Can I become immune to eyeshadow primer?

Ally asks…I have recently noticed that my eye shadows are creasing like crazy, like 3.5 years ago before I started using primers. I used MAC paintpot in painterly for those 3.5 years and the last pot is probably 1.5 years old, but hasn’t dried up yet and is still very creamy consistency. I switched to the sample of Urban Decay Primer potion and that creased as well. I have very oily lids and eyeshadow creases after 3-4 hours. I’m not sure what to do. I tried not moisturising my eye area and not putting sunscreen to see if it makes a difference, but it was exact same creasing result. I should mention I powder my lids with a light dusting of chanel loose powder. I googled the phenomenon and found a post from a girl experiencing the exact same thing – she get immune to the primer after awhile. Any explanation and advice? The UDPP is also 1.5-2 years old most probably… don’t think it could be the age of the product, as the first paintpot I had lasted me over 2 years and never creased. 

The Beauty Brains respond

I saw your question on our Forum and I also read the post from the other girl experiencing this problem.  She’s using a Claudia Stevens product and said that “I have used that primer everyday for the last 5 or 6 months and about 2 weeks ago I noticed that it started to crease on me.”

What’s in eyeshadow primer?

Rather than thinking that you’re becoming “immune” to the product, my assumption is that something in the product is changing over time. Is there something that these products all have in common that could cause them to stop working over time? Looking at the ingredients (see below) you’ll notice that  the two most predominant ingredients are isododecane and cyclopentasiloxane both of which are designed to make the primer more spreadable. But they can also easily evaporate. That’s good because it means they won’t leave a heavy residue on your skin. But it also means that over time there will be less and less of these ingredients left in the product. It’s conceivable that as these two ingredients evaporate the other ingredients don’t spread across your skin as well. That could be what’s accounting for the “creasing” effect you’re seeing.

(To make matters worse some of these products are sold in tiny flat jars with widemouth openings. This creates a large amount of surface area that can speed up evaporation if the product is open too long or used very frequently. )

It’s easy enough to test this theory by buying a new sample of a product that’s no longer working for you and using them side by side. If the new product works and the older one doesn’t then it’s likely that evaporation is the problem.

What can you do about it?

If this proves to be the case what can you do about it? Well you could look for brands that don’t have cyclopentasiloxane as the first or second ingredient. Notice that the Mac product has dimethicone which does not evaporate. Of course that solution is not without potential trade-offs: you may find that the site dimethicone-based products don’t spread across your eyelids as easily and then you’ll have to make the decision about which is better: a product that keeps working longer but doesn’t spread as well or a product that tends to dry up more quickly but gives you a better feel while it does work. The only way to tell for sure is to try a few different products and find the right one for you.

Urban Decay ingredients:
Isododecane, Cyclopentasiloxane, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Polyethylene, Trihydroxystearin, Triethylhexanoin, Isopropyl Lanolate, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, VP/Eicosene Copolymer, Dimethicone, PEG-40 Stearate, Propylene Carbonate, Phenoxyethanol, Synthetic Beeswax, Propylparaben, Methylparaben, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben

MAC paint pot ingredients:
Isododecane, Dimethicone, Polyethylene, Hydrogenated polyisobutene, Quaternium-90 bentonite, Dimethicone silylate, Octyldodecanol, Silica, Trihydroxystearin, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Lecithin, Carnauba Wax, Propylene carbonate, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Bismuth Oxychloride, Blue 1 Lake, Carmine, Chromium Hydroxide Green, Manganese Violet, Ultramarines, Yellow 5 Al Lake, triethoxycaprylylsilane. mica, chromium oxide greens, ferric ferroxyanide

Claudia Stevens Makeup Before The Makeup ingredients:
WATER ,CYCLOPENTASILOXANE ,ISODODECANE ,GLYCERYL LAURATE ,BEESWAX ,POLYGLYCERYL-4 OLEATE ,STEARYL DIMETHICONE ,ETHYLHEXYL STEARATE ,MICROCRYSTALLINE WAX ,TALC ,CETYL PEG/PPG-10/1 DIMETHICONE ,PHENOXYETHANOL ,ETHYLPARABEN ,PROPYLPARABEN ,METHYLPARABEN ,BUTYLPARABEN ,ISOBUTYLPARABEN ,MICA ,DISTEARDIMONIUM HECTORITE ,SILICA ,TOCOPHERYL ACETATE ,PROPYLENE CARBONATE ,TITANIUM DIOXIDE ,IRON OXIDES

What do you think? Have you found a great eyeshadow primer that you would like to share with the rest of the Beauty Brains community? Leave a comment.