Il Makiage primer review – will it make your foundation last longer?

Looking for an honest Il Makiage Primer review before you give it a try for yourself? You've come to the right place.

In my opinion, primer is one of the most underrated products in any makeup bag. Wish your foundation sat better on your skin? Get yourself a primer. Want that carefully applied base to last for longer? That’ll take a primer. Frustrated by 12pm forehead shine? The solution is (you guessed it) a primer.

The best primers come in lots of different guises. There are ones that bring glow to lacklustre complexions, ones that grip your foundation like velcro to keep it in place and even green and orange-toned ones formulated to colour-correct things like redness and hyperpigmentation. 

I’ve tried a lot of primers over the years, and the ones that get my vote always have the same credentials. Firstly, I like my primers to be matte. I have combination skin, with an excessively oily T-zone, so rely heavily on this part of my routine to prevent my colleagues from being able to see their reflections in my forehead by lunch. My second piece of criteria is that they’re smooth in texture, which will help to make my prominent pores and increasingly prominent fine lines less noticeable. What I don’t want is anything that feels too powdery or chalky (lots of mattifying primers are) or that makes my skin look odd and unnatural if I don’t follow with foundation. 

I’m pleased to report that Il Makiage No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer delivered on all of this picky Beauty Editor’s demands. Read on for a deeper dive.

• Il Makiage No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer for £36 at Il Makiage

Il Makiage primer review – our lowdown on the No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer

The packaging

Let's start this Il Makiage primer review with the first impression. The brand's No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer comes out punching with silver, mirrored, disco ball-esque packaging. Whether you love it or not will depend on your personal preference. For me, it was six to one and half a dozen to the other – it looks really nice on my dressing table but as it is solid plastic with no squish, it does take up quite a bit of space in my makeup bag. 

I can’t find anything to suggest that the tube is recyclable, which is a shame, and the other downside is that as it’s opaque, you can’t see how much product is left. The only indicator you can really use is how light it feels. 

The formula

There isn’t a huge amount to say about the Il Makiage No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer formula and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead of overpromising with added active ingredients (normally included at too low a level in makeup products to make any discernable difference to the skin), they’ve kept things pretty simple. 

The bulk of the INCI list is made up of silicones, which, as an ingredient have gained a bit of an unfair reputation in recent years. Their key function is to provide products with a smooth, spreadable texture that creates a soft, silky film. However, some experts believe that when used in conditioners silicones can prevent moisture from getting into the hair and that in makeup they can do the same for the skin – as well as potentially blocking pores. 

Personally, I haven’t noticed any adverse effects on my skin when using silicone-based primers, and definitely not with this one from Il Makiage. I think the silicones are what make the primer such a joy to apply and gorgeous to wear, leaving my skin feeling baby smooth with a soft-focus satin finish. 

How does it look and feel on the skin?

Now to the crux of the Il Makiage primer review – how does it actually perform? It’s impossible to say without feeling like you’re straying into marketing lingo territory, but Il Makiage No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer really does feel like a second skin. Or, more specifically, it feels exactly how I wish my skin felt naturally. It’s lovely and light, and not at all heavy and cossetting. It also doesn’t dry down by much, so it’s easy to move and you don’t get any uncomfortable tightness as it sets. I also think that this is one of the reasons why it works so nicely with foundation, as they merge together as you blend your base over the top, instead of sitting as two separate layers. 

As for how it looks on the skin, I’d describe it as an airbrushed effect. My skin still looks like my skin, but just smoother, with fine lines and pores less apparent and the shine from my T-zone dulled. It is mattifying, but not to the extreme, so I didn’t end up with a complexion that looked flat or like it had had the life zapped out of it. The formula is transparent, which means most importantly that it will suit all skin tones with no ashiness or white cast, and also that you don’t have to follow with your best foundation or best tinted moisturiser if you don’t want to. If you’re not sure how to use a primer, it’s always the first step in your makeup routine. 

Does it improve the wear of your foundation?

I believe the main job of a primer is to improve a foundation's staying power, so obviously this Il Makiage primer review had to take that into consideration. I take my skincare pretty seriously and am well aware of what you need to do in order for your foundation to sit nicely on the skin and go the distance. Ideally, you need to be using one of the best facial exfoliators (an acid or a scrub) regularly to remove old cells from the surface and prep with one of the best face moisturisers (and probably also a hyaluronic acid serum) so you’ve got a nice smooth, nourished canvas to work with. However, no matter how diligent I am with my skincare routine I still find that if I wear foundation without primer then my skin either drinks it all in, or it slips and slides around my face during the day – neither of which are ideal. 

This primer is particularly great at improving the wear of your foundation for two reasons. The first is that although it doesn’t feel tacky or sticky, it still somehow manages to hold my base in place. This is especially handy when it’s hot, and it has stopped my makeup from descending into soup on more than one occasion. The second is the mattifying and smoothing effects. Il Makiage No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer works like Polyfilla on pores and fine lines, which prevents my foundation from creeping into them and making them more noticeable, at the same time preventing the oils in my skin from disrupting and moving my makeup. Genius. 

I’ve done a direct comparison for the purpose of this Il Makiage primer review, and my usual foundation stays put for considerably longer when I apply this first. 

Il Makiage No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer: My verdict

It’s fair to say that this Il Makiage primer review is pretty glowing – I think the No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer is brilliant. For my oily-slash-combination complexion, it works wonders to smooth skin and keep shine at bay, and feels like the grown-up version of the very chalky, super matte primers I gravitated towards for the same reasons as a teen. What works for me won’t work for everyone though, and If your skin is lacking in oil then this probably won’t be the primer for you. In this case, I’d recommend trying one of the best primers for dry skin instead. 

Price-wise, at £36 I’d say it’s fairly standard for a premium primer, and my first tube (I’ve got through one and a half so far) lasted for a reasonable amount of time with everyday use. There is the option to subscribe to deliveries every 4 months, which is not only convenient (no one wants to be caught out realising that pump was their last) but also makes it slightly cheaper at £32.40.  All-in-all, if your goal is smoother-looking skin and a longer-lasting foundation, then this primer is well worth a try. 

• Il Makiage No Filter Poreless Base Smoothing Primer for £36 at Il Makiage