The Best NYX Marshmallow Smoothing Primer Review – 2022
Alyssia Chang
- Published
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
- Editor’s Rating:
- Price Range:
- USD: $17.00
- CAD: $22.00
- 1.01 fl. oz / 30ml
- Made in Korea
Take a journey into a playful sweet theme with this marsh “mellow” face primer! Using Marshmallow Root to smooth the skin, this 10 in 1 multitasking primer helps to soften and extend makeup wear for 16 hours. It is a 100% Vegan formula, has no silicones, and is not tested on animals.
Benefits and Claims:
Benefits:
- Smooths lines
- Blurs lines
- Minimizes texture
- Hydrates
- Provides a soft-focus finish
- Extends makeup wear for up to 16 hours
- Evens skin tone
- Softens skin
- Soothes
- Keeps makeup fresh
Claims:
- Vegan
- Skin-smoothing
- Cruelty-free Formula
- Water-based
- Extends makeup wear for 16hrs
- Marshmallow Primer dries down totally transparent
- Works on all skin tones
- 100% agree that the primer creates a smooth canvas for easy makeup application
Field Test Results (Consumer Study):
- 99% agree their skin looks softer after 4 days
- 98% agree their skin looks smoother after 4 days
- 99% over satisfaction!
Ingredients
Good Ingredients
Emollients: Butyrospermum Parkii Butter/Shea Butter, Decyl Cocoate, Caprylyl Methicone, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Di-C12-13 Alkyl Malate, Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Aluminum Hydroxide, Cetyl Alcohol.
Moisturizing: Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Glucose, Fructooligosaccharides, Fructose, Aluminum Hydroxide.
Not So Good Ingredients
Colorants: Ci 77491/Iron Oxides, Ci 77891/Titanium Dioxide
Perfume: Parfum/Fragrance
Chemical Preservatives: Glyceryl Caprylate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol
Other: Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Cetyle Alcohol, and Tocopherol
Testing And Results
I always believe that when trying and testing a new skin product, you should apply the formula every day for at LEAST 2 weeks. To fully see if there are positive results for a new skincare product, you would want to test a product for a full skin cell cycle. Which is 40 days minimum.
So, here are my complete analysis for the NYX Marshmellow Primer’s skin challenge!
A little history about my skin before we begin:
My Skin Type: Combination
Skin Colour: Olive
Sensitivity: Mild
Analysis And Results
Smell:
The NYX Marshmallow face primer was very sweet and strong, vanilla frosting-like smell, with a bit of 90’s doll scented plastic.
Texture:
Very smooth, blends really well, has a slight sheen/glow to it!
Quality:
It feels amazing, super soft and great quality.
Packaging:
It does not come with extra outside boxed packaging. I love that as it is better for the environment. The Lid is “sealed” when you purchase this with a sticker.
The sticker peals off without any residue (LOVE). The lid has a firm and secure “snap” sound to lock it in place.
While the dispensing pump is a dream. It immediately deposits the perfect amount onto the back of the hand!
The only downside is that I can’t see how much I have left in the bottle to replenish, but the colour itself for the packaging is adorable.
How much do you need to cover the face?
A little goes a LONGGG way. I covered the back of my hand (which is about the size of your cheek) with the tiniest little dot. For the whole face and neck, half a pump was plenty!
Did it make my skin feel smoother?
Yes, but my skin itself didn’t change for the better. It felt the same as before the test.
Did it blur lines?
Not that I noticed!
Was your skin more hydrated?
Yes, while wearing this product my skin felt more voluptuous!
Did your makeup last for up to 16 hours?
How my makeup looked compared to 16 hours later with and without the primer, resulted in the same wear. I used a variety of makeup products and looks from 7am to 11pm to see if that would change the way it wore on top of the makeup primer, but it ended up looking the same as the other side of my face (without the NYX primer) every time. All the results were the same, the primer didn’t make a noticeable difference in staying power on my skin.
Was your skin tone more even?
My skin tone before this test was pretty even, I didn’t notice much of a difference when wearing this before and after makeup for evening out the skin.
Is your skin softer?
It did feel softer! Both during the wear and after removal.
Did it function as a good makeup primer?
I didn’t notice a difference at all for staying power or for making my makeup look better throughout the day. I went through random weather elements like rain, hot sun, and crazy wind, exercised (for testing purposes), and wore a mask with it. Each time it stayed the same as the other half of my face.
