Flormar is an Italian makeup brand that has been around for a while but there are not that many reviews on it – at least not in English. And I’ve given in to their 2-for-1 deals way too many times not to contribute to the (currently lacking) online repertoire of European makeup brands reviews.
You could even say that I’m not obsessed with makeup and good deals, I’m just being altruistic. You’d be lying, but you could say it.
I know a lot of people doubt the usefulness of a makeup primer, which is understandable if you have a good moisturizer + foundation combination, but I’m a converted primer lover. Different primers address different needs, but their purpose revolves always around the same thing: making your makeup look better. Primers may hydrate skin or mattify it, blur imperfections, even out discoloured complexions or brighten dull skin, and overall make your base makeup last longer and look better as it wears out.
Flormar’s CC Cream primers address uneven or dull complexions (CC stands for color correcting). There are four colours, and I got the green, that is supposed to correct red on the skin, and the peach, that is supposed to counteract blue, like big undereye circles.
Formula wise, both primers are incredibly similar, it’s really just the colour that changes. I found them neither hydrating nor drying. Texture is somewhat thick, and almost grainy (like the product is separating, except it isn’t), and I was scared that these products would clog my pores, but I’m happy to report that didn’t happen, nor any other adverse reaction, for that matter.
Unfortunately, I also didn’t notice that either of the primers made my foundation look better or last any longer. They didn’t make it worse, but wearing them or not had the same effect on how good my foundation looked throughout the day, and a bit of an improvement is what you should expect any primer to do. So the only thing left to assess is if the colour correction actually works. I’ll break it down by colour:
Flormar Green CC Cream: I could tell the red areas on my skin were slightly less noticeable after applying the primer, but after applying foundation on top, I couldn’t tell a difference. And it didn’t even need to be a full coverage foundation – I couldn’t tell I was wearing a primer or not with light coverage bases. Just to make sure, I tried the primer on half my face and kept the other half bare prior to applying the foundations, to really make a fair comparison, and still nothing. Nobody could tell the side that had the primer.
Flormar Peach CC Cream: with this shade, I did noticed that my skintone was overall more evened out. The effect was still noticeable with a light-medium coverage foundation, it was just after powder and colour cosmetics (blush, bronzer) that I could no longer tell the difference between the side that had the primer and the one that didn’t (I did the same testing I had done with the green primer). I wouldn’t really say this targets undereye circles or blue hues on the skin as much as it covers everything evenly, because the shade is close to a skintone shade, as you can see by the blended swatch. So I actually think this behaves more like a very, very light coverage foundation rather than a primer that aims to colour correct.
Honestly, I can’t really recommend either of these products. Too bad that my first Flormar review wasn’t a hit (they do have good stuff). The only plus about using them is the extra SPF 20 they can provide. Other than that, under a full face of makeup, I felt no difference between using them or not. If you’d like to use them by themselves, sure, there is a slight evening out of the complexion that you can notice if you don’t plan on using foundation on top. If that is your intent, these contain 35ml for 10€, and that’s without a discount or deal (which come by pretty often), so they are a good bang for your buck. For me, they serve no purpose.
