Nivea Men’s Post Shave Balm Review

I have officially Jumped on the bandwagon and tried the Nivea Men’s Post Shave Balm in sensitive.  Everyone has been talking about this since NikkieTutorials talked about it in her April Hits Video (Link to NikkeTutorials page). 

I personally first heard about this after watching one of Jaclyn Hill’s videos (link).  Then one day I was wondering through Walgreens and found it on sale!  I unfortunately  can’t remember how much I paid, but it’s on their website for full price of $6.79 (link).  I remember thinking, that is not bad for a primer, especially since it.s 3.3 fluid ounces.  That would last for a while!

This bottle is made of white glass with a thick plastic screw-top lid.  The packaging is not travel friendly because of its size and weight! The bottle is substantial!!

The product it’s self is a milkly white color and has a very runny consistency, I think it feels like a serum.  When you apply it to your face, it has a moisturizing and cooking feeling. The packaging doesn’t have a pump or any way to control the amount of product dispensed. When pouring it into your hand, be careful! It's very easy to accidentally get too much.  I’ve been there!

This does have a manly smell to it. I personally enjoy the smell.  It’s not over powering and as soon as I put my foundation on, I didn’t smell it anymore. Don't worry, you don't walk around smelling like a man all day! 

I used this product with two different types of foundation over a couple weeks.  With my first use of this product, I was impressed.  I liked the way it felt and my skin felt moisturized throughout the day.  I was impressed with the way that my foundation applied and looked throughout the day.  

This made me really excited.  To think that I found a foundation primer that’s so inexpensive!  What a score! But I’m sad to say, that as I continued to wear this product my impression of this product decreased.

With the second application – It all started to go downhill…

The very first thing I started noticing with this product is that it started to not allow me to build up coverage. I would apply foundation and if there were areas that need a little extra love, I would try to add just a bit more foundation or even concealer – This is where I ran in to problems.  If I tried to add more, the product would just pick back up off my skin. The best description of the look I started getting is the look of a sponge paint on a wall! – Yea, that’s the look I had on my face.  Not a good look and definitely frustrating!

Then, this started settling into all fine lines and pores! I have never felt that I have had very obvious pores, but with this product, I did!  It was awful.  It looked like all of the foundation on my checks settled into the pores, fine lines, or in the area around my nose.

The coverage also broke down in weird places on my face. From a distance, it honestly didn’t look too bad.  The closer that you got, the worse it got!  The dark circles under my eyes became fully visible. The smooth look to my face I was originally obtaining now just looks very blotchy!

I also noticed, that it started to break down on my nose and checks.  It almost looked like the foundation cracked. 

The final straw for me and the point when I decided that I couldn't make this work, is when I started noticing my skin breaking out. Since I tend to have fairly clear skin, this was a major deal breaker.

I was even using foundation that I loved and knew worked well with a variety of primers!  It was so frustrating to have the product tease me into thinking that I made this awesome, cheap, drug store find!  Why can't I be like everyone else and be able to love this product!

My final verdict – Don’t waste your time.  Sorry Nivea!  Get yourself an actual primer and one you know works.  I love many primers.  Rimmel and Mary Kay have two of my favorites and for affordable prices.  They are definitely primers that I would recommend and have actually gone back to using the Rimmel Pro Primer Fix & Perfect (link). This is one of my all time favorites and I constantly go back to it. I'm honestly not sure why I stop using it!

Unfortunately, this time, a new product was a miss for me. I'll probably be passing this onto my boyfriend for it to be used as it's actually intended to be used. I know a lot of people are raving about this product and using it as a primer. To know how how it works for you, you'd have to try it for yourself. But, for me, this was a fail!

Until next time ... Xoxo,

Mikal-Anne