Best Sheer Face Primers of 2026
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Sheer face primers are an essential addition to any makeup routine, providing a smooth base for foundation and helping it to stay put throughout the day. These lightweight, translucent products are designed to blur imperfections and minimise the appearance of pores, creating a flawless canvas for your makeup. They come in a range of formulas to suit different skin types and concerns, from hydrating and illuminating to mattifying and oil-controlling. Whether you have dry, oily, or combination skin, a sheer face primer can help to extend the wear of your makeup and give you a natural-looking glow.
At a Glance: Our Top Picks
Top 9 Sheer Face Primers
W7 The Fixer Glow Makeup Primer & Spray Set
The W7 The Fixer Glow Set is your perfect companion for achieving a radiant, dewy look. The golden-based primer creates a smooth base, ensuring your makeup goes on flawlessly. It's suitable for all skin types, so whether your skin is dry or oily, you can enjoy a silky texture. The lightweight primer offers sheer coverage, while the setting spray locks in your makeup with a hydrating finish. With easy application, you can maintain a fresh, luminous complexion throughout the day.
KYDA Colour Correcting Face Primer SPF 50
The KYDA Colour Correcting Primer offers a one-step serum with three colour pigments to even out your skin tone; purple tones down yellowness, green neutralises redness, and a meat powder shade helps with dark circles. It provides broad-spectrum SPF 50 PA+++ protection, shielding your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays, reducing sun damage. The primer also moisturises deeply, helping to hydrate your skin, control oil, and improve the appearance of fine lines. Finally, it leaves a sheer, natural finish that enhances your skin’s glow without altering its natural colour.
e.l.f. Liquid Poreless Putty Primer with Cica
The e.l.f. Liquid Poreless Primer is a silky green liquid that smooths your skin, creating a poreless finish to help your makeup stay in place all day. It contains calming cica, which soothes your skin and visibly reduces redness, making it ideal if you want a calm, even complexion. The sheer green tint helps instantly reduce redness, giving your face a natural, balanced tone. Suitable for dry, oily, combination and sensitive skin types, this primer works well for most users looking to improve their makeup base.
e.l.f. Brightening Lavender Face Primer for Even Skin Tone
The e.l.f. Lavender Face Primer is an excellent choice for those looking to achieve a neutral and bright complexion. Its colour-correcting properties help to neutralise uneven yellow tones and redness, making it perfect for combating the effects of rosacea and blemishes. The creamy formula not only brightens dull skin but also provides a sheer, matte finish, ensuring lightweight wear throughout the day. You will find that this primer preps your face for makeup, creating a smooth canvas that allows your makeup to last longer.
Clinique Even Better Primer and Colour Corrector
The Clinique Even Better Primer is a lightweight cream-gel designed to instantly neutralise dark circles with sheer to moderate coverage, lasting up to 12 hours. It contains hyaluronic acid, which not only camouflages imperfections but also helps to hydrate your skin, giving you a flawless and fresh look. The dual-ended applicator includes a doe foot wand for precise application and a built-in sponge blender to smooth the product seamlessly. This makes it easy and convenient to use, ensuring a natural finish every time.
KYDA Colour Correcting Facial Serum SPF 50 Primer
The KYDA Colour Correcting Primer offers a one-step solution to even out your skin tone using three colour pigments: light purple to counteract yellowness, green to reduce redness, and a meat powder shade to conceal dark circles. It provides broad-spectrum sun protection with SPF 50 PA+++, helping to shield your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays. The primer also hydrates and controls oil, improving the appearance of fine lines and dark spots. With a sheer and natural finish, it leaves your skin looking moisturised and radiant, without altering your natural tone.
BSMKCL Hydrating Gold Gel Makeup Primer
The BSMKCL Gold Gel Primer is designed to prepare your skin beautifully. Its 24K gold gel formula helps keep face and body glitter in place, reducing fallout while enhancing sparkle. You will appreciate the instant smoothing effect it provides, improving uneven skin tone and giving a radiant, filter-like finish. This hydrating primer ensures your skin remains moisturised throughout the day, making it perfect for busy schedules, whether you're working or meeting friends. With its vegan and cruelty-free formula, you can feel good about your beauty choices.
Revolution Pro Radiant Cool Pink Primer 30ml
The Revolution Pro Primer is a colour correcting primer designed to enhance your complexion. Its sheer baby pink pigments work to brighten dull skin, giving you a radiant and healthy look. The lightweight, water-based formula is suitable for all skin types and tones, ensuring a comfortable wear throughout the day. As a vegan product, it contains no animal-derived ingredients, allowing you to feel good about your choice. Simply apply it all over your face or to specific problem areas for a flawless base.
SeeHoo One Step Colour Correcting Face Primer SPF 50
The SeeHoo Colour Correcting Primer is designed to balance your skin tone effortlessly. It uses green to neutralise redness, while purple and peach shades brighten dull areas, giving you a more even complexion. This primer also provides lightweight hydration with hyaluronic acid, ensuring your skin feels smooth and moisturised all day without any sticky residue. With a high SPF 50 PA+++, it protects your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays, making it a perfect base for your makeup routine. Additionally, the formula minimises enlarged pores, helping you achieve a smooth and radiant finish.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is the most popular face primer?
Best Overall: Tatcha The Silk Canvas Protective Primer Infused with both silk extracts and silk powder, this velvety balm makes your skin feel, quite literally, smooth as silk.
2. Do primers come in different shades?
Makeup primers are available in clear shades as well as in colours. The clear primers are useful if you have an even skin tone without too many blemishes.
3. What does primer do for your face?
Primers are the photoshop of the makeup world. They're used underneath eyeshadow, foundation, tinted moisturizer, and mascara to create a smoothing effect that enhances makeup coverage and helps your makeup stay on longer — all while targeting concerns like oily or dry skin.
During our sheer face primer research, we found 29 sheer face primer products and shortlisted 9 quality products. We collected and analyzed 359,883 customer reviews through our big data system to write the sheer face primers list. We found that most customers choose sheer face primers with an average price of £6.44.
The sheer face primers are available for purchase. We have researched hundreds of brands and picked the top brands of sheer face primers, including W7, KYDA, e.l.f., Clinique, BSMKCL. The seller of top 1 product has received honest feedback from 861 consumers with an average rating of 4.9.
Charlotte Powell is a dermatologist and a licensed cosmetologist from Westminster, London. However, she was first a cosmetologist from London Beauty Training School. According to Charlotte, she needed better insight into the human skin, hence the dermatology degree. Long before she acquired her degree, she wrote and edited articles, eBooks, and editorials for companies and websites. Charlotte combines her skill and knowledge in providing DIY Beauty tips amongst other fashion related topics.