Rarely do I hate a beauty product. It might languish away in my drawer due to disinterest, but there’s always the hope that it might get rediscovered. But I have some full-blown hate for Rimmel London’s Exaggerate Undercover Shadow Primer. It has utterly failed at its purpose.

Grrrr….product rage.

The reason I’m so cranky is that Rimmel is a good drugstore brand. I love their mascaras and eyeliners in particular, so when I saw the Undercover Shadow Primer I thought it would be a natural fit with my collection. False.

This product promises to smooth and prep the lid for 4-7 hour wear and its shimmery white color could be used alone or to enhance your eye shadows. Another feature it stresses is that your color should be smudge proof. All pretty basic things for a primer. Though the 4-7 hour promise is a bit weak considering that my Wet n’ Wild For My Primas (Fergie Collection) Primer lasts me all dang day.

Now finding this primer online is kind of tricky. There are some eBay prices ranging from $4.99-6.99. I honestly cannot remember what I paid for this primer because I got it at Target in store a few months ago, and you cannot even buy this primer online. It’s like the internet knows this product is bad news. And I got seduced by the crisp, white aisles of my local Target. Sigh. Such is life.

Here you can see the pale shimmery white color. it had such potential!

I was really excited for this primer because the packaging showed a picture of colorful eyelid with and without the primer, and the lid with the primer yielded more vivid colors. Typically when I apply primer, I do my face primer and then my eyes. Then I brush my teeth or go get dressed so that I allow my primers to fully sink in. The Rimmel Undercover Shadow Primer was still tacky after the few minutes it took me to get dressed. So I put on my foundation. After my face was buffed and blended, the primer was no longer tacky but it had already creased and clumped up in the tiny folds of my eyelid. Am I supposed to sit for five minutes with my eyes closed for this thing to do its job? If so, that is incredibly unrealistic. Think of me like a little bear perpetually stumbling out of hibernation; it’s not going to take much to make me want to stumble back into my cave. If you ask me to sit still with my eyes closed in the morning for five minutes, I will fall asleep again.

Still, I smoothed out the primer to the best of my abilities and tried to apply my shadow. The shades looked muddy and did not blend well on the primer (I’ve used those specific colors before and have had no problems). On top of all these problems, the colors barely lasted a few hours before they smeared off my lid. I looked like a wreck. But I was still willing to give this primer a second shot thinking that maybe my application was at fault.

Doe footed disaster.

Round two with the Rimmel Undercover Shadow Primer was just as frustrating. The primer has a doe-foot applicator, so I will say it applies easily though not necessarily evenly. This time I gave the primer ample time to set, or so I thought. I used different shadows from the day before and tried applying those shadows with a brush. The primer started flaking off. Or maybe pilling is a better word for it. Little balls of primer formed and flaked off my lid as I was trying to brush on shadow. This is one of the weirdest primer experiences I’ve ever had.

After two disastrous attempts I had to call it quits with this Rimmel primer. Not all of a brand’s range can be winners, and this primer is an absolute loser. I hate wasting things that I spend my money on, but this beast is going in the trash.

Has anyone else had trouble with this primer?