Mentholatum Acnes Oil Solution Is My Foundation Primer

Hi everyone,

It took me a while to realize how much I needed a face primer. Until the end of last summer, I was without one. My FOTDs suffered: no matter how much I buffed my foundation, it did not look the same without a primer. On film, the foundation just looked bad and lumpy, as if I did not do a good job applying it. But noooo! I buffed and buffed and blended and blended but still, it did not look fine.

The Vietnamese market is still a skincare-centric place and it took me a while to find a foundation primer. The irony? It is not even marketed as a foundation primer but as an oil control gel. Since I tried a couple of products from Mentholatum before, I trusted its quality and got this Mentholatum Acnes Oil Solution.

Mentholatum Acnes Oil Solution (30ml)

I love the simple, yet cute packaging

 Acnes is Mentholatum's anti-acne skincare line that ranges from face washes to acne treatments and other miscellaneous skincare products that target the teen market. Since this is the first product I have ever tried from this line, I did not know how effective Acnes is. However, it seems to be a popular skincare line here and the price was right for the amount of product given. Bought it I did

The gel is white and slightly scented with a touch of menthol once applied to the skin

 Like a "good" beauty blogger, I had to throw away the packaging. Hence, the lack of an ingredient list. However, I do remember it having dimethicone as one of the first 5 ingredients. Unless your skin is extremely sensitive, a product that contains a high concentration of dimethicone is going to do a good job as a facial primer. I remember using Strobe Cream from MAC as a primer cum moisturizer before as it contains dimethicone. It worked just fine, albeit being a tad more expensive than I wanted it to be.

Anyways, I digressed. Let's go back to Mentholatum Acnes Oil Solution, shall we? Please take a look at the two pictures below:

This one has my bare skin without anything. It looks a little bit rough and you can see a tad of discoloration at the center

Rub-a-dub-dub!
A tiny bit of Acnes Oil Solution on the skin. Does it look smoother? Also, do you notice the lack of discoloration as well? Again, no foundation applied whatsoever besides the oil control gel.

I have to say I was impressed with the result to the point that I am still using this product. Not only does it film really well, it also controls oil quite decently. In the sweltering heat of Saigon, I put this oil control gel on before foundation and went out until the night came and my face still looked good. It spreads really well and a dab is all I need. More than that and the menthol will start to burn.

As far as non-comedogenic goes, I only use it once in a while to notice if any zits sprouting up because of this. However, I do remove my makeup and wash my face well to avoid zits and my skin has been behaving well lately. As far as the price goes, this costs me around $2.50 USD, which probably is the cheapest foundation primer I have ever own. The only gripe I have is the packaging: I would prefer a tube or a dispenser type bottle rather than a jar. However, recently I went shopping and noticed they did not have this product anymore. Instead, I saw a tube that labeled "foundation primer" which costs twice the price. It is probably the same thing but housed in a better container.

How about you? Do you use a foundation primer? If you do, what is the brand and do you like it?

With love from your makeup loving friend,
Dao xoxo

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