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While I test and write about beauty products for a living, a lot of my knowledge of cosmetics comes from my 75-year-old mother who has always looked 10 years younger than her actual age. I recently chatted with her about some of her must-have products, and I am here to spill the one she immediately said she can’t live without for its ability to make wrinkles and creases disappear under makeup.
While my mom doesn’t often paint on a fully decked-out face of makeup, she does wear a light layer, but she’ll never use anything without first applying the Laura Mercier Hydrating Pure Canvas Primer, which is on sale at Nordstrom for 15 percent off.
Laura Mercier Hydrating Pure Canvas Primer
Though she looks younger than her biological age, my mom hasn’t had any cosmetic work done, so fine lines and wrinkles inevitably blessed her face. To keep her skin looking smooth and prevent foundation and concealer from sinking into her creases, she massages in a thin layer of the hydrating primer all over her face after cleansing her skin and applying a daily moisturizer. She focuses on her “problem areas,” which include her “eyes, around the mouth, and neck.”
The primer is filled with hydrating ingredients like glycerin, squalane, and olive oil extract that prevent flaking to keep my mom’s skin feeling soft, and help make her fine lines and wrinkles less noticeable. Since she often suffers from dry eyelids but will apply eye makeup for dinners out, it counteracts dryness on her lids, too. In fact, she likes it so much, she recommends it to all of her friends, including one who said her “face always looks cracked.” After using the primer though, her friend shared that it “stopped concealer from getting in the crevices,” noting that the “cracks are no longer there.”
Using the primer is like a smooth blank canvas for my mother to create flawless, yet natural coverage that lasts. "When I take my makeup off at night, it always looks the way it did when I first applied it,” she confirmed. It also gives her skin a subtle glow, hides a dull complexion, and helps her to “prevent creasing and crepey skin” that she experienced before discovering this product. Sometimes, she’ll use the primer solo under sunscreen since it’s “good enough by itself to hide wrinkles.”
Laura Mercier Protecting Pure Canvas Primer
Though she lives in Florida with humidity, the strong sun actually causes her skin to feel drier and rougher than in colder climates, not to mention its other damaging effects. The primer “saves” her skin, and she likes it so much that she’s also grabbing Laura Mercier’s Protecting Pure Canvas Primer with SPF 30 while it’s on sale. It offers similar results as the moisturizing version, with added benefits of sun protection, and vitamins C and E to make skin visibly brighter over time.
Thousands of shoppers love the hydrating primer too, with one 49-year-old who has “wrinkles here and there” sharing that it “melts the makeup evenly into skin under eyes and cheeks,” and it also makes their skin “look dewy and not powdery.” They added that it’s “perfect” for making “any signs of crepiness disappear.”
Grab the primer that my 75-year-old mom “always [has] a backup” for, and shop even more on-sale Laura Mercier primers for all skin types at Nordstrom.