Archived Post
Rant & Rave: Lip Primer
This Week’s Topic: LIP PRIMER!
Your Mission: Tell us what you love, hate, or are otherwise indifferent to about lip primer. What drives you bananas? What makes them necessary?
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
31 Comments
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
Comments on this post are closed.
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
They are ok, I have MAC P&P lips that everybody raves about but I only use it when I use really opaque lipstick…it doesn’t really help my lips which like to peel no matter what…I’ll just have to live with that.
Have you tried only drinking 5 bottles of water for a week? I tried it and realized it was a slight form of dehydration.
A day, sorry.
The Urban Decay Lip Primer was just not working for me. The product was really hard to use (like physically really difficult to get on the lips) and it made my mouth taste bad. I returned it. I really like the Too Faced one though! I tend use it when I just want to wear a lipstick without liner.
I really like Guerlain’s Kiss Kiss Liplift primer, but only use it on the edges to keep lipsticks or glosses from bleeding. It also helps color glide on a bit smoother and last longer.
I like too faced lip insurance, it does as advertised, helps with wear and color bleeding, but I find it can be a bit drying when no used with a moisturizing lipstick.
I’ve only ever tried Benefit’s Lip Plump, which my sister got as a mini sample. I hated it. It was basically like spreading concealer on my lips and didn’t plump at all and didn’t increase the wear of lip colours.
I’ve just started to get into lip stains and if I wanted colour to stay on my lips with minimal fuss that’s what I would use!
I’ve never used a lip primer. I don’t see a need for one.
I have tried many but I feel like Sally Hansen’s lip primer does the most what its supposed to do- protect the lips from staining (I tested OCC lip tar in Rx and no staining whatsoever after 8 hours) and helps to stop feathering. That’s all I need in a lip primer and that is what i get with the Sally Hansen lip primer. I can’t stand when a lip primer PROMISES to improve the condition of your lips and it doesn’t. That seems to be the downfall of most lip primers to me.
I totally agree with you. The Sally Hansen one works for me.
After a small accident I had while putting some red lipstick on a friend, I decided that a lip primer, a QUALITY lip primer, is more than necessary (excuse the caps, but I just can’t stress my point enough). My friend’s lips were kinda dry so I used a super-moisturizing lip-balm. It was so moisturizing that both lipliner (mac Redd) and lipstick (mac Lady Danger) just couldn’t sit! And I pretend to be a makeup-artist 😛 So now, it’s always mac p+p! And thank goodness she’s a friend, not a client!
I’ve only used MAC’s lip primer. It felt like a less moisturizing balm. Unnecessary for me!
I put this in the same category as lip scrubs, a complete waste of money. Companies try to sell us on needing these useless products.
In my experience, lip primers have not worked for me in the past… So I don’t use any. As for lip scrubs, I make my own when needed. Honey and brown sugar do the trick for me.
I don’t use it at all. I just line around the outside of my lips with concealer to get definition.
Don’t use one. Never found one I like or that really worked. I do have one left in my stash by Laura Geller – lip Spackle – I will pull it out once in awhile – but a good lipstick and lack of licking seems to work best for me.
I found none of the ones that are sold as primer rally work. What does work are lips pencils that are clear fore revers linng the lips. Using that as a all over layer helps if you need it to last longer.
To be honest, I’ve never used one.
MAC Prep + Prime Lip is the only thing that works for me. I think lip primers aren’t a must for everyone but this one’s essential for me. It helps my lipstick apply smoothly and definitely extends the wear time.
They don’t work. No matter what they say I am sure none of them work.
I never used one. Usually I use the foundation primer all over my face, including the lips, hoping that this will keep my lipstick in place. It might not be enough, but I don’t mind reapplying lipstick when needed anyway… I think I would only see the point if I was to use a very bold red lip, which I rarely do, so…
I’ve only used one and it dried out my lips something fierce. Lip liner works just as well for me. I tend to be a lipstick eater anyways. I have to consciously tell myself not to do it.
unnecessary.. i find it often does exactly what its supposed to be preventing.. mac lip erase is the only thing that comes close i find.
Mary-Kay reverse lip liner! If you put it all over your lips, it even makes the sheerest of all glosses pop and last!
Never tried one, seems like an unnecessary waste of money.
I was never a fan of lip primer, I didn’t believe that they worked.
After trying MAC P&P Lips I was amazed.
I was eating full meals with the primer and the lipstick was still on.
Great job on MAC’s part.
I’ve tried the MAC Prep + Prime as well, and while I can tell a bit of a different when I wear it, it is really only a noticeable difference if I am wearing a very matte color or one that tends to dry quite a bit (like MAC Russian Red). Not an everyday user, but I do enjoy having it when I need it. Also, try applying after using a lip scrub. Really seems to help!
I’ve never tried one. All I do in the way of priming my lips for lippie or something is apply lipbalm. I would maybe try one if a drugstore brand released one that was cheap.
I use the MAC lip erase and I find it makes a difference.
I really liked the one from DuWop. It was actually a bit moisturizing and did everything it was supposed to do like stop feathering, staining etc. its just so hard to find now that Sephora doesn’t carry it.
I have MAC P+P but never used it properly (before this I just tought it was unnecessary and a waste of money) but I read that you need to put a thin layer, wait 60 seconds and then apply lipstick, I started doing this 2 weeks ago and now Im impressed! I LOVE this primer! and use it everyday. It really extends the wear of my lipstick.