Overall Conclusion
I would consider my skin to be on the slight sensitive side, but not reactive to harsh ingredients. When opening this product and testing it on my hand, the fragrance smell was overwhelmingly strong and synthetic.
I can usually wear fragrance ingredients in skincare well, but for some reason it made my skin break out on the third day. I had 5 deep, crater-like, pimples in a bunch of random spots (my husband and I called the one on the center of my forehead my “Unicorn Horn” as it was so bad, big, and painful).
I don’t break out very often and I haven’t had my skin react like this before in my life. I kept wearing this product but not on the areas that I had pimples, so that I could complete the test and see if the claimed benefits would become my final result.
My final thought: as beautiful as the packaging and idea is, it didn’t perform to the standards a face primer should. It also didn’t meet up to the skin benefit claims during my trial period with this product
Would I Purchase This Again?
Probably not, but I wish I loved it because the idea, ingredients, packaging, formula, and the fact that it doesn’t contain silicone is AMAZING.
If you love cute, smelling products, don’t react to strong fragrance, and you have a different skin type, maybe this product might perform well for you!
Pros:
- It worked perfectly on my skin tone! It also dried down completely transparent.
- My skin did feel softer at the end of the test.
- The feeling of the formula is gorgeous. The water-base texture is immediately welcomed and soaked up in my skin and spreads flawlessly.
- Love the packaging. The colour is beautiful and it has the perfect pump that dispenses an easy controlled amount of product.
- The price was super reasonable for 30ml.
Cons:
- It didn’t make a difference for the longevity and freshness of my makeup during the 16hrs.
- I never noticed any skin difference in the claims that it would smooth, blur, minimizing texture, and even out skin tone.
- I broke out badly.
- The fragrance smell was a little nauseating, but it wore off fast.
NYX Cosmetics: The Brand
NYX Professional Makeup originated in 1999, founded in L.A by Toni Ko at the age of 25.
The original name was NYX Cosmetics, named after the Nyx Greek goddess of the night. Toni started her journey exclusively selling eyeliners, lipliners and later expanding to jumbo eye pencils beauty professionals.
Eventually these products were marketed towards mass-audience stores.
In 2014, Toni sold NYX to the international beauty company L’Oréal for $500 million.
She is now the Founder and CEO of Bespoke Beauty Brands (the backbone behind brands such as KimChi Chic Beauty, Jason Wu Beauty, Mai Johnson & Company, and Liane V Beauty).
With this new acquisition and ambition, the launch of new products such as skincare, lipstick, and foundation were developed and released for all to enjoy their motto: “Department store beauty at drugstore prices”.
Common Questions
How to use NYX Marshmallow Primer:
Apply your usual morning skincare routine onto your face and neck.Apply half a pump of the makeup primer onto the face and neck with your fingers or flat foundation brush. Apply your desired face makeup on top.
Is NYX Marshmallow primer water-based?
NYX Marshmellow primer is a water-based makeup primer. The first ingredient listed on the back of this product is: AQUA / WATER / EAU. Water-based makeup and skincare are good for your skin because it contains less clog-poring chemicals, keeps the skin hydrated, and well moisturized.
Does NYX Marshmallow primer contain silicone?
There is no silicone in this makeup primer. Instead, they use Caprylyl Methicone which is an emollient ingredient that is a silicone-like fluid that helps spread evenly on the skin and creates a light, smooth, non-greasy feeling.
Is Nyx Marshmallow primer good for oily skin?
It depends on how oily your skin gets, what skincare you put on before, and what type of foundation you use. It does have a slight sheen/glow as its finish and will help hydrate your skin (good for oily skin so that it doesn’t over compensate for its lack of moisture).
Is Nyx Marshmallow primer non-comedogenic?
It is not non-comedogenic. This NYX primer does contain ingredients such as Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, and Cetyl Alcohol which are ingredients that have a high possibility of clogging pores (this is probably one of the reasons why I broke out using this product).
Thank you for taking the time to read this product test and review article!
I would love to know your experience on NYX The Marshmallow Primer, feel free to share down below your thoughts and how you enjoyed this article!
If you have any questions of my experiences, please comment and I’ll respond quickly!
