Benefit Air Patrol Eyelid Primer Review

I was crazy excited about Benefit’s new eyelid primer Air Patrol because it’s the first lid primer to offer protection against environmental damage from sun and pollution. I picked it up in my Ulta haul a few weeks back and couldn’t wait to use it even though I had sticker shock from the price.

Air Patrol retails for $29 for .15 oz. of product housed in cute but oversized packaging. Personally, I could lose the box and the winged lid in exchange for a lower price point, or more product.

The sunscreen is provided by a combination of octinoxate and titanium dioxide. I’m surprised to see it’s a mix of mineral and chemical sunscreens because chemical sunscreens can irritate skin. There’s also a silicone applicator that’s supposed to be “softer than your pinkie” to gently apply the product. The primer comes up through the center of the doe foot by rotating the end of the tube.

The primer is tinted a pale yellow to conceal redness and discolorations on the eyelids. Directions say to use one click per eye and apply with the silicone tip.

There are lots of good ideas here, but unfortunately none of them worked very well for me.

One click dispenses way too much product and I have to waste most of what comes out to avoid using too much.

The silicone foot is very soft and it doesn’t tug on the eyelids but using it to actually apply the primer doesn’t do much but smear the primer on the lids.

Left eye: Air Patrol applied with finger Right eye: Air Patrol applied with applicator

The best application is by dispensing on the back of the hand and using the fingers to blend it into the eyelids (wastes a lot of product and defeats the purpose of the applicator). Once blended in the tint adds a little coverage, but not enough to cover redness, freckles, or veins.

Sadly, I wasn’t impressed with it’s performance with eyeshadow either. The eyeshadows stuck to the primer where first applied and didn’t blend together seamlessly.

And the primer gathered in the crease of my lid leaving a crinkly line of white primer.

To top it off, the primer was drying and made my already crepey eyelids look wrinklier within a few hours of applying.

After 10 hours my eyeshade was faded and eyelids looked dry and wrinkled.

After trying it a few times with different shadows and with different application methods the results were the same but my eyelids were starting to burn so I had to stop using it.

Nothing about Air Patrol made me happy.

For $29 it should be absolute perfection not an epic failure.

Shopping Links*:

Benefit Air Patrol at Ulta                 Amazon

Other Makeup Used:

TEMPTU Air Pod Foundation in “005 Beige”*
TEMPTU Air Pod Bronzer in “Warm Glow”*
TEMPTU Air Pod Blush in “Peony Pink”*
TEMPTU Air Pod Highlighter in “Champagne”*
Too Faced Natural Matte Eyeshadow Palette*
Wet n Wild Coloricon Kohl Eye Pencil in “Don’t Leaf Me”*
Lancome CILS Booster XL Mascara Enhancing Base*
Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara*
Flower Beauty “Take A Brow” Kit*
Too Faced La Crème Lip Cream in “Spice Spice Baby”

* Marked links are affiliate links. If you click the link and buy something, I receive a commission for the sale, but it doesn’t cost you anything extra. You are free to use the link or not as you choose.

This is not a sponsored post.