When it comes to primers, Benefit is not messing around. The beauty brand is the proud parent of a number of face and eye primers, ready to prep and protect a multitude of fickle skin types against time, weather, lighting, unruly makeup, Uber surcharges, overripe avocados, and all of life's other hurdles.
I never really understood where I fitted in on all this primer business, until I tried a sample of Benefit POREfessional: Matte Rescue Invisible-Finish Mattifying Gel [2] (£23.50) which shook up my routine like no other. I refer to it as the Romeo to my Juliet skin, the oil taking residence across my t-zone being their troublesome families, constantly at loggerheads. But in this case, love sufficed, nobody died, and everyone lived happily ever after.
I'd not known a day when I hadn't needed to mop up the oil on aisle-T with blotting paper, and with a stash of powder nearby, ready to lightly dust itself over any white ensemble I might be wearing as an added bonus. While I saw appeal in being a blotting paper honey, thanks to Rihanna [3], I never dabbed away to reveal RiRi-perfect skin. Instead, the paper found itself drying up foundation sludge.
In steps, my oil is kept at bay, makeup in place all day long. Unlike the smooth silicone primers I'd previously experimented with, the beloved new tool of my beauty arsenal comes in the form of a lightweight gel with an appealing scent that dries seamlessly into the surface of the skin, never compromising the next layer of makeup and without any feeling of tightness left behind. Name a better love story than that.