Smashbox’s New Primers Gave Me The Skin Of A Baby Angel

I used to believe primer was a lie.

A lot of beauty editors have their very hot, spicy takes, and one of my biggest ones was “you don’t need primer.” This was an opinion rooted in nothing but the empty thoughts in my brain, me wrong-but-stronging my way through life. A makeup artist told me one time that you don’t need primer if the work is good and I made that a core ethos of my personality. But I am mature enough to admit when I’m wrong, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong about primer whem I tried Smashbox’s OG Photo Finish Smooth & Blur Primer for the first time a few years ago. If you prime your walls before painting, why wouldn’t you prime your face? I was young, dumb and foolish and my makeup has only thrived further because I got over myself. 

If you know anything about beauty, you know that Smashbox kind of changed the game with the Photo Filter primer, and when Smashbox announced they were launching the new Photo Finish Silkscreen Primers, I was skeptical. Why reinvent the wheel when you created the wheel itself?  But again, I was proven very wrong because y’all: I am not joking when I say these primers gave me the skin of a baby angel touched by the lips of my lord and savior Audra McDonald herself. I have never thought of “canvas-like” skin as a compliment, but after weeks of using these primers and trying them out, my makeup has been unstoppable. I’ve been lucky enough to go my entire life with great skin, but somehow this primer made me look ethereal and flawless, and my makeup lasted all day. So like, not only did I look great, but it actually did what it needed to do, which is all I ask for in a product! 

The brand launched four new primers, meaning there's something for pretty much anyone and any affliction: A green-toned primer for correction and anti-redness, a hydrating primer, a mattifying primer, and my personal favorite, the illuminating glow primer. All of the new products are full of good-for-your-skin ingredients — the glow primer has Vitamin C, and the hydrating primer has triple hyaluronic acid and niacinamide for super hydrated skin — along with the brand’s Silkscreen Complex made up of antioxidants, hyaluronic acid, probiotic extract and other great ingredients to help protect the skin from all the yuckies out in the world. I live in New York, just leaving the house and exposing my skin to the elements is a risky choice. 

I’m always looking for ways to integrate my skin-care routine further into my makeup, and here comes Smashbox, somehow reading my mind. I once got on a Zoom after only using a mix of the hydrating primer and the glow primer because I am bad at time management, and the person on the other end of the call interrupted me at one point to say “I am so sorry, I need to ask what you’ve done to make your skin look like that.” My coworker, Lexy, begged for the link when I posted a photo on Instagram. This primer is the closest I’ve ever come to influencing. Sometimes, the people who changed the game have to do it again. And Smashbox succeeded here, in abundance.