Amongst all the blue eye shadows I own, the one I’m most in love with is a particular Estee Lauder Pure Color single shadow called Midnight. Midnight is the perfect shade of indigo, and I’d usually work heavily smoked eyes with it.

But as much as I love the colour, I have serious issues with the actual powder. It looks great in the first … oh, hour or so … after which, the eye shadow will proceed to simply disappear. Staying power is just really bad. I tend to carry the eye shadow in my handbag whenever I wear this, just so I can keep topping it up on my eyelids!

So when Benefit launched Stay Don’t Stray in April, I immediately thought – maybe this could just save Midnight.

Stay Don’t Stray is a primer that, according to Benefit, will get concealers and eye shadow to really stay put – concealers won’t crease, and eye shadows will stay vibrant and true.

It comes in an airless pump, which makes it really easy to use. Just one pump is enough for both eyes, at least for me. The primer is coloured and feels very much like a liquid concealer. You’re meant to simply dab it around the eye area – the eyelids and under-eye – and let it dry (which it does very quickly) before applying your concealer and eye shadow.  

And as an added bonus, and because it’s almost a given now for make-up to also have good-for-skin properties, the primer also comes with vitamins C and E, and sodium hyaluronate.  

I like the texture of SDS, it’s still lightweight and blends in really well. In fact, sometimes I find myself even skipping concealer because this camouflages redness or dark circles well enough. The only thing is that for those with darker skin tone might have problems making sure the “dark beige” shade of this primer blends properly with their colouring.

To prove the primer’s claims, I wore it on a day that I knew would really test it to its limits – this means a nasty combination of Midnight and Track day! Because of work, I had to spend an entire day at a medium-speed test track, driving in the sweltering heat - without the air-con on!

And did the primer hold the colour? Well, I got home at 7pm after a long, sweaty day, and I’d say my eyes still looked pretty decent. Ignore how oily my skin is, just focus on the fact that my eye shadow was still on!

So yes, Stay Don’t Stray has my two thumbs up. 

No more hating Midnight.   

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Stay Don’t Stray is available at Benefit counters for RM108.