Quickie Review: Medusa’s Makeup “Stick It” Eye Primer

A few weeks ago, Rachael sent me a tub of Medusa’s Makeup “Stick It” eye primer because – and once you’ve read this review I’m sure you’ll agree she won’t mind me saying this – she couldn’t make head nor tail of it. Medusa’s Makeup isn’t a brand I’d personally encountered before so I was quite keen to try it out.

I really, really like this packaging – very 80’s and a bit goth at the same time. Cute.



The product itself is a very sheer, thin flesh-coloured waxy substance. Warming it with your fingers is much easier than applying it with a brush. You can see from the swatch above that it’s very sheer, and that it looks almost like Vaseline. As most makeup geeks will know, when using a sticky base or indeed any eye primer, a little goes a long way. With this product, it’s hard to tell where you’ve actually put it as it’s so sheer and thin-feeling so you can end up using too way much. By contrast, something like Pixie Epoxy by Fyrinnae which is clear is actually very sticky, so you can feel where you’ve put it, whereas with this, you can’t very easily feel it on the eye either.

L-R: Loose eyeshadows over bare skin, Medusa’s Makeup Stick It, Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, MUA Professional Eye Primer.

Now, I have a bit of a bugbear with things calling themselves primers when they don’t prevent eyeshadows from creasing. I know technically “primer” should just denote it goes on first and has nothing to do with performance, but really, if something causes creasing, it has no right to go on first and therefore in my mind has no right being called a primer. Therefore when I see a sticky base being called a primer (it is mentioned on the website and on the packaging) I get a bit ragey. I know from experience most sticky or cream bases will crease without a primer along the lines of Urban Decay Primer Potion or Too Faced Shadow Insurance. This product is clearly meant to be the second step in your eyeshadow routine, but the website says it’s “a great primer for your mineral eye dust.” Basically it doesn’t know what the fuck it wants to be. So with that in mind, I’ve compared the Medusa “primer” with a sticky base – Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy – which is meant to help loose shadows stick and a primer – the MUA – which is meant to help shadows last longer. As you can see, the shadow adhered really well to the Medusa Stick It (if making the colour look a tad darker than the other two products) and was certainly comparable to the other two products in that respect

But the wear test is the important part, right?

On your left I applied shadow over the Medusa Makeup Stick It Primer. On your right, I applied shadow after using my MUA Primer and then the Medusa Makeup Stick it – much like I would use a NYX Jumbo EyeshadowPencil, Pixie Epoxy or similar.

Here is the Medusa over my MUA primer. AFTER FORTY MINUTES.



And here is the Medusa alone after that time. I’m just going to reiterate that this was after FORTY MINUTES. Forty minutes in which I sat on my arse listening to Dan Savage and swatching some blushes, not forty minutes in the sauna or forty minutes boning an elite athlete.

Now, I know what I'm doing when it comes to makeup. I'm not an expert, but I'm hardly a n00b either. I did not apply too much product - I used a very small amount on both eyes - so I'm pretty sure overuse is not going to be a reason for this. Also I don't particularly find creasing a problem despite my hooded eyes - I do have to wear a primer, but my MUA one lasts me at least ten hours with no creasing. So I am going to have to slap the blame solely on the Medusa with this one.

Basically, folks, if you want something to make your eyeshadow last longer, buy something else. If you want something to help your loose eyeshadows stick, buy something else. I don’t know how anyone can get away with charging $8 for this, because you may as well use a bloody lip balm.