Admittedly, I’ve always been a bit hit-and-miss with primer. Some days I reach for it like my life depends on it; others, I skip straight from skincare to a tint or foundation, putting primer in the too-hard basket.
Lately, though, with a crop of new hybrid formulas that blur the line between skincare and makeup, I’ve been wondering: could the primer replace a skincare step or two to help streamline my routine?
Primers Are Back In The Limelight
I only need to flick to my work inbox to know that primers are becoming a regular in beauty routines. And where these skin smoothers were once chock-full of silicons to add a filter-like finish, the new breed firmly adopts the “skincare first” approach. Take the two primers from local brand Go-To. Both the glow-making and mattifying options bridge the gap between skincare and makeup by adding helpful ingredients like hyaluronic acid and niacinamide.
Primers are becoming a regular in beauty routines. But do we really need them?
Skin-Smoothing Primers
British brand Isamaya, meanwhile, uses clinical-grade ingredients in its featherweight Microbial primer, which helps support the skin barrier with hyaluronic acid, prebiotics and calming botanicals, while adding skin grip to help set your makeup for the day.
For those seeking to smooth the look of pores and fight blemishes, Glow Recipe’s Strawberry BHA Pore-Smooth Blur Drops ($55, at Mecca) helps even tone and mop up excess oil for a matte finish, while Tatcha’s famed Silk Canvas is a must-have of celebrity makeup artist Daniel Martin, who says the added silk powders and extracts help create smoother, glowing looks that last. He regularly does Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s makeup, so he’s not wrong.
Skincare-Dosed Primers
If you drill down, you don’t have to wear a dedicated primer. But you do have to prep your skin before you add makeup, because a tint or foundation (even with added skincare ingredients) on unprepped skin is not going to give thosered- carpet results we see on our feeds. A sheet mask (if you have time), serum and a good moisturiser can prep skin well, no primer needed. Where primers come into their own is when you want a specific outcome: to mattify maybe, minimise the look of pores, or make your base last.
For staying power, L’Oréal Paris Prime Lab 24-hour Matte Setter controls shine without dulling glow. And Chanel’s popular La Base Matifiante mattifying primer uses hyaluronic acid and annatto seeds to help smooth the look of pores and add a satin finish.
For a runway-ready finish (luminous but not shiny), take a cue from makeup artist Filomena Natoli, who used Hourglass’s mineral-based primer (60ml, $129) to create the soft-focus skin seen on Christopher Esber’s S/S 2026 runway. Equally, formulations that feel more cream than primer, such as Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base (50ml, $105) and Glossier’s Priming Moisturizer ($48) help to prep drier skin types so that they feel radiant, hydrated and smooth.
Primers That Highlight And Glow
Then there are primers with highlight included. Take Dior’s Forever Glow Veil, which comes with luminous-boosting hibiscus extract to get skin looking so radiant I’m often tempted to skip foundation altogether.
You can also use primer as makeup. Top artist Rae Morris swears by what she calls “reverse highlighting”. Instead of applying primer before foundation, she adds a little afterwards to overly shiny areas. Prada Beauty’s Lynsey Alexander does something similar, patting in the brand’s excellent mattifying primer to add a blurred look to areas that need smoothing. It’s an effective trick that requires little product and helps matte everything down without losing your glow.
So, where do I stand? I’m primer agnostic. Most days, I’m happy to let my skincare do the work. But for a special event, or when I’ll be out from very early until very late, I’ll add in a primer to make my makeup sing.
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