Clarins Perfecting touch review

According to Clarins, perfecting touch is a product that's designed to smooth skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and imperfections. It's a thick pink paste that can be used either before foundation or base make up application, mixed with foundation or used over specific areas after you've applied make up. It's a product that's supposed to disguise flaws, fill in pores and create a base that make up sticks to for longer. 

How to use it

I normally apply like I would any other primer (before foundation) to areas I feel need it. These are mainly on my cheeks where I have some enlarged pores and also along my jaw where I have a couple of scars from previous blemishes/breakouts. The pink paste becomes colourless and invisible as it's blended on to skin and has a smooth, velvet like texture that I'm not entirely sure I really like.

Clarins Perfecting Touch

Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch

Results

After application my skin feels softer, pores look less prominent and my face has a matt appearance. I definitely wouldn't say my flaws disappear which is what you're told this product will do on the Clarins website but my skin certainly looks a lot more even which is great. The velvety texture which I mentioned before is something that I'm not keen on as it makes my skin feel powdery and almost waxy which is a feeling I'm not used to but is something I'm willing to put up with if the look of my skin and foundation is improved. 

The foundation part is where the product fails a bit for me. I find it harder to blend anything properly over the top of the primer, something that surprised me a bit as the product is supposed to make this task easier. I think the fact that it's quite powdery in texture perhaps causes too much foundation to stick to skin? which in turn makes it harder to even the product out. I'm also slightly dissapointed that I've seen no improvment in the lasting power of foundation when I'm using this.

Clarins primer

Will I be buying again?

While this stuff does even out and generally make my bare skin look better, I'm not sure I'll be repurchasing. I rarely go without base make up/foundation so for me perfecting touch seems pretty pointless. For those of you who skip foundation or maybe just apply a little bit of concealor, it might be worth checking it out.

Do you use a primer? Which one?