Top 10 Cruelty Free Primers
It’s a Beauty Top Ten Tuesday! Today I’ve got the top 10 Cruelty Free Primers to share with you. It’s true, there really is a primer for everything. It was hard to narrow it down to 10, but I chose the 10 that I’ve used the most in the past 3 months. All of these primers are cruelty free and many are vegan.
Top 10 Cruelty Free Primers
PR + purchased by me.
1. Too Faced Shadow Insurance – $20 for .35 oz
This is my holy grail eyeshadow primer. It’s the primer that works best with my body chemistry and hooded eyes. While there are a lot of great eyeshadow primers out there (and I’ve tried over 30 at last count), this is the one I prefer to reach for on a daily basis. If you have oily, hooded eyes like mine, you need to give this primer a try.
2. Urban Decay Eden Primer – $20 for .33 oz
This is a close second behind TFSI. It’s a nude matte eyeshadow primer. It color corrects the lids to cover up discoloration and redness.
3. Kat Von D Lock-It Color Correcting Eyeshadow Primer – $25 for .049 oz
This is a new eyeshadow primer that color corrects as is preps the eyes for eyeshadow. It’s on the dry side. It comes in 5 shades including Fair, Light, Medium, Tan and Deep.
4. Too Faced Lip Insurance Primer – $20 for .15 oz
If your lipstick absolutely positively must stay in place, this is the lip primer for you. I’ve tried several (including the new one from tarte) and this has been the best for me. You can use it with a lip pencil too, if you want. (vegan)
5. Urban Decay Subversion Lash Primer – $20 for .28 oz
Yes, even lashes can be prepped with primer! Subversion makes them thicker and longer, as well as conditioning them to strengthen them.
6. Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer SPF 15 – $72 for 2 oz / $52 for 1.01 oz / $18 for .33 oz
I love this face primer! It’s got a very thin texture that will subtly brighten the face, blur imperfections, and help your foundation to last all day. It’s fragrance free, so it doesn’t irritate my sensitive skin. Considering that I have dry skin, I’ve been amazed at how it doesn’t dry me out or fade in the hot, humid Florida weather. While this is formulated with silicones, it really doesn’t feel heavy or thick. It’s got a great texture and it’s paraben free, oil free and gluten free. (vegan)
7. Illamasqua Hydra Veil Primer – $45 for 1 oz
This is a water-based primer that’s great for dry skin. It’s a really cool product that hydrates and smooths skin in a gel formula. It’s great for days that my skin is particularly dry and I prefer to use it under my eyes and around the nose, or to mix it in with a foundation. It doesn’t irritate my rosacea. (vegan)
8. Cover FX Anti-Aging Primer – $38 for 1 oz
This is another great primer for dry skin because it hydrates and smooths the skin, as well as blurs imperfection. It contains their super ingredient Coenzyme Q10, that is supposed to improve clarity and radiance. It also has Bisabolol to reduce redness and inflammation. Vitamin F esters, squalane, and hyaluronic acid nourish the skin, too. (vegan)
9. Mally Evercolor Poreless Face Defender – $40 for .46 oz
This is a really unique face primer. It’s amazing for oily skin but I can also use it sparingly on my dry skin, preferably on my t-zone and cheeks. It’s a balm that blurs pores and fine lines and helps your makeup last all day. Because it’s clear, you can actually wear this and nothing else if you want.
10. Living Proof Prime Style Extender – $59 for 24 oz / $20 for 5 oz / $12 for 2 oz
Yes, even hair benefits from a primer. I love this stuff! It’s great for helping to smooth and add shine to my hair. The only way it would be better is if it had thermal protection as well.
What are your favorite cruelty free primers?
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I have great results using Cover FX’s anti-aging primer. I want to try Too Faced lip insurance primer because I’m in need for one that has some good staying power.
Definitely some great choices. A few of ours overlap
I love KVD High Voltage but haven’t tried Lock-It. For the face, I’m loving Dr Brandt Pores No More at the moment.
Too faced is my #1 fave
I love Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer. It’s so good and it’s versatile, too.
I love my CoverFX primers, but my fave is the Mattifying – helps keep the blemishes at bay, too!
I wonder if I have a sample of that Living Proof to try out. I bought several travel sets so maybe one has it. Your choices are great especially the Mally and CoverFX.
UD or Too Faced tends to be my go-tos most of the time. I need to break out and try more though!
I like that you included a great variety of primer types. I never even realized there was hair primer. lol
My favorites: Face– BareMinerals Prime Time; Mirabella Face & Eye Prime (I don’t like it as an eye primer); e.l.f. Mineral Infused Face Primer in Clear; Nyx Angel Veil; e.l.f. HD Mattifying Balm. Eyes — Too Faced Shadow Insurance, original and Lemon Drop; Urban Decay Primer Potion, especially Enigma. Lips — e.l.f. Lip Lock Pencil. Lashes — Tarte Opening Act; UD Subversion. The mascara primers are fantastic for using with brightly colored mascaras. They stick to the lashes better and the colord pop over the slightly white primer.
We have a lot of the same choices!
