THE ROUTE BEAUTYTHE GIRLFRIEND Skin-Loving Glow Primer: Comforts, Hydrates and Blurs (1.0 Fl Oz)

It is easy going on and my skin feels sooooo soft. My makeup goes on smooth.

I absolutely love this primer. The bottle is gorgeous, and the color of this primer is so pretty and shiny! Application is smooth, and I can get an even blend with just my fingers. This primer is hydrating, glowy, and not super sticky. It’s the perfect makeup base, or for just wearing alone

I like it, it goes on smoothly and give a little shimmer to your face

I have heard about this brand before and I was looking forward to try this glow primer. It came in a really unique packaging and it contains of 1.0 fl. Oz of product. Even though I think it’s a very pricey primer but I believe it’s worth a try because it’s an amazing primer to keep your skin hydrated and reduce the appearance of pores so you will have a blurry soft skin after applying it. I love using it before I apply my foundation as it helps my skin look smooth and nicer.

I’ve never tried the brand before but was interested by their description - “Medical-Grade skincare meets luxury.” Founded by Nancy Pellegrino, a sought-after Nurse Practitioner and Courtney Baber, a globally-recognized beauty industry veteran, THE ROUTE brings you professional, aesthetic skincare with a smile and a Nurse’s caring touch.” Sounds great to me!This comes in a beautiful outer product box. It is made in USA. It is vegan and cruelty free (PETA certified). Ingredients are listed on the packaging. The box has an inside kind of shelf that slides out to reveal the bottle of primer.For the price point, I was kind of surprised at the bottle this comes in. It’s in a plastic bottle that has a clear base that has another area inside that’s white and holds the product. It has a gold pump with a gold lid. It’s very lightweight plastic. It has a nice look to it with the clear bottom, and then the white inside that holds the primer, along with the gold pump and lid. But, at $50 for 1 fl oz, I just expect a nicer bottle, especially when they said it was “medical-grade skincare meets luxury.” I don’t feel a lightweight plastic bottle is very “luxury.” I’ve gotten much more affordable products that came in much nicer bottles. But, that could just be me.This claimed to be a hybrid skincare and makeup primer. I have normal to dry skin, more on the dry side with some extremely dry areas. I’ve tried a lot of different primers over the years. A lot of hydrating primers act no different than a moisturizer - hydrate skin but don’t help prolong the wear of your makeup. But, there are some I’ve found that do hydrate skin and help give a nice base for makeup and help it last longer. I like those because I can just use one product and skip my usual moisturizer. So, I’m always interested in trying a product that will work as more than 1 product! Seeing this was a hybrid skincare and makeup primer, along with the claims I was intrigued!It’s a light peachy toned cream. It looks and feels just light a lightweight cream, but it is silicone based so it has a silicone feel to it - that silky, slippery feel. It glides onto the skin. It absorbs quickly. It leaves a light glow to the skin. If you look very carefully, you can see a gold sheen to the skin. I don’t actually notice it except for when I look at my fingers after rubbing the product in. Then I can actually see the gold on my fingers. I’m really pale, so I was a little worried about the gold sheen, like it would look weird on my skin. But, it doesn’t, on the skin it just looks like a healthy glow. Another reviewer called this shimmery. I don’t feel like it is shimmery at all. When I think of shimmery, I think kind of glittery or sparkly. I don’t see that at all with this. It’s just a very subtle glow to the skin.It feels hydrating on the skin. It isn’t extremely hydrating. It’s more like a lightweight moisturizer, which works well under makeup. It is smoothing and gives a good base for makeup, which didn’t surprise me since this is silicone based. I don’t have large pores, just small ones that are noticeable when up close. This did help smooth over those so they weren’t more noticeable when I applied my foundation. But, if you have larger pores, I don’t think this would fill them. I wouldn’t say this is blurring at all. Just hydrating and smoothing for a good base. It did help my makeup last for the day. The max I got out of it was 8 hours. When I would be working a 12 hour shift running around a lot and sweating, it didn’t help much for that and my makeup did start breaking apart a lot sooner. I’d say this is great for people with dry skin who want a hydrating, glowy primer that will provide a smooth base. If you have oily skin, I’m not sure this will help your makeup last longer but I can’t say for sure.As for ingredients…it does have some great ingredients in it. It has diamond powder to reflect light to reduce appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, “natures Botox” to smooth wrinkles, a new innovative ingredient used to combat wrinkles (especially vertical lines), and great moisturizing ingredients. I give some info at the end of my review on the different ingredients (marked with ❇️). While I do feel it has some great ingredients, I’m not sure I noticed much of their effects. I did get a subtle glow from it. I don’t think this really filled wrinkles for me, but I don’t have any large wrinkles that I’d need filled. I do have one between my brows I get when I furrow my brows for too long, which fades on its own still. One day when I started doing my makeup, I had that there and I applied the primer there and I didn’t feel it was any less noticeable. I do think my skin looked healthier and smoother with it though. Maybe overtime continued use will provide more effects? I’m not sure.Overall, it feels nice and looks nice on the skin. It felt like a lightweight moisturizer. It worked well under makeup. It worked well with all different kinds of foundations and all the rest of my skin care. I didn’t have any issues with it pilling at all. With my normal to dry skin, more on the dry side, I found it worked well. It hydrated my skin enough and gave a smooth base for my foundation. It helped my makeup last 8 hours. But, if I was at work, running around and sweating a lot, it started to breakup pretty quickly. Like I said before, I do feel it has some great ingredients, but not sure I noticed much of their effects. Maybe with continued use I’ll see more effects from it, but I’m not sure. I feel like the ingredients it has in it that provide effects are all temporary effects like the Diamond powder, natures Botox, etc. The effects from those are all temporary. Maybe if I had more noticeable wrinkles I’d notice more of a difference? Right now I just have very fine lines in a few areas like around my mouth and eyes. So, maybe if they were more noticeable, the primer would have more of an effect? Not sure. I don’t think it’s worth $50 for 1 fl oz. While it has nice ingredients, they’re ingredients I’ve seen in other products. I don’t find this to be anything that special. At $50 for 1 fl oz, I would need to see more benefits. Right now, I give it 3 stars. It’s hydrating, smoothing, and gives a subtle glow. It helps my makeup last 8 hours as long as I’m not running around and sweating.❇️INFO ON DIFFERENT INGREDIENTS❇️SiliconesLike I said before, this is silicone based. It has quite a few silicones in it. Give silky, smooth feel. Make product easier to spread. Creates a protective barrier (aka occlusive). It also works well to fill in fine lines and wrinkles and give skin a plump look. Silicones may provide some short-term benefits, but will do nothing to give you better skin in the long run, and may actually accelerate the look of aging. One of the most popular silicones used in skin care is dimethicone. Though this ingredient is unlikely to harm your skin in the short term, because of how it covers the skin, it can cause problems in the long run. Essentially, dimethicone forms a slick film over your skin. If it’s in your moisturizers and creams, you may be wearing it all day and all night. This can interfere with the skin’s natural processes like sweating and sloughing off old dead skin cells. The more you use it, the more it may make fine lines and wrinkles more noticeable. That film also causes a lot of people with sensitive skin to suffer from increased breakouts. If you’re trapping moisture, you’re also trapping bacteria, sebum, and other impurities, making an acne problem worse. I get hormonal breakouts and I personally don’t find silicones worsen my breakouts at all. But, I always double cleanse (use an oil cleanser or balm to melt the makeup away, rinse that off, then go in with my regular cleanser) and I find that gets all my makeup off without any issues.❇️Polymethylsilsesquioxane (Diamond Powder)This is a texturizing powder that is used as a texture enhancer and soft focus agent. It is claimed to give silicone type softness to the formula and also works as a TEMPORARY wrinkle filler. Basically, it is supposed to diffuse light to reduce appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Just like a diamond scatters light, Diamond powder is meant to spread light evenly across your face so it can’t hit “crevices” that create wrinkle-exaggerating shadows. It gives skin a soft-focus effect by refracting light to create an optical illusion to make fine lines and wrinkles invisible to the naked eye.Benefits include anti-aging, pigmentation reduction, shine and radiance, and soft focus effect. Diamond powder is micronized for soft focus and skin polishing effects. Micronized diamonds are so small they are nearly invisible on the skin when dispersed. But the optical physics they employ are exactly the same as a spectacular cut large-carat rock! A diamond slows down light and in doing so, bends light drastically. This means virtually all light entering the top face of the diamond is reflected internally and the appearance is softened since the light emerges in random directions. When delivered to the skin, the diamond powder particles manipulate light by converting invisible UV light to blue light (photoluminescence) and selectively scattering favorable blue and green light. The particles settle in the wrinkle and subtly illuminate a blue glow that decreases the appearance of wrinkles. So, Diamond powder leads to youthful looking skin as the appearance of shadows, wrinkles, pigmentation and discolorations are diminished.