Blurred Lines — Discover the Garnier Skin Renew 5 Second Blur Instant Smoother
I giggle every time I watch the Fotoshop by Adobé spoof, which basically pokes fun at all the airbrushed magazine covers, makeup ads, and skincare commercials that show “flawless” women with lashes that curl all the way to the middle of their foreheads, manes that unfurl like velvet curtains dropping at a posh opera, and skin that glistens even in the darkest of rooms — in other words, all the unattainable ideals that the beauty, fashion, and publishing industries impose upon everyday women because they insist on doctoring moving and still images using tools like Photoshop. And yet, if a device did exist — a tangible product like a cream, serum, laser, or other gizmo – that could make enlarged pores a bit less visible, diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, reduce any redness associated with blemishes and inflammations, and even minimize the appearance of dark spots, wouldn’t you want to take advantage and, well, transform your complexion, making it look Photoshopped?
Enter Garnier Skin Renew 5 Second Blur Instant Smoother ($14.99 at mass, food, and drug retailers like Target.com and Walgreens.com), which works much like a primer but can be worn under makeup or by itself, making the skin’s surface smoother and creating an optical illusion whereby any so-called imperfections are cleverly concealed. The primary ingredient in the Garnier Skin Renew 5 Second Blur Instant Smoother is dimethicone and a dimethicone crosspolymer — the very same active ingredients in Smashbox’s Photo Finish Primer (one of the most revered primers in history). Why is it an active ingredient in both products? Because it works to temporarily fill in fine lines and wrinkles, tightening the skin and allowing makeup to glide on with ease, never clumping or seeping into little crevices (after all, nothing is worse than having concealer and foundation migrate into fine lines, calling further attention to them). Both products also contain silica, which helps to control shine, so that your complexion never looks greasy.
One of the features I love about Garnier’s Skin Renew 5 Second Blur Instant Smoother is its consistency. When you squeeze a pea-sized amount onto your palm, you’ll notice it looks creamy but it’s consistency is silky and gel-like, akin to that of Neosporin or K-Y Jelly but minus the lingering tackiness. This texture is largely the result of the isododecane in the formula since thus hydrocarbon ingredient allows products to spread atop the skin with greater ease and is known to evaporate quickly, leaving behind no filmy residue and producing a lovely matte finish. Another trait to love: the smoother leaves skin feeling silky soft thanks to the inclusion of ingredients like sodium steroyl glutamate, an amino acid-based emulsifier derived from coconut oil and glutamic acid.
As for the highly touted “blurring result,” this seemingly magical phenomenon is the result of aluminum hydroxide-coated mica particles, which create a soft-focus effect, concealing wrinkles, blemishes and dark spots, producing an opacifying effect that still appears perfectly natural.
This smoother noticeably improves your complexion’s texture, boosts radiance, and yields a velvety and matte finish, but the results are so similar to those you’d enjoy from a top-notch primer that it almost belongs in this product category rather than within the skincare realm. As discussed, it contains many of the same ingredients you’d find in a quality face primer, but it’s considerably more affordable — in fact, it costs about $20 less than a tube of Smashbox Photo Finish. That’s the equivalent of two tubes of Maybelline lipstick, gals!
