After applying eyeshadow, do you check your makeup a little later to find that the color on your lids has creased, faded or smeared? Are your eyelids oily, making eyeshadow almost impossible to wear? Both of these circumstances apply to me and many times I had these problems — until I got savvy to eyeshadow primers.

There are several on the market, the most popular, I think, being Urban Decay’s Eyeshadow Primer Potion. This is the first kind I tried. This product has earned various accolades for being a tried-and-true staple in any woman’s makeup collection. I have no gripes with the formula itself, but the packaging is all wrong. The tube is shaped very oddly so a lot of product gets trapped in the bottom, unable to be reached with the applicator wand since it doesn’t reach down all the way to the bottom of the tube.

See for yourself.

The wand only goes down to around where the tube narrows, leaving quite a bit of primer unreachable!

Some people go to the pain of actually cutting open the tube to reach the elusive remaining primer, but why? If it gets exposed to air, the product will dry out quickly and become useless.

I was recently dismayed when my second tube of this product had to go to waste. The bottom rim of the tube had a hairline split somewhere and primer would ooze out from the cracks and get everywhere. It happened right when it was brand new, too. Bad luck, that.

If Urban Decay redesigned the packaging, I would continue to buy this, because overall it really is an excellent item.

To replace my ruined UD primer tube, I researched a bit and settled on Too Faced Shadow Insurance. It’s nearly identical to Urban Decay’s, but the tube is so much more practical.

This tube is squeezable so you can get every last drop of it out of it.

I’m very satisfied with the Too Faced Shadow Insurance. It goes on smooth and sheer without settling in the crease of my lid and definitely keeps my shadow looking fresh morning to night.

The application technique for these is pretty intuitive. The UD primer comes with a wand, but I’ve always had the best results using my pinky finger to properly spread the primer evenly over my eyelids. A little goes a long way, too. A mustard-seed-sized dot for each eyelid should be enough; use more if you are going to put eyeshadow all the way up to your brow bone.

Both of these are priced the same, running at $17 apiece.

Powder and cream shadows work over top of these primers, and they make the colors really vibrant and true.

There are other primers available, some of them better than others, some of them more or less expensive. My motto has always been “you get what you pay for” — and I can confidently say I’m glad I spent the money on both of these I’ve written about.

Do you know of other primers that are good but less expensive? Say, under $10? Let me know in the comments!