If you’re addicted to YouTube like I am, you’ll have caught Lauder’s new Little Black Primer ads featuring Kendall Jenner. While I wish she had a little more life behind those pretty eyes of hers, I do think she’s a nice pick for the brand as she gives them a nice, ‘youth injection’.

As for the primer itself, this is a lovely product and I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. In the past, my experiences with lash primers has always been iffy but I’ve realised that’s mostly due to the fact that the ones I’d been trying were rubbish. For starters, many of them were merely mascara passing themselves off as primers which meant you were only really adding an extra coat. Also, many of them were white ‘cos the brand thought it looked oh so cool and awesome, but in reality there was no practical reason for this. If anything, they only served to make your mascara look grey. Never a good look!

But like I said, Lauder’s primer is a good one and there are three ways to use it.

If you wear it alone, you’ve got a very light, ‘I could get away with wearing this to school type of mascara that merely tints and separates your lashes while adding  length.

When I first used it as a primer I could see my lashes did look ever so slightly bolstered but it’s only when I took comparison shots that I really went ‘Oh! Ok. So there is quite the difference’.

Another plus? Usually, my mascara comes off with a few sweeps of a make-up removal wipe but with the primer on, it almost didn’t budge. I had to break a proper oil-based eye make-up remover (Lancome’s Bi-Facil) to take it off. My lashes also still looked ‘fresh’ after a full day of wear, as though no mascara had flaked off while I’d gone about my day.

The last way to wear it is as a top coat to ‘seal in’ your mascara, turning it into a water-resistant one. (Personally, I find method two does a good job of doing that too.) I was initially hesitant to layer this on top of two coats of mascara as I thought things would start to get super spidery-looking but thanks to Lauder’s curved short-bristled brush, it does a nice job of separating each lash.

Personally, I’m very much a slick on and go type of person but Little Black Primer is something I’ll reach for on days when I want make-up that goes the distance. If you’ve been considering giving it a bash know I give it a thumbs up but go in with clear expectations. It’s not going to magically boost sparse lashes to create Kardashian-style volume but it is good at it’s job – priming –  which I see as acting as a ‘fast-hold’ base for your mascara.

Love, love

Leigh