Bye Bye Pores Primer™

Since IT Cosmetics was bought by L'Oreal, they've been busy bees marketing their products and selling exclusive items on QVC and at Sephora. Regardless of the retail outlet, IT Cosmetics definitely has a shrewd way of mixing cleverness with some exceptional formularies. Bye Bye Pores Primer falls into the clever exceptional formulary category, but it's just not as glorious as they make it sound.

The notion that this was formulated with some unnamed plastic surgeons sounds impressive, but given plastic surgeons aren't cosmetic chemists, skincare experts, or makeup artists, it's more marketing story than something to base your decision on. Surgeons know surgery, not the intricacies of skincare formulations.

In use, this colorless primer isn't as pore erasing as you might be hoping for, though it does have a decent temporary minimizing effect.

The claims of Moroccan lava clay and Canadian clay having special benefits is certainly over the top. Your skin just can't tell the origin of a clay when you put it on skin; all have an absorbent effect, which can help diminish the look of pores for a while. Clays add a spackle-like, mattifying property to primers but that's about it. Not bad, just not exciting.

Mostly what you're getting is a range of silicone smoothing ingredients along with a bevy of very good anti-aging ingredients and the aforementioned clays. In fact this formula, like most IT Cosmetics skincare products, takes the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to formularies. But because this is mostly a silky, absorbent primer, there isn't as much of the anti-aging ingredients as you might be expecting. Still, for a primer this one does stand above many others and is recommended for combination, oily, and breakout-prone skin.

Note that the amount of alcohol in this primer is too low to pose a risk of aggravating skin.