Almay Smart Shade Perfect & Correct Primer: Review

I hope my naked face doesn't scare you off.

Unfortunately (for me) it has to be done in order to review (and rave/rant about) this primer.

To start, let me explain the horrific state of my skin:

I have been using the Neutrogena Wave Sonic for almost a full week now and, like the Clarisonic is rumored to do, I'm going through a "purge" stage where all of the nasties that have been lurking deep in my pores are being lifted to the surface, hence all of the acne.
*SIGH* I feel like I'm in high school all over again... *ENDSIGH*

Anyways, onto the actual product.

I hauled this in my recent Walmart haul and wanted to try it out as soon as possible; I had my fingers crossed that something so pretty in the bottle would look just as pretty on my face.

Click below to read my full rant review!

The product is dispensed in an easy to use, no mess pump that reminds me of those usually attached to foaming hand soaps.

And there it is!! It's hard to see in the photo but the green and purple are laced together like a striped toothpaste. It also has NO SCENT which is a huuuuuuuge plus for me (scented products tend to make me breakout, and that's the last thing I need right now).

*EDIT* Lies!!! This product lieeeeeees!!! Sure, the first few uses have no smell to them but after that? BLECH. No good!! This smells horrific, I literally had to throw it away. You can watch my "Best &Worst of June" video to get my full on reaction to the scent. *END EDIT*

But how does it look on the face? Does it work?
Take a peek:

Here I am, naked faced and covered in painful blemishes.

 With only Almay Smart Shade Primer on my whole face

With only Almay Smart Shade Primer and Estee Lauder Double Wear Light Foundation (Intensity 2.0)

How great is this stuff (minus the hurl inducing smell)!?!? I am absolutely blown away by how well it works under my foundation (which is only light/medium coverage, by the way). You can see from the first to second picture that the primer really helps to reduce redness and also to brighten my complexion. It also provided such a silky smooth base for my foundation which added the perfect final coverage for the really stubborn under the skin pimple redness that the primer didn't correct.

For only $10 (I actually think it may have been a little under that) this really is a great correcting/brightening primer, but I just cannot get over the smell. Almay really needs to reformulate this so that people can stand to put it on their face.

Until then, I guess I'm off to look for something that has the same effect on my skin but not on my olfactory system...

And for anyone who's curious, here's my final FOTD:

Ah, so much better than my naked face haha! 

Now I'm off to film a fashion video... stay tuned!

Have you tried this primer? 

Do you love hate it as much as I do?

What is your holy grail primer for correcting/brightening your complexion?

Do share!!

xoxo - Cassie