What is the best primer for oily skin? Learn about best brands include the face or facial, those with SPF, Mattifying or matte for this skin type and much more. You will also get insight on how to choose the best brands.
Their role cannot be overlooked. They help create a flawless looking face by hiding imperfection, disguising pores, acne scars, filling fine lines on your face and creating the perfect canvas for other makeup application such as blush, concealers, color correctors, foundation and face powders.
Choosing best makeup primer for an oily skin
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When choosing one, you need to carefully and ensure it is ideal for your skin type. Otherwise, wearing a wrong one on your face might allow the excess oil (sebum) generate sebaceous glands, sweating, etc to interact with your other face makeup making you look messy.

Furthermore, excess oily and sweating can make makeup on your face to slide, change in color, or even migrate. Imagine the looks you will get if your face foundation or blush begins to change color or glide!
Therefore, when choosing one, some of the important things to look in the specific face primer include the following:
- It should contain silicones, waxes and polymers to prevent face foundation from becoming darker. It should also have adsorbent ingredients such as aluminum derivatives, calcium carbonate, fuller’s earth, kaolin, magnesium derivatives, silk powder, bismuth oxychloride, bentonite, etc.
- It should not leave a greasy feeling i.e. it should be made from an oil-free formulation.
- It should not oxidize the other face makeup such as foundation
- It should be able to hold other face makeup, especially foundation in place for several hours, probably the whole day.
Best for makeup and face
We have looked at how to choose the best brand. It is time to mention a few of the best primers for oily skin where we will focus on best overall, best mattifying, best face and facial ones.
Best overall
Getting the best primers for oily skins can make a difference on how you look. This is why you cannot just buy any brand you find your way. We reviewed a number best, read users comments and reviews as well as experts reviews before coming with the below list. So, what are the best overall?
- Mary Kay Foundation
- Make Up For Ever – HD microperfecting
- Clinique – Pore Minimizer Instant Perfector
- Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation
- Monistat Chafing Relief Powder-Gel
- Mattify ULTRA Powder for Oily Skin
- Hourglass Mineral Veil
- Smashbox Photo Finish Light
- Dr. Brandt Pores No More Pore Refiner
- NARS Pro-Prime Pore Refining – Oil Free
- Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation – SPF 20 With Dermaxyl Complex
- Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
- Too Faced Primed & Poreless Skin Smoothing Face
The above list is not all-inclusive. You can still find good brands to use on your skin that is and get perfect results. You can also share with us some of the best brands that work best for you.
Best face makeup primers
Although if you checked carefully, you will notice that the above overall best brands are for use on your face. We deliberately decided to list the those for face make everything much clearer for those who are new to these products. Here are the best face primers for oily skins:
- Dermalogica’s Skin Perfect
- Smash box Photo Finish Foundation
- Mary Kay Foundation
- Make Up For Ever HD – High Definition
- Mac Prep + Prime Face Protect SPF 50
This list and the other in the overall best make some of the good makeup primers you can use on your face. You can see that most of the facial happen to be on the list of the best overall.
Best mattifying brands
To help reduce your face shine, you need to get a good brand of mattifying brands. They are the kinds which do not leave a lustrous, shiny surface. They instead leave a duller look on your face and they can really help in reducing the shiny looks of people who have this type of a skin.
- Murad Face Primer Matte Finish
- Napoleon Perdis Mattifying Mineral
- Boots Expert Instant Matte Shine Control
- Boots No7 Shine Free Make-Up Base
- Eve Pearl’s mattifying gel
- Face to Face Super Matte Antishine
- Temptu Smooth and Matte
- Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation
If you are looking for a good mattifying one, you can pick any of the above best brands. However, it is wise to ensure you have looked at what other users are saying about the specific brand and their ratings before buying them.
Best with SPF – Sunscreens
Besides the roles, we mentioned at the start of the discussion, there are some primers, which have sun protection factor or SPF. These will ensure you are protected from
If you want a good primer for oily skin with SPF (Sun Protection Factor) popularly known as those with sunscreen, you need to go for some of the below best brands.
- Mary Kay Foundation SPF 15
- Hourglass Veil Mineral SPF 15
- Mac Prep + Prime Face Protect SPF 50
- Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation SPF 20 With Dermaxyl Complex
The above brands will ensure your skin is not only primed but also protected from harmful radiations from the sun. It is worthwhile mentioning that this list is not all-inclusive. You could get many other amazing products.