The Best Makeup Primers for Every Skin Type, Explained by an Artist

If I could persuade every person who asks me why their makeup slides off by lunchtime to change one thing, it wouldn’t be their foundation or their setting spray. It would be the step in between — the one almost nobody gets excited about. Primer is genuinely the least glamorous part of a face, and it is the part that quietly decides whether everything you layer on top lasts the day or drifts into your pores by two o’clock.

The catch is that “primer” isn’t one thing. A primer built to hold down an oily T-zone will make dry skin look worse, not better, and a luminous primer that flatters mature skin will slide a full-coverage foundation right off an oily complexion. Choosing the wrong one is worse than skipping it. So let me explain what primer actually does, and then take you through the exact ones I prep clients with, matched honestly to skin type rather than to marketing.

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What does makeup primer actually do?

Strip away the packaging language and a primer is simply a thin layer that sits between your skincare and your makeup, changing the surface your foundation has to grip. That’s it — but the difference it makes to wear time and finish is out of all proportion to how little you use.

Grip, blur or mattify — the three jobs a primer does

Every primer worth buying does one of three things, and it helps enormously to know which you actually want. A grip primer is tacky and makes foundation cling so it doesn’t budge or transfer — this is the workhorse for longevity. A blurring primer is silicone-rich and fills in pores and fine lines so the surface photographs smooth. A mattifying primer soaks up oil to keep shine down for hours. Some do two at once, but if you know which job your skin needs most, you’ll choose far better than by picking the prettiest bottle.

Why the right primer must match your skin, not your foundation

Here’s the mistake I see most often: people buy a primer to match their foundation brand or their coverage level, when it should match their skin. Oily skin needs grip and oil control. Dry skin needs hydration so foundation doesn’t cling to flakes. Mature skin needs something that plumps and doesn’t settle into fine lines. Get that pairing right and a modest foundation performs like a luxury one. Get it wrong and the finest foundation in the world separates within the hour.

How to choose a primer for your skin type

Before we get to specific products, the honest shortcut is this. If your skin gets shiny and your pores are your main concern, you’re in grip-and-mattify territory. If your skin feels tight, flakes, or looks dull, you need a hydrating primer and should avoid anything labelled mattifying. If you’re seeing fine lines and want a bit of glow, look for luminous and hydrating rather than blurring. And everyone, of every skin type, benefits from a separate primer on the eyelids — but more on that at the end. Now, the ones I actually use.

The best makeup primers, matched to your skin

Best primer for oily skin — e.l.f. Power Grip Matte

Oily skin is where the right primer transforms a face, and this is the one I reach for. It grips foundation like glue so nothing shifts or transfers, while genuinely keeping shine down for hours rather than the vague “controls oil” you get from most. What astonishes me is the price — it quietly outperforms mattifying primers costing three times as much, which is why it’s become such a cult product among artists as well as clients. On an oily complexion for a long day, it’s the difference between a face that lasts and one that melts.

Best primer for dry and dehydrated skin — e.l.f. hydrating primer

Dry skin needs the opposite approach entirely, and reaching for a mattifying primer here is exactly why so many people’s makeup looks patchy and flaky by midday. This creamy, vitamin-rich primer floods the skin with moisture so foundation glides over the surface instead of catching on dry patches, and it leaves that soft, lit-from-within quality I want under a bride’s foundation. If your makeup has ever looked dull or cakey no matter how little you use, the problem was almost certainly a dehydrated base — this fixes it.

Best blurring primer for large pores — NYX Blurring Pore Filler

This is a targeted tool rather than an all-over primer, and I use it exactly that way. It’s a stick I press — not rub — over the nose, the sides of the cheeks and anywhere pores are enlarged, before foundation. It fills the little craters so light stops sinking into them and the skin reads smooth, especially on camera. I wouldn’t put it across the whole face, but as a spot-treatment over problem zones it’s a smoothing trick that photographs beautifully and costs very little. If you want to understand more about which base products earn their place, my longer edit of the makeup products I actually keep in my kit goes deeper.

Best primer for mature skin — Max Factor Miracle Prep Illuminating

On mature skin I steer well clear of heavy matte primers — they cling to texture and make fine lines look deeper, the exact opposite of what anyone wants. This hydrating, subtly luminous base does the kind thing instead: it plumps and softens fine lines, gives a gentle glow rather than a flat finish, and stops makeup travelling into the creases as the hours pass. It’s affordable, it feels lovely going on, and it’s forgiving in a way pricier “anti-ageing” primers often aren’t. A genuine favourite for prepping skin that deserves to look radiant, not powdery.

