy and uneven, but with the wait, it acts as a perfect sticky base for eye shadow to cling to.  It also helps eye shadows to last longer and makes colors more vivid - some appear almost foiled.  It's a yellowish color in the pot, but since you only need a little, it's clear when applied and should work on all skin tones. 

Cost-wise, Detrivore's primer is great as well.  For only $6, you get a 5-gram jar filled all the way to the top.  It might look small, but I've been using mine about 4 times a week for over a month now and I've only just made a slight dip in it.  It will definitely last a while.

I also wanted to post some pictures of the primer in action (below the cut).  I've used 5 eye shadows and one pure glitter, all from different companies, so you can see it doesn't just work with Detrivore's own eye shadows.  The top row is over Detrivore's primer and the bottom is on bare skin.   

I'd read a few positive reviews of Detrivore's Eye Shadow Primer, so when its ingredients didn't immediately throw up any red flags for me (super rare with primers!), I decided to place an order.  While I was at it, I also picked up eye shadow samples of White Chapel, Vacancy, Death Valley, Hemoglobin, Shroud, Faithless, Guillotine, and Petty.  I also received free samples of Bone, Coward, and Contamination.

I haven't tried these out yet, other than for swatching, so this won't be much of a review, but I will say that Detrivore has great customer service.  Eye shadow ingredients are only listed by collection, so they have a long "may contain" list.  Before purchasing, I emailed back and forth a few times to ask about ingredients for specific colours, as well as to ask a couple questions about the primer and I always got quick and helpful responses.  Eye shadow samples are $1 and are very generous. 

My camera didn't do a good job picking up the gorgeous sparkles in most of these - Petty, Bone, and Coward are from the matte collection, but the rest all contain some degree of shimmer.  They're all very pigmented and are more vibrant than they appear in these photos.  On first impressions only, Shroud, Faithless, Death Valley, and Hemoglobin stand out to me as particularly gorgeous.  I can't wait to try these out on my eyes next!  I also haven't tried out the primer yet, but a review will follow once I've had a chance to do so.  All swatches were done dry on bare skin.