REVIEW - Essence All About Matt! Oil Control Make-up Base

I love Priceline. Is it possible to be in love with a store? Clearly it's an unhealthy relationship, but what are you going to do?

Enough about that, the point of this is that every quarter, Priceline rewards 'Sister Card' holders with vouchers which correlate to the amount of money spent in store during that specific quarter. I love receiving my voucher - it means I get around $4 AUD dollars to spend on something I probably wouldn't otherwise have bought. Usually, I have something all lined up that I want, however for this quarter, I couldn't think of anything that I wanted.

As I will be travelling to the USA and Canada in the near future, I am trying to restrain myself from purchasing products, as they will most definitely be cheaper over there. Regardless, I wasn't going to let my voucher go to waste! After walking around the aisles for a good while, I finally decided on a new product on the Essence stand.
I watch a fair few beauty and makeup videos on YouTube; honestly I'm not sure why. I don't wear a lot of makeup on a daily basis, and anything beyond the basics is way above my skill level. The one thing I always find myself wanting whilst watching these videos is a good primer/makeup base. I have fairly combination skin, and living in a warm climate, it can be difficult to make products last on my skin (particularly in the summer months).

Back to the point - Essence All About Matt! Oil Control Make-up Base claims to be a:

"...light base that conjures-up a long-lasting matt and smooth complexion. with the specially developed complex of raw materials evermat™, this base helps balance oily skin and refines your pores. the fine gel texture has a balancing effect so that the skin won’t start to shine so quickly. it can be applied on its own or underneath foundation."

It normally retails at $5.75 AUD, however along with my voucher, I ended up paying about $0.92 AUD for it - now THAT I can afford!

So far I'm really impressed with this product. I don't tend to use it all over my face on a daily basis, instead using it where I tend to get most oily (around the T-Zone). What can I say? It works. I live in quite a warm climate, so anything to stop my face looking like some sort of disaster zone is fine by me! I'm yet to try some more expensive primers, so I don't have any comparison point. From my point of view, it does what it claims to, and does so inexpensively. Overall, I'm happy!

One thing I didn't realise when I originally saw the product online is that it is quite a small tube; I've included a photo of the make-up base next to a Revlon Lip Butter for size comparison. On the plus side, a little bit definitely goes a long way and I would imagine that this will last me some time!

Do you have a favourite primer, or do you not bother?

Thanks for reading! B x