Best primer with SPF — Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen

This is the double-duty hero I recommend to almost everyone, whatever their skin type. It’s a genuine broad-spectrum SPF with a gel, almost primer-like texture that dries to a smooth grippy base — so your sun protection and your makeup prep happen in a single step, with no white cast and no greasy slip. Daily SPF is the most important thing you can do for your skin full stop, and a product that makes you actually want to wear it and holds your makeup better is a rare, sensible luxury. It’s a permanent staple in my kit, and it earns its slightly higher price by doing two jobs at once. In hot weather especially it’s invaluable — I lean on it hard in my heatwave makeup approach.

Best eye primer for crease-proof shadow — Urban Decay Primer Potion

If you take one thing from this whole piece, let it be this: your eyelids need their own primer, and this is the one. It is the single reason a client’s eyeshadow still looks freshly applied at midnight instead of creased into the fold and faded by nine. Lids are oily and mobile, and shadow applied straight onto bare skin has no chance over a long evening. A thin layer of this gives shadow something to grip, stops it creasing and sliding, and makes the colour truer and more vivid too. In fifteen years I’ve tried everything, and nothing holds a lid like this.

How I layer primer on a client — and where people go wrong

Owning the right primer is only half of it. The way you apply it decides whether it works, and this is where most home routines quietly fall down.

How much to use and how long to wait

Almost everyone uses far too much primer, which is why their foundation then pills and rolls off in little bits. You want a genuinely thin, even layer — think a pea-sized amount for the whole face — pressed and smoothed over the skin, not slathered on. And then you wait. Give it thirty seconds to a minute to set and become tacky before foundation goes anywhere near it. Applying foundation onto wet primer is the number one cause of separation. Patience here is everything.

The primer-and-foundation compatibility rule

There’s one rule that prevents most primer disasters: match the base of your primer to the base of your foundation. Silicone-based primers (they feel slippery and “velvety”) pair with silicone foundations; water-based primers pair with water-based foundations. Layer a water-based foundation over a heavily silicone primer and the two can refuse to marry — they curdle and pill. If your makeup is separating despite doing everything else right, this mismatch is very often the culprit. If you want to go further into how products work together, my notes on makeup techniques cover the layering logic in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

Do I really need a primer?

Not for a quick five-minute face, no — but if you want makeup to last a full day, photograph smoothly, or survive an event, primer is the step that delivers it. It does more for longevity than any setting spray. If you only add one “extra” product to your routine, make it the primer that suits your skin.

Does primer go on before or after moisturiser and SPF?

The order is skincare first, then SPF, then primer, then makeup. Moisturise and let it sink in, apply your sunscreen, then your primer, then foundation on top. The one exception is a primer that is an SPF, like the Supergoop above — that replaces the separate sunscreen step and sits after your moisturiser.

Can primer replace sunscreen?

Only if the primer is itself a labelled broad-spectrum SPF, applied generously enough to actually protect you — and most primers with a token SPF aren’t applied thickly enough to count. A dedicated SPF-primer like Unseen Sunscreen can genuinely do both jobs. An ordinary primer cannot, and shouldn’t be trusted to.

Why does my foundation pill or separate after priming?

Usually one of three things: too much primer, not waiting for it to set, or a base-mismatch between a silicone primer and a water-based foundation (or vice versa). Use a thin layer, wait a full minute, and pair like with like. Fix those and pilling almost always stops.

Is an eye primer really necessary?

If your eyeshadow creases, fades or slides off — yes, completely. Lids are oily and constantly moving, and no shadow lasts on bare skin over a long day. An eye primer like Primer Potion is a small step that changes everything about how long your eye look holds. For a special occasion it’s non-negotiable.

Primer is one of those steps that feels dull until the day it saves your whole face — and once you’ve learned to match it to your own skin, everything else you do sits better. If you’d like me to show you exactly how to prep your skin, choose your primer and layer your base so it lasts, that’s the heart of what we cover in my makeup lessons, one to one and tailored entirely to your skin. Come and learn it properly once, and you’ll never fight a sliding face again.

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