Airbrush Makeup primer How To and Review: silicone free vs traditional and airbrushable primer

What is the best primer for airbrush makeup? Where can I buy a silicone free primer? Do I even need a primer with airbrush makeup? These are some of the most common questions I get in my classes and online. The subject is vast, the answer to the questions needn't be. Let's do this!

Prepping the skin for airbrush makeup is as necessary as it is with your traditional beauty routine. The general rule is simply to avoid oil based formulas, which would by nature repel or destabilize any liquid that is layered upon them, and use as little product as possible.  If your skin is young, supple and blemish free, a simple light moisturizer used a few minutes before application will do. For any other skin condition (mature, oily, dry and so on), the general rule is to find the right balance between your skin care routine and the finish and consistency of the airbrush product you are going to use. If you came to this post thinking that airbrush makeup is one and the same for all brands, you should know that each product varies according to composition and manufacturer, just like traditional makeup does.

Airbrushable primers

Many brands of airbrush makeup produce their own ready to airbrush primers.These are generally very light formulas designed to moisturize the skin with the best compatibility for the product that will follow. They are mostly water based, such as Tickled Pink or Luminess, or might contain a light amount of dymethicone, such as Belloccio. If you have normal skin and live in a dry climate you may benefit from these formulas and their lightness, however some people might find them a little too thin, and might prefer a more comforting finish.  Temptu Brilliant Glow is a new airbrushable primer which is silicone based and has a much thicker consistency than other products. As the name implies, it adds a very subtle luminosity to the skin, and was created to mitigate the matte finish of Temptu's Perfect Canvas foundation. Because of its density, you will need an airbrush and compressor of the same power as Temptu's, however you can still apply this with a brush or sponge if you have a less powerful machine (such as the ones intended for water based makeup only).

Silicone Free primers

What if you want to avoid silicone in your skin care altogether? While silicone is inert and does not cause allergies, some people are sensitive to its prolonged use, meaning they show signs of intolerance such as blemishes and irritation. In these cases, silicone free alternatives will be the only options. While less common, silicone free primers do exist. Smashbox makes Primer Water, a water based product that can be used for both prepping the skin and as a makeup finishing spray, with a super light consistency. Milk Makeup produces the cult favorite Hydro Grip primer, with a more comforting gel like consistency and a more luminous finish, and mostly natural ingredients. If you wish to stay on the natural path, Nurturing Force produces its famous Blot Out Offensive and Twinkle Not Wrinkle primers, which we reviewed extensively in this post.  If you are in Europe, two products really stand out. For oily or combination skin, Ten Image Professional Matt Primer provides a super long lasting matte finish. You can use it on your T zone and even very sparingly on the eyelids to mattify the eyelid and prevent any cracking of your airbrushed eyeshadow. Bronx Colors Cosmetics Studio Line Magic Primer has a light, creamy texture, is very moisturizing and provides a lasting luminous finish that will add a very healthy glow to more opaque foundation lines.

Traditional primers

Let's say that my preferred airbrush makeup is water based. Would the presence of silicone in a primer really affect the durability and finish of water based airbrush makeup? Generally speaking, not really. It really depends on the concentration of silicone and other plasticizers in the formula. Personally, I would stay away from super slick formulas such as Urban Decay's or Benefit, but a the presence of common silicones such as dymethicone or cyclopentasiloxane in a primer does not affect the finish or durability, so much so that even the skin care sold by Dinair to be used with their products contains them. British airbrush makeup brand AirBase produces a perfect cross over between the two worlds: First Base Perfecting Primer is a Swiss formula with hydrating platinum technology that is slick at first but absorbs quickly to a soft, matte finish that is perfect both for their silicone formula and for any traditional makeup. Temptu's classic S/B Primer is a rich, super smooth formula that leaves the skin beautifully soft and mattified, and has the gorgeous light fragrance of its S/B line. It's also reasonably priced, which makes it the preferred choice of many. For the eyelids, regardless of the composition of the airbrushed eyeshadow, Make Up Forever Step 1 Skin Equalizer Mattifying is a perfect choice, just use it very sparingly and your eyeshadow will not crack even on textured, very oily eyelids.

Special thanks for the advice and information on some of these products to my amazing friends Regina Azizova @reginainneverland and Krysteane Duarte @Iheartairbrush

Airbrush Makeup from Spain: Ten Image Kit Review and summer look Video Tutorial

Airbrush Makeup Ten Image

Ten Image is one of the most prestigious brands in the Spanish beauty industry. The brand was created by Cazcarra Image Group, an enterprise that was founded in 1985 by makeup artist Carmen Cazcarra and that soon became the most important beauty academy in the Country. The rapid growth of this business allowed it to invest in producing a complete range of makeup to cover every corner of the market, from trendy consumer oriented lines to the most demanding sectors such as speciall effects for theater and film. Of course airbrush makeup could not be missing from such an extensive catalogue of products. After seeing Ten Image products at several editions of Cosmoprof, I couldn't wait to have the opportunity to test the airbrush lines and the kit being offered by this company.

