This month’s Pink Bird review is FIVE different products. I will be reviewing four of them in this post as I used them together, and the last one in a post next week! Today I’ll be talking about Etude House’s new primers, the Fix and Fix Primers in Mint, Lavender, and Pore, as well as the Precious Mineral BB Cream in Moist!
I’ll be reviewing the primers first, and then the BB Cream since I use them in that order when I wear them!
Etude House has come out with 3 new color-correcting primers, along with a pore primer that are supposed to help brighten and “tone-up” your skin, as well as help your makeup to last even longer than it normally would without primer. One thing I find strange is how they released MORE color-correcting primers despite having released color-correcting Play 101 sticks (I have those too, might review!) just a month or two before…
The Fix & Fix Tone-up Primer SPF33/PA++ comes in 01 Rose for brightening dull skin, 02 Mint for redness, and 03 Lavender for yellowness. The pore primer claims to help mattify the skin, as well as fill pores for a smoother base to apply makeup on top of.
As you can see above, the pore primer is quite thick, which is what helps it to cover your pores. It has a powdery texture and feels similar to the Benefit POREfessional in texture. The colour correctors are liquidy and thin, which is great because it makes them easy to cover with foundation after!
I applied my regular skin care as the instructions directed before applying any primer.
I darkened this photo a bit so you can see my skin a little better. I applied the mattifying pore primer on my forehead, chin, nose, and upper cheeks. You can see where the arrows are that my skin no longer has any shine and looks smoother than the previous photo. I liked the feeling of the primer in that my skin didn’t feel oily, and felt very smooth!
I then applied the mint and lavender primers on my problem areas, minus my forehead so you can see the difference in the picture. My skin got significantly brighter and even, to the point that I have since then used only the primers without any foundation (I don’t like to wear foundation on a daily basis) since it gives me a natural finish without feeling sticky or heavy. However, it makes me look quite white, which is fine for me as I am pale and this makes my face match my neck, but I wonder if this would make deeper skin look gray.
Next up is the BB Cream! I personally don’t wear BB Creams anymore, but used to wear them exclusively in my early 20’s (making it sound like it was a century ago 😂) . I used to wear the previous edition of the Precious Mineral BB Cream in the “Cotton Fit” finish, and was so disappointed when they discontinued it!
They’ve now renewed the line in Matte and Moist finishes. I was sent the Moist finish! They changed the previous pump mechanism to a simple squeeze tube.
I’m using the lightest colour, 19 Vanilla. The BB Cream is SPF50+/PA+++, so lots of protection, but I still recommend using your favourite sunscreen underneath.
The BB comes in only 5 shades, as do most Korean base products, so a very poor range here. 19 Vanilla and 21 Petal are both on a pink base, while 21 Beige is a yellow base, and 22 Sand and 23 Tan are neutral.
Vanilla ended up being a perfect fit for my skin tone! So, if you’re paper white with pink undertones, definitely go for that one. It applied to my skin smoothly and evenly with a damp beauty sponge, and offered light coverage. It didn’t feel thick or cakey, and I really liked the finish! Very glowy.
However, problems struck once I tried setting it with my regular translucent powder. It began to settle into my pores, and crack and bunch up around my nose!
Despite having used a pore primer, as soon as I set the BB Cream it seemed like I was wiping it off, and it began to sink into my pores very noticeably, and looked awful around my nose.
I wear glasses, so you can see where they wiped away the foundation on my nose bridge! I also had a lot of fading on and around my nose.
The foundation felt very comfortable and in natural light didn’t look as bad as it does above. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the results and wondered if it was due to the primer/setting it, so decided to try again the next day without either.
ONTO TRIAL NUMBER TWO…
You can actually tell in this photo how my skin doesn’t look as even without the color-correcting primers, especially on my nose and forehead! Anyway, I really dislike not setting my products, as I hate the feeling of having something sticky sitting on top of my skin. This is a moist, glowy finish and while I like how glowy my skin looked and the finish is gorgeous, I wasn’t a fan of how it never felt like it settled down. I was very aware that I had something I shouldn’t be touching on my skin, as every time a hair would fall onto my face or I’d lightly brush my skin, a big chunk of BB Cream would come off with it.
I ended up lightly dusting powder on, and spraying half a litre of setting spray on my face to try to get the sticky feeling to go away. I found this BB Cream really accentuated the fine hairs on my face this time around for some reason. You can see between my eyebrows how setting it once again brought out my dryness, but this is probably a problem with the powder more than the BB Cream because my winter skin has been SUFFERING from dryness no matter how much I sheet mask!
I found the BB Cream to show signs of wear much sooner this time than without the primer, so that’s a plus for those! However, I guess because I didn’t have the brightening effect of the primers, the fading is less noticeable.
It’s sadly hard to tell in these photos, but I found that it sunk into and emphasized every little line on my face. It also bunched up on my chin and forehead which it didn’t do the first time I wore it with the primers.
•○ Final Thoughts ○•
The primers are a win for me! I noticed that my makeup lasted slightly longer when wearing them with my regular foundation products (not the BB in this review), but my favourite thing about them is how they look when I don’t wear any foundation! These are a great daily product for someone like me that wants to even out their skin (I have really strong sallowness) without having to go through the trouble of packing on a full face of product. The color-correcting primers are 12,000 KRW for 30mL, and the pore primer is 12,000 KRW for 25g.
As for the BB Cream…I’m not sure what to think. On one hand, I loved how smooth it made my skin look and the glowy finish made my skin look so healthy and fresh (the famous Korean Mul-gwang effect!), but I have to set my products otherwise they crease, melt off, and itch like crazy on my skin. Setting such a glowy product of course defeats the purpose, so I’d say the matte finish would be more up my alley like the Cotton Fit version of this line that I used to love! However, I think that if you don’t feel the need to set your base, and like super glowy, moist products, then this product could totally work for you! 12,000 KRW for 45g.
I have one more Etude House review this week, and then a review from a brand I’ve yet to review on my blog! I’ve also been making sure to go to a bunch of different cafes and restaurants lately so I have plenty of content to share even after I leave Korea 🙂 . Until then~ (。^_・)ノ
Jasmineitor & Korea 
Thanks for the link 🙂 Awesome post – I never heard about the Peripera ones and now I’m curious to try them!
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I had the same experience as you sadly. I usually have problems with Etude House foundations and BB creams. They seem to make me look older. And who wants that:-)
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I feel the same!! I don’t know if they’re too drying or what…but they sink into all my lines and are a real mess most of the time, so sad 😩
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Wow. Thank you so much. This article is very very helpful!!!
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Yay!! Thank you ❤ I'm glad you think so 😀
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