Benefit Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer: Never Creases To Amaze Me

Dixie

There are few cosmetic mishaps that I despise more than creased eye shadow. When you look in the mirror and see that the eye shadow you carefully applied that morning has migrated entirely into the crease of your lid, it's disheartening. It's like, I know I'm tired and ready to go home, Face. You don't need to produce enough oil on my eyelids to make sure everyone else knows it too.  Unfortunately, my Face never listened to me scolding it. So, I defeated it with the magic of MOAR COSMETICS.

Er, well, not at first. I've been through many an eye primer. Most of the brands I have used in the past simply didn't work. They just added another layer of oil to make my eye shadow slide into my crease, but with the added paradoxical benefit of not blending out due to the primer. Once again, Sephora samples to the rescue. I first discovered the Benefit Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer in a 500-point sample kit. After using the entire tiny bottle, I happily shelled out $26 for a full-size bottle.


People, this stuff works like its supposed to. Since I've started using this primer, I can count on one hand the number of times my shadow has ended up in the crease of my eyelid at the end of the day, with every time being an extenuating circumstance. When applying the primer to your lid, the adage "a little goes a long way" is very apt. Depress the top of the pump very gently and dispense a dollop about the size of the head of a pin onto your ring finger. That's really all you need. And it dries quickly, which is nice, but you need to apply promptly. Because you need such a tiny amount to cover each eye, the bottle lasts forever, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's fairly pricey so it's nice to stretch your dollars, but you will be coming up on the end of the shelf life by the time you reach the end of the bottle. A shake every now and then should keep the product from separating but you might see a bit of separation towards the end.

The Benefit Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer is just a darn good, reliable product. I do wish it were a bit cheaper, but at least you know you're paying all that cash for a quality product. My only gripe is the pump bottle. A tube would be much better - when you got towards empty you could shake the remainder down to the tip, mixing up any separation and minimizing wasted product sticking to the sides or bottom. The primer retails for $26 at Sephora.com and stores, Ulta.com and stores, and Benefit.com. 7/8 tentacles, docking one for the wasteful dispenser.

Rating: 7/8 tentacles