REVIEW: Becca Backlight Priming Filter

This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! After months of dragging my feet due to skin issues, distractions (aka other shiny products), and general laziness, I have now tested the Becca Backlight Priming Filter. It has been photographed, faffed over, and written about. To the people who have emailed me or left comments asking when the Hell I was going to finish this post: thank you. I dedicate this review to you and all of your patience.

The Becca Backlight Priming Filter costs $38 for a full ounce of product, making it cheaper than many other high-end options. It's packaged in a beautiful frosted glass bottle with a pump. I'm normally not a huge fan of glass because I'm clumsy and prone to breaking things, but I'll note that this bottle seems particularly sturdy: I've dropped it a few times (ha ha ha no one is surprised) without issue.

Oh, and the pump is really well designed. One full pump of product is the perfect amount to cover my entire face and the very top of my neck, but if you want to use a little less, it's easy to disperse half a pump instead.

The Priming Filter has a thin, lotion-like texture that feels very smooth when you apply it. It's weightless on the skin. While there is microshimmer in this product a la the Burberry Fresh Glow primer that I despised, it's far more refined in the Becca product, and it only registered faintly on my bare skin when I was in front of a strong light source. The actual "base" of this primer feels hydrating, but be forewarned that this is a primer, not a moisturizer: it will not eliminate your dry patches because that's not its job.

The champagne color of this probably won't register on most people's skin, but because I'm paper white, I found that it darkened my foundation a hair--see the header image for an example. Most people aren't as pale as I am, I know, but if you are, be aware that you'll either want to blend down your neck or use a lighter foundation than usual to compensate.

This primer does contain added fragrance. To me, it smells like a mixture of various Bath and Body Works body splashes, like Cucumber Melon and Sweet Pea made mad love and had a vaguely floral baby. I don't like added fragrance and this one smells very weird to me, but because I can't smell it after application, I'll tolerate it. There's also a hefty dose of ethylhexyl palmitate in here; my skin loves that ingredient, but some people break out horribly from it, so please patch test if you aren't sure how it will affect your skin.

The photo on the left shows the primer on my bare skin, and the photo on the right shows the primer under a thin layer of Buxom Show Some Skin foundation. If you enlarge these photos, you'll see that the bright camera flash has highlighted some of the shimmer on my bare skin, but only slightly. (The white speck you're seeing on the right side of my face in the foundation image isn't glitter; I took these photos when my skin hadn't been exfoliated in a month due to moisture barrier damage, so some dead skin flakes were popping up.) Overall, the effect in both images is soft and glowy. I'll also note that, when my applied my Buxom foundation, it seemed to glide over this product, giving me a very smooth and even application.

So far, this all sounds like the mystical magical unicorn pee of a dry-skinned person's dreams, right? Well, I'm about to shatter that dream.

First, while this product looks really stunning in photos, I don't think there's much difference in real life. In fact, I don't see any difference: in the mirror, my skin looks the same with a layer of Becca Backlight Priming Filter as it does without. This makes it a shoe-in for special events where you'll be photographed, but if that's not a regular thing for you, why bother?

From left to right: 15 minutes after application, 3 hours after application, 5 hours after application.

Second, this product doesn't do much to extend the wear of your makeup. Now, I understand that the real pull for this primer is that it's going to give you a glowy look, but Becca does claim that this will extend your makeup's longevity as well. Honestly, my makeup wore as per usual: I got slightly dryer on most of my face and my nose got quite shiny at about the 4 hour mark, but that's an every day occurrence for me. It neither improved nor diminished my foundation's staying power.

Third, that smooth application I described earlier doesn't happen with every foundation. When I tried applying my Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint over this primer, the primer actually balled up and settled in weird "flakes" on my skin. You can brush the balled-up product off, but it feels disgusting, and really, why use it if that's going to happen? Enlarge the header image and you'll see what I mean: there's a layer of white Backlight Priming Filter "flakes" around my jawline.

I'm giving this product a 3 instead of a 2 because I think it does improve the application of some foundations, and it will be a great choice for people who want an extra glow in photographs. I also can't fault the overall texture or packaging of the product. But the fact that it balls up under some foundations and doesn't give a noticeable glow to my skin outside of photos limits how useful it will be to the average consumer. Despite my initial excitement over this product, I ended up being disappointed.

RATING: 3 out of 5.

This product is available at Sephora.com.



SIDE NOTE: My partner will be visiting me for the next two months, so posts may be sporadic. Thank you for your patience!