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This review was supposed to come online late January, but somehow it ended up in my ‘published’ folder without actually being published first, oops… But better late than never, right? The primer that I’m reviewing in this post was launched together with this year’s Dior spring collection but is now also part of the permanent collection, so fortunately a review is still useful despite the slightly embarrassing delay. Enjoy!
With Christian Dior as your opposite neighbor it’s just a matter of time until your bank balance starts to suffer. And I speak from experience, because I work right across from a Dior counter. Yes, that is indeed totally awesome, but at the same time it’s also kind of dangerous. Why? Well, when the new Dior Trianon spring collection entered the stores mid-January I immediately spent most of my lunch break that day swatching the new products*. And one of those products, the new Dior Pore Minimizer Skin Refining Matte Primer, made such a fantastic first impression on me that I decided to whip out my wallet and bust out my credit card. Time to find out whether that was a smart move or not!
* you know you’re a true beauty addict when you’d rather starve than ignore the launch of a brand new make-up collection
copyright Dior Trianon collection
The promise
Dior describes the new Pore Minimizer as a skin-refining matte primer that mattifies and perfects the skin, minimizes pores and smooths out fine lines. And its sheer and lightweight finish supposedly also evens out the skin tone and hides blemishes.
Texture & application
The Dior Pore Minimizer comes in a simple white tube with a pump. Practical and hygienic, just the way I like it. The primer itself has a salmon pink color and its texture is slightly thicker than that of most primers. And yet it feels silky smooth to the touch and glides on my skin like a dream. Lovely! And the finish is absolutely lovely as well: featherlight, invisible and velvety soft. Now just in case you were wondering, yes, there are silicones in the formula that add to the silkiness of the primer, but my skin doesn’t react to silicones so I personally don’t mind. But I just thought I’d mention it for those of you with sensitive skin.
Result
The immediate mattifying effect of the Dior Pore Minimizer is truly incredible. It’s the reason I spontaneously started waving my credit card around after swatching it on the back of my hand. The Dior Pore Minimizer definitely mattifies skin like a pro. It also fills in enlarged pores and fine lines a bit which makes them look less visible, and that combined with the mattifying effect results in immediately better and smoother-looking skin.
Look at how it mattifies the skin! *gasp*
What the Dior Pore Minimizer doesn’t do is even out the skin tone and hide imperfections. Yes, Dior did add some color to the primer, but that bit of peachy pink is far from enough to do any color correcting or camouflaging. So that promise isn’t kept. But whatever, that’s what concealer and foundation are for, right?
Dior Pore Minimizer + foundation
I should also mention that the mattifying effect of the primer – no matter how awesome it is right after applying the product – doesn’t last all day. But don’t worry, because you can apply the Dior Pore Minimizer over your foundation for a touch-up during the day. Usually my face gets shiny again around my lunch break, and the first time that I used the Dior Pore Minimizer on top of my foundation to mattify my skin again I felt kind of apprehensive about it. I mean, you’d think that something like that would totally mess up your make-up, right? But it doesn’t. I just carefully apply a thin layer of primer on my T-zone, and tah daaa, perfectly matte skin again! Normally I use translucent powder to mattify my skin throughout the day, but the Dior Pore Minimizer has the same mattifying effect, and it looks a lot more natural than a fresh layer of powder. Woop woop!
Bottom line
Dior, you did it! At a 62 CHF price point the Dior Pore Minimizer definitely isn’t a budget-proof primer, especially not if you use it in the morning and then again during the day, but it has such high holy grail potential that I’m willing to see past that. The Dior Pore Minimizer is definitely a keeper and probably also a future rebuy!
Have you tried the new Dior Pore Minimizer yet? What is your HG primer?