❇️Sodium Hyaluronate - This has a few different types of sodium hyaluronate:➕Sodium Hyaluronate, which is a form of the current IT-moisturizer hyaluronic acid (HA). Helps skin hold onto water, making skin more plump and elastic.➕Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate, which is a variation of HA. This modified molecule is claimed to have even better moisture retention ability than normal HA and better affinity to the skin surface. The better affinity comes from the acetyl groups that act as tiny "anchors" to attach the HA molecule to the skin. Staying on top of the skin better and longer means longer-lasting surface hydration and improved elasticity. It’s also less sticky and more cosmetically elegant than normal HA, so no wonder the nickname of this molecule is super hyaluronic acid. ➕Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, which is a special cross-linked form of HA. Cross-linked means that normal HA pieces are chemically bound together to create a big, infinite mesh. The special HA mesh has a remarkable water-binding capacity, 5x more than the already crazy water-binding capacity of normal HA! This water filled crosslinked HA gel forms a smooth film on the skin and continuously delivers the bound water, so it gives long-term moisturizing benefits. Overall, sodium crosspolymer is an AWESOME version of HA, probably superior to traditional versions, so it’s a nice addition to the ingredient list!➕Hydrolyzed Sodium Hyaluronate (aka miniHA), which is a super small, chemically chopped up version of sodium hyaluronate. This has an ultra-low molecular weight. It’s smaller so can penetrate skin better and might be able to moisturize deeper than normal HA.❇️Acetyl Hextapeptide-8 (aka Argireline), which is called “natures Botox.” It is a synthetic peptide that has several different potential wrinkle-fighting and anti-aging effects. It's so effective, that experts say it's the closest thing to Botox you can get. It prevents the muscle movement that leads to wrinkle formation. Argireline also promotes collagen production and optimizes the function of collagen, which both fight fine lines and improve moisture levels in the skin. It’s good for anyone looking to smooth wrinkles caused by repeated muscle movement in areas such as the forehead and around the eyes.❇️N-Prolyl Palmitoyl Tripeptide-56 Acetate (aka Matrixyl Morphomics), which constitutes an unprecedented way of combating wrinkles, especially vertical lines. It is a new, innovative, and award-winning peptide that boosts collagen and fibronectin production, improving extracellular matrix structure, fibers organization, and skin density. It's a product of the evolutionary development of the Matrixyl peptides line that received "The 25 Years of Innovation Award" in 2015 for its most significant influence on the skincare ingredients industry. It’s a tetrapeptife (contains 4 amino acids). It mimics dermal matrikines that stimulate fibroblasts to produce ECM components such as collagen type I (one of the most important structural proteins that provides firmness, elasticity, and youthfulness of skin) and fibronectin (has essential skin functions, improving cell adhesion, migration, and differentiation. It plays a crucial role in wound healing and skin recovery processes).❇️Magnesium Carboxymethyl Beta-Glucan, which is designed to rebalance the immune system of the skin, soothe irritations and strengthen the skin barrier.❇️Ceramide NP, which plays an important role in having a healthy skin barrier and keeping the skin hydrated.❇️Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp (Silver Ear Mushroom) Extract, which is an antioxidant and moisturizer. It’s a big sugar molecule. It’s an awesome moisturizer with slightly greater water-holding capacity than the IT-moisturizer hyaluronic acid! That’s a pretty big deal since HA is well known for its crazy water-holding capacity (up to 1000x its own weight). Not only that, but it also has some antioxidant effect. It’s not sticky and leaves skin moist and smooth.❇️Hydroxymethoxyphenyl Decanone, which an antioxidant and soothing ingredient. It is a potent topical and cellular antioxidant, anti-irritant, and hyaluronic acid booster.