Compressor and Airbrush

Ten Image Airbrush Kit

I purchased my kit from a European distributor, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the instruments and the wealth of extra items that are most welcome additions to it. The compressor included in the kit is the very reliable DAC 25 by Sparmax, which is also the choice of many among the best makeup brands. The machine is very small and very quiet, yet powerful with a maximum output of 30 PSI. It can be powered from the mains or from a rechargeable battery pack, which is included together with a very handy, small carrying bag that you can wear attached to your belt of with a soulder strap.  The bag provides space compartments for the compressor, the battery pack and an additional battery unit that you can purchase separately. You will be able to complete a full body makeup on one charge of the batteries, but you may need to include and extra one or simply to plug in the unit if you are going to work on multiple people or to execute more taxing tasks such as body art. The airbush included in the kit is the Sparmax SP 35, also a classic shared by the best brands for its reliability and its nozzle of 0.35 mm that allows you to apply any type of airbrush makeup. The airbrush comes with a classic double action valve, which was switched by us immediately for a more convenient continuous airflow one. The kit also features a connector with a pressure regulator. This is a very important feature overlooked by some other brands offering the same equipment. Given the compressor's output the ability to lower the pressure for more delicate areas and finer work (such as eyeshadow) is crucial.

Additional Items

Also by Sparmax is the cleaning station that comes with the kit, provided here with two extra filters and a very practical plastic container that allows you to pack the jar without having to empty it if you have to clear your station in a hurry. Other extra item featured it the bundle I purchased were a plexiglass palette, two foam applicators and most importantly a 500 ml bottle of alcohol based cleaning fluid.  The product is very effective, leaving the airbrush clean and releasing a pleasant scent that does not linger for too long. Also provided were two more makeup items for Ten Image that I very much appreciated: a peach tone corrector and more importantly a bottle of Tensum, a very good, silicone free primer with a soft focus effect that you can see in action in the video.

The Makeup

Aibrush Makeup by Ten Image

Ten Image features eleven recently reformulated foundation shades and thirty more matte and shimmer colors for any application. All the makeup is water based, and the colors come in a generous 30 ml format. The foundation colors are very easy to apply and very comfortable to wear. The offer great coverage and above average resistance to water. The hues are perfect for the Latin and mediterranean skin tones for which they were originally designed, but easily adjustable to match any other tonality. The other colors impress us for the richness of their pigments. Some of them, such as the beautiful turquoise AM-41, must be applied in extra thin layers to avoid excesses. The shimmer colors have a spectacular finish, and can of course be mixed with any other, creating endless possibilities ranging form the most natural bridal looks to the most daring body art. Scroll down to see a few swatches of the colors we used in our video tutorial As always you can click on the images to view them in full screen mode.

You can find the Ten Image products on the Spanish website of the company, or through their international distributors such as their Birtish branch. As this is a professional line you may have to register to view the prices. To request information from outside of Spain you can write an email to  international@cazcarra.com The very nice memebers of the  Ten Image team speak English and will be happy to help you.

 

Please check this newly released  video to see the step by step tutorial for the first look we created with these product. The makeup that I created with my collaborator Angela Rosa is directly inspired by the collection released by Ten Image for summer 2016 by the name of Mediterranean Soul, and by the colors chosen by their Creative Director Jordi Justribò.

Foundation Ingredients: Aqua, Talc, Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Phenxyethanol, Caprylyl Flycol, Magnesium Aluminium, Silicate, Ethyliexigliceryn. Pigments.
Other Colors Ingredients: Water, Clacium Carbonate, Paraffin Wax, Petrolatum, Dextrin, Glycerine, Stearyl Alcohol, Acacia Senegal, Sodium Benzoate, Perfume, Pigments.

Fondos para aerògrafo de Ten Image by Cazcarra

Colores para aerògrafo de Ten Image by Cazcarra

Airbrush Makeup at Cosmoprof 2013

New energies at play...

Today I can finally catch up after 4 straight days at Cosmoprof 2013 in Bologna, Italy, where I had the lucky job of finding out new products for a feature on Trucco e Bellezza magazine, the only Italian glossy publication entirely dedicated to makeup.
The show is barely over  but I can already tell you that I have met several very interesting Airbrush Makeup producers who are to introduce this wonderful medium to the European makeup scene:

Mistair is a British company with an amazingly comprehensive line of products including silicone based makeup, alcohol based body paints, polymer based Nail Art colours and  even water based colour for Hair and a water based series for special effects and body painting called MistFX.

Technoair is a fantastic line of waterbased products for face, body and nails coming from Spain and created by airbrushing Guru Luìs Dìaz, who is not only a master makeup artist, but has formulated the entire line of products and designed the wide range of equipment the company proudly offers.

Full video reports with interviews and tutorials on both Mistair and Technoair will be coming soon to our YouTube channel.

We have met with several more brands, Allisis from Korea (beauty makeup), and Ten Image by Cazcarra from Spain (beauty and body art) and Eulenspiegel from Germany (body art), and we look forward to writing about them too and including them in our LINKS DIRECTORY page!

In spite of the economic downturn and some truly crazy March weather, I was happy to see some new energies finally at play even here in Italy. Stay tuned...