Unfortunately UD Enigma creases on my hooded lids. 🙁 I’m still kinda finding my feelings about the KVD primer… I like how it corrects color, but the dry texture really makes my hood wrinkles stand out. Do you have that same issue?
I’ve had a problem with some of the dry texture of the UD’s lately, you could try Eden instead, it color corrects too. And Anti-Aging you could try too, it’s so much more smoothing(they have a travel size) that one works for me, but that’s why I switched to Too Faced and the texture is perfect, a lot more moisture. NARS shadow primer is great too.
I may need to try that Urban Decay lash primer just to get my lashes a little thicker looking.
I’ve wanted to try the Illamasqua primer since I saw the Pixiwoo’s mention it ages ago. Maybe now I’ll give it a go.
Want to try it too, I’m going to try either the Matte Veil, or the new Radiance. I did a haul on Illamasqua, everything I’ve tried I love.
I love this Top Ten! Eden I still need to try-I need to get another UD sharpener(lost it) so I’ll pick it up I also tried some samples of their Anti-Aging did like that one, lately my lids have gotten drier so maybe that’s the reason but when they put out the ‘new packaging on Original Primer Potion” I found it to be super drying and I used to love it, wondering if you noticed that? Now TFSI is my #1 go to love the texture, love perf. amount of moisture, and it performs well with a variety of shadows, love the richness of the shadow looks with it. So . I also love the NARS shadow primer, those are my top 2. I’m SO glad that you mentioned Mineral Veil, it’s in my top three for face and the first time I tried it was MY FIRST TIME IN FLORIDA! I went to visit my friend in Delray, we went to Sephora, she wanted my help with Cover FX(which she now loves, and she loves your blog too!) I picked it up, it was March, so it wasn’t the most hot/humid, but for me being from CA the humidity was a LOT more than I was used to and there were a few hot days even closer to the beach there- and it was perfect right under Pressed Mineral Foundation, it just totally creates a smooth, even canvas, and really helps tone down pores and redness, just smoothes like crazy!- cool that it works for you too because your skin is drier!! . NARS Pro Pro Prime Oil Free is my other go to right now for face-it comes out of the bottle as a cream but it’s a gel texture on the skin, very soothing, amazing with pores/redness. I will sometimes add a little bit of CFX Illuminating in certain spots for a glow! I totally agree, Subervision is an amazing lash Primer, I love a bold lash look so I use it either with Perversion or NARS Audacious. So glad you loved Illamasqua’s Hydra Veil! I was going to tell you about it but I saw it on some of your looks-their products are amazing, so looking forward to trying Matte Veil, also Radiance, their NEW one, maybe you’d love that one too! Thanks for the review on the Mally Face Defender-sounds great for the T-Zone! Lips: I’ve actually never tried a Lip Primer but with all these new mattes coming out I really need one, so I’ll pick up the original Lip Insurance! And thanks for the Living Proof too!!, the Marco Pelusi Leave In is what I use now, just to smooth a little and always before blowdrying, it def has thermal protection (which I don’t do too often) Combining them both might be cool! Thanks for another amazing top ten!!! <3
I love that you included a primer for your hair!
Great list! I use UD for my eyes almost all the time.
The primer potions are pretty great, I used to use the original but now I find it too drying, but I like the Anti-Aging, and want to try the Eden.
I love TF Lip Insurance, and Hourglass Veil Primer is on my list for the Sephora sale coming up
Yes, you would love it, it works so well, on different skin types. The texture is amazing, it’s so light but it just smoothes pores and lines beautifully-under powder foundation or cream or liquiid, The results are really amazing. If you look in the Travel Size section or under the reg. section you can select the smallest size(which goes a long way!) and that’s $18.(yes just checked the official site you can get it for 18-they were giving a free small size one with their new Ambient Strobe Powder($38) so check that out. Some items can be on the pricier side(which is why I haven’t tried more LOL, but their foundations are amazing too I’ve heard ), but they do have sets sometimes at Nordstrom-(I saw one and then went to buy and missed it boo hehe, it included mascara, mineral veil, nude lip stylo one other thing for a good price) that include Hourglass favorites! So I would check their site from time to time. Their Flim Noir Spectrum Mascara is another item that I LOVE from the brand(not a bad price for Hourglass about $26 on it’s own, as well as the Nude Lip Stylos)
Oh is there a general sale/ VIB sale coming up? @allisonneversaydiebeauty:disqus I’m not a big Sephora shopper, I like other sites more, but for certain items it’s great. Thanks, see below about Mineral Veil! Oh that would be great to get it at a lower price, I’m almost out of mine!
I spent a lot of $ at Sephora last year and qualified for VIB status. I believe this one is for VIB & VIB Rouge members but I could be wrong. And yes, I just finished up my Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer so I’m replacing it! I agree that the travel size is the way to go. I own about 5 different primers or more so the travel size lasted me 2 years! good enough 🙂
Yeah that’s what I love about it too, not only the results, but how it lasts, it’s great on any skintype!
By the way, their Film Noir Spectrum Mascara is pretty awesome too! And their gel liners!