Not everything in life is easily smoothed over, but if you’re seeking a flawless complexion, the best pore minimizing primers can do the trick in helping you achieve the illusion of a seemingly poreless face. “Larger pores tend to make skin appear more textured and oily after hours of makeup,” explains celebrity makeup artist Brittany Whitfield. “A pore minimizing primer creates a film over the porous areas, ensuring the foundation can lay smoothly across the skin.”

After chatting with Whitfield, I couldn’t help but wonder—do I need a pore-minimizing primer? The short answer is, yes, if I want to smooth over the larger pores on my nose. Aside from giving the illusion of baby-smooth skin, my foray into trying the best pore-minimizing primers also happened to reduce the oily skin in my T-Zone—it turns out using skin-concern specific makeup products improved the overall look (and longevity) of my makeup.

Vogue’s Favorite Pore Minimizing Primers

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If you’re thinking, “but I already have a primer!,” there’s a difference between blurring primers (a.k.a. pore minimizing primers) and standard ones: “Generally speaking, a traditional primer’s core mission is to boost the staying power of the makeup,” Whitfield says, explaining that a pore minimizing primer takes matters a step further by using ingredients like silicone and plant-derived waxes to fill in enlarged pores.

“If you have larger pores, your best friends are products with niacinamide, alpha hydroxy acid, beta hydroxy acid, and retinol. These will improve your skin texture and tighten your pores with continued use,” celebrity makeup artist Glenn Brownell tells Vogue, adding that many pore-minimizing primers include these ingredients to treat the appearance of enlarged pores and excess oil production over time.