First Impression: The Body Shop, Instablur

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be showing you a new product from The Body Shop - Instablur! When I first saw the product launch I was super excited and curious, but the only thing that stopped me from scooping this product up straight away was the fact that it seems quite similar to Benefits Porefessional which I already own. I picked up a sample pot to compare the two and decide if I need both Instablur and Porefessional!

What Does It Do?

This all-new face perfector blurs imperfections, giving you flawless photo-perfect skin in an instant! With Community Fair Trade marula oil.

• Five action perfector:
• Shine Controlling 12h
• Reduces appearance of pores
• Blemish Hiding
• Complexion Unifying
• Make-up Extending(1)

One of my very favorite way to test out primers that are designed to fill pores or cover wrinkles is to test a patch between my thumb and index finger. Why? The skin is naturally soft and a little wrinkly there, so that gives the primer something to "fill", rather than testing it on the smooth back of your hand.

The test patch looks fabulous, filling and blurring my hand wrinkles, and providing a velvety smooth base. The next test is to try it on my face. I'm really glad I did close-up comparisons, because even I can't see anything from the full face comparison. I'll leave it here in case anyone is curious though!

The close up shots really showcase my amazing gappy pores. Lets be honest, everyone has pores, and a significant amount of people have large pores, there's no shame in that. The InstaBlur works it's magic and mattifies my face while filling in my pores. It makes my BB Cream sit atop of my skin beautifully and adding a translucent powder makes my skin look flawless. 

It holds up well after 6 hours, but I wouldn't quite agree that it keeps my skin from getting shiny, because we can obviously see that it's quite shiny. This is normal from a BB Cream though (and perhaps an unfair test) but I don't have enough product to test again!

But is this product better than the legendary Porefessional? I've done some swatches to compare InstaBlur to Benefit's Porefessional, and Shiseido's Pore Smoothing Corrector (which I think is discontinued). The InstaBlur starts out translucent, while the other two primers blend out to be translucent. The Shiseido has more of a moisturizing finish, while Porefessional and Instablur feel exactly the same with a soft matte finish.

 Let's have a gratuitous selfie, why not.

Would I Purchase This Product?

No, but yes, but no but yes. Considering I have a full tube of Porefessional I don't particularly neeeed another primer that does exactly the same thing, but this isn't to say that I don't like the product, because I do! It lives up to the majority of it's claims but mattifying skin and blurring pores and does pretty much the exact same things as Benefit's Porefessional, but being a couple of dollars cheaper. 

I would totally recommend this primer to anyone who's looking to blur imperfections, but doesn't have a Benefit counter nearby, or who doesn't want to fork out the $$ for Porefessional as the InstaBlur is a couple of dollars less! I can't quite bring myself to say that the Porefessional and InstaBlur are complete dupes (since Porefessional is skin coloured and InstaBlur is translucent) but they have exactly the same effect.

I'm thinking about purchasing a tube of InstaBlur so I can do a direct comparison between the two primers. What do you think, would that be helpful?