Glitter Primer Comparison

I've only recently in the past couple of months started buying and LOVING indie eyeshadows/cosmetics. Especially duochromes- I love duochromes. It can be a little difficult getting great color payoff with only regular eyeshadow primer because a lot of indie eyeshadows have a ton of glitter or duochrome pigment in them. They just don't show up that well with traditional primers. So enter glitter primers! I bought several brands and thought I would do a comparison for those who are thinking of purchasing some as well.

Left to right: Control, elf Essential Glitter Primer, Darling Girl Glitter Glue, Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

In this first comparison here I used Darling Girl's Basket Case, a beautiful duochrome with a purple base and blue shift. I used 3 different types of glitter primer.

elf Essential Glitter Primer: $2.00 for 10.5 ml
Consistency: milky, smooth (texture very similar to Maybelline's Baby Face)

Darling Girl Glitter Glue: $6.75 for 10ml
Consistency: only the slightest bit sticky

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy: $7.00 for 10ml
Consistency: very sticky, viscous

So in the photo here, I feel that Pixie Epoxy does the best job with the duochrome. Followed by Darling Girl and elf. The control was almost non-existent, so you really need a good primer to get good color payoff. Both Glitter Glue and Pixie Epoxy are super popular and often out of stock, so be forewarned about that.

Left to right: Control, elf Essential Glitter Primer, Darling Girl Glitter Glue, Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

I did another comparison but with a non-duochrome, Fyrinnae's Gender Bent, a shimmery teal with tons of glitter. With this comparison, I still felt Pixie Epoxy did the best job, but Darling Girl and surprisingly elf also does a decent job. Overall, Pixie Epoxy performed the best, followed by Glitter Glue, Essential Glitter Primer, and then obviously the worst performance was the control.

Now with that in mind, I want to make a couple of comments about the usage of these:

The elf glitter primer is one of their newer products. It is super cheap ($2) and actually does a very comparable job, so if you are looking for a quick, cheap glitter primer, this is it. You can even find it in Target. The trick with elf is to apply it very evenly and to apply eyeshadow very quickly after that. This is because when the product dries, it is no good at holding pigment anymore. It also is good about blending. However, the only drawback is that it does not last very long. It probably won't last you a full day of wear. Unfortunately I don't have a photo to show the wear time, but from previous usage, I could tell that the wear time was considerably less than with the others.

Darling Girl's Glitter Glue is often touted as a dupe for Pixie Epoxy but I don't really think that's the case. It does a decent job, but I still think Pixie Epoxy does the best at it's job. The prices are practically the same though, for about the same amount of product. Glitter Glue comes in a squeeze tube while Pixie Epoxy comes in a lip gloss tube with a doe foot applicator if you care about that. Glitter Glue has very good wear time. It will last me all day. People have also mentioned that Glitter Glue is better at blending. This is true. People have also said that it is better with mattes. Now this, I think is kind of stupid. Why would you use a glitter primer with mattes? It's for glitter. If I wanted to use a primer for mattes I would just go with regular eyeshadow primer.

And finally, I think Pixie Epoxy is a really fantastic product. The purpose of a glitter primer is to hold the glitter in place and it does the best at this. However, the drawback is that is it not that easy to work with. It is super sticky. What you want to do is to apply the product evenly in a thin layer and wait for it to dry a little and then pat on the product. You don't want to apply product when it is still very moist because it will create a paste-like texture that is a mess. Unlike Glitter Glue, it is not so great with blending. However, I don't think it is a problem for me because I have a work-around: apply regular eyeshadow primer, apply eyeshadow, blend per usual, apply glitter primer ON TOP of eyeshadow on the center of the eyelid, wait a minute, then PAT on eyeshadow. This allows you to blend and at the same time really allow the subtleties of the eyeshadow to pop out. The wear time on this is pretty much all day. No worries at all that eyeshadow will melt off your eyelids or that more glitter will end up on your cheeks than your eyes. This product keeps the glitter where you want it.