❇️Beta-Glucan, which is great for skin - it repairs skin, has wound healing properties, is a mild antioxidant, soothes and moisturizes skin, and has shown promising anti-aging benefits.❇️Zingiber Officinale (Ginger) Root Extract, which has potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It soothes skin and reduces redness. It also contains moisturizing properties, and is well known to increase blood circulation and have a toning effect.❇️Bisbalol, which is an anti-inflammatory and soothing ingredient.❇️Squalane, which is a great moisturizer that makes skin smooth without being too heavy or greasy. It is pretty much compatible with all skin types and skin conditions! It’s great for acne prone skin! It is also a detoxifier. Regular use of squalane can boost collagen production, leading to firming skin.❇️Betaine, which has skin protection and moisturization properties.❇️Tocopherol (Vitamin E), which is a major antioxidant in our skin. It protects skin cells from free radicals that want to destroy the lovely collagen that makes skin nice and firm. It also has photoprotection properties, meaning it can protect the skin from UV (and in case of Vit E it’s mainly UVB) rays. If you put it on your skin, it lowers the production of sunburn cells, reduces the damage caused by UVB rays and inhibits photocarcinogenesis. ❇️Glycolic Acid, which is an AHA well known for its exfoliating properties. It also reduces hyperpigmentation. It can disperses melanin in our skin and is also helpful for fading post acne marks (PIH).❇️Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, which is the synthetic version of mica. Being synthetic, it has a more consistent quality, fewer impurities and an even lower heavy metal content than mica (not that mica’s heavy metal content is high). It’s also more transparent and has improved light reflection. The 2 main use cases for Synthetic Fluorphlogopite is being used neat as a superior "filler" or skin tone enhancer or it can also serve as a base for multi-layered, composite pigments such as pearl effect pigments where it is coated with one or more layers of metal oxide, most commonly titanium dioxide. It’s also being used often in place of mica since mica is considered unethical to use given the fact that most of the worlds mica is produced using child labor.FULL INGREDIENT LISTDimethicone, Water/Aqua/Eau, Polysilicone-11, Lauryl Polyglyceryl-3 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Passiflora Edulis (Passion Fruit) Seed Oil, Propanediol, Alumina, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Diamond Powder, Sodium Hyaluronate, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Hydrolyzed Sodium Hyaluronate, Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, N-Prolyl Palmitoyl Tripeptide-56 Acetate, Solanum Lycopersicum (Tomato) Fruit Extract, Magnesium Carboxymethyl Beta-Glucan, Ceramide NP, Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp (Silver Ear Mushroom) Extract, Rheum Rhaponticum (Rhubarb) Root Extract, Hydroxymethoxyphenyl Decanone, Beta-Glucan, Zingiber Officinale (Ginger) Root Extract, Orobanche Rapum Extract, Trehalose, Bisabolol, Squalane, Hordeum Vulgare (Barley) Seed Extract, Betaine, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Pentylene Glycol, Disodium Phosphate, Caprylyl Glycol, Polyglyceryl-10 Stearate, 1,2-Hexanediol, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Phosphate, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sucrose Stearate, Potassium Sorbate, Maltodextrin, Tocopherol, Glycolic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Chloroacetic Acid, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Tin Oxide (CI 77861), Iron Oxides (CI 77491)

I have used The Route Beauty THE GIRLFRIEND Skin-Loving Glow Primer for the past few mornings. I use it as a primer after I have cleansed my face. I was amazed at how soft it made my face feel. It went on smoothly under my makeup.. It left my face with a nice glow and blurred my flaws on my face, and now I am in love. The price is a little high but well worth it. I will add this to my makeup collection to use as primer or just alone without foundation. Overall a fantastic product! ( In the picture above I applied it to half of my hand, and you can see the difference with the nice glow it gives off. Love it.

I was so excited to get to try this Route Beauty Primer! Yes, it pricey, but no more that Dior or Chanel products! It works great! It’s worth the price! It goes on very smoothly and helps makeup to glide on. It does help to blur fine lines and pores! I may be 75, but I still want to look as good as I can and this helps me do so!

Works nice under foundation.Leaves skin smooth,silky.No smell. Absorbs quickly no oily residue. I did not notice this blurring out my fine lines .This comes in a pretty box perfect for gifting.. No plastic was used in their packaging. On scale 1-10 I give a 8.This is my review on this free product.