From top left: Monistat Soothing Care Chafing Relief Powder-Gel, $6-9; Avon MagiX Face Perfector SPF 20, $10; Hard Candy Sheer Envy Skin Perfecting Primer, $8 (also with SPF); L’Oreal Studio Secrets Magic Perfecting Base, $12.95.

One beauty frontier I haven’t crossed is the use of primer. By all accounts, primer is magic, smoothing over wrinkles, filling pores, and making foundation last all day. It’s the difference between cakey and airbrushed, the plebeians and the celebrities. I need some of that.

Even so, most of the name primers are expensive (the one I hear most about, Smashbox Photo Finish, is $32 for 1 oz). I found I couldn’t bring myself to spend $$$ for a tiny tube of goo that would probably make me break out, if it did anything at all. For years, then, primer stayed on that long list of things I think about occasionally but never do.

Lately, though, I’ve come across budget primers (see above), and not only are they cheap, but they’re supposed to be good. I bought the Hard Candy primer during a recent Walmart visit, and will report back; the one I’m most interested in, though, is the Monistat Chafing Relief Powder-Gel. Users swear the product (which has nothing to do with yeast infections) is a drugstore double for Smashbox Photo Finish. And it’s under $10. Heck yeah.

Have you tried any of these primers, or their more expensive cousins? Is primer worth the hype?