I tend to like medium coverage or greater in most products, though perhaps things like tinted moisturizer and translucent setting powders would have a place in my routine. I don’t think I’d really opt for clear gloss or barely-there gloss myself. I like cheek colors and base products that are more medium to semi-opaque, buildable.
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:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
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!
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!
Not very many, that’s for sure! I’d have to say that I do like a slightly sheerer formula in a lip gloss that I’ll be using as a lipstick topper, or anything else I may be using to add a topcoat to an underlying lipstick. I’m also not necessarily against highlighters if they have a sheerness to them, depending on the shade. But in everything else, I prefer well pigmented products that have a great enough formula that it allows me to sheer them out without excessive effort or patchiness.
I prefer my products to be pretty opaque, with the only exception being my blushes. As a pale person a blush too pigmented can be hard to work with.
Blush and eyeshadow. I personally prefer to build something up rather than have to buff it out. With blush that’s mainly because I feel like it might mess with the stuff I have on underneath and with eyeshadow it’s because I’m not very good at it and if it’s very pigmented I’m liable to make more mistakes that I then find difficult to blend out.
That’s not to say that I won’t buy very pigmented things, I do and I pat myself on the back for scoring an objectively excellent item. But if I’m being honest, I’ll admit that I find medium intensity stuff easier to work with.
Foundation like say a BB Cream. Lipstick. I love a good lustre. A your lips but better color. And Blush. I like Sheertones or something that is buildable like Clinique Cheek Pop blush
Definitely blush! A good blush needs to be sheer to light coverage in my opinion – I really like the clinique cheek pops for that reason.
Blush
Bronzer
Foundation
Highlight
I prefer to build rather than diffuse something too opaque and intense.
Almost always.. I prefer sheerer eye shadow and blush. When I use a heavily pigmented product it comes out clownish or ends up in places it isn’t supposed to be. I don’t want to spend the time trying to gauge how much to use in order to not over do it or cleaning it off and redoing. Sometimes it’s hard to interpret reviews because some products get poor reviews for lack of pigmentation but might actually perform perfectly for me.
Not very often lol. When we travel and have a lot of excursions during the day, I love products that I can just swipe on without even using a mirror, like a sheer lip crayon or tinted lip balm. I have to have color on my face so I always use a sheer pink blush and a crease-proof eyeshadow but for my eyes and cheeks, the shades have to have good pigment. I don’t worry about the lips so much….as long as I have a sheer color, it’s all good. I never wear sheer products for evening. That’s my time to really go for saturated shades of eyeshadow and lipstick.
I like pigment coming and going. Setting powders for me should be enhancing — does that mean sheer? Not necessarily, but not cake face producing either. The product that I want to be the sheerest is a highlighter.
There are some lipstick/gloss shades that look better on me if it’s on the sheer side. My lips are significantly darker than my skin and it impacts/muddies some lip shades in a way that I don’t like, but is hard to explain. Corals must be sheer, most oranges, bright pinks and shades close to my skin tone look better sheer.
I prefer sheerer, buildable coverage when I’m using facial products that have sheen to them. If the product is really pigmented with a lot of sheen, then I steer clear of them. I always want to be in control of the sheen, not visa versa.
Highlighters, otherwise they look way too unnatural. Opaque globs of disco-ball-bright white shine, like some young vloggers are currently all too fond of, look bizarre.
I like my everything except for eyeshadow, concealer, and eyeliner to be buildable coverage. I prefer a natural makeup mainly because I work in a conservative environment. I love my lipstick sheer so I never really hopped on the liquid lipstick train. I also find that buildable contours to be preferable than two stripes of mud on my face.
I actually like sheerer, less pigmented eye shadows for my crease/transition shades. Lately I’ve been using just a light wash of color in my crease and call it a day for my eye look. I also don’t like pigmented contour shades, I feel that just competes with my blush too much.
Truly sheer: lip gloss
Light and build able: blush and highlighter
Foundation and blush. I have oily skin that gets oilier the less it can breathe, so thick foundations start running off of my face after a couple hours. As far as blush goes, I’m quite pale (my foundation shade is Nars Siberia) and even a little too much blush gives me clown face.
For face products and eye shadow, pretty much all the time.
Lips and cheeks, on days when I want a lighter look.
I’m happy with sheer as long as it’s billed as sheer. I prefer sheer bronzers and highlighters as long as sheer doesn’t equate to streaky. Being pale if a bronzer is crazy pigmented it will just bee too much work and irritation to blend it.
I prefer sheer to medium coverage foundations. I like my skin to look like skin, even with it’s spots and imperfections. Maybe I just don’t know how to apply a full coverage foundation. No matter what primer I use full coverage just sits in my pores, settles in my lines and clings to dry patches. I like sheer blushes and shadows. With lipsticks I like sheer and glossy for the day. I’ll use a pigmented red for evening.
I’m very, very pale, so I prefer light-to-medium coverage blushes, and sheer-to-light coverage bronzers. On the other hand, outside of my own preferences, I wish there were more options for deeper skintones, including opaque blushes/bronzers. I also like really like the look of sheer lipsticks IF they’re marketed as sheer. I like matte eyeshadows to be medium-to-full coverage so I don’t go 0-100 right away. Honestly, the only thing I like totally opaque are shimmer/metallic shadows and most lipsticks.
I prefere a sheer-ish lip gloss when I don’t have a mirror, like when I walk the dogs.
Every product except foundation. I prefer sheer formulas that can be built up if I wish, not stuff I have to fuss with to apply because they’re so pigmented. I prefer a natural look, though, and aging demands a lighter hand. But aging also usually means you have more to cover, so a well-pigmented foundation is a great thing.
I like buildable eyeshadows, I already hate blending as it is. I don’t like to have overtly pigmented shadows and have to spend hours blending 😛
Same goes for blushes! I’m pretty light skinned (NC23!) and prefer a more natural flush of colour.
If the lipgloss is a topper, I prefer them to be clear with glitter, or sheer/jelly like!!
I also like sheer bronzers!! again, because I’m pretty darn light skinned!! I don’t have to worry about bronzers being too orange, but if they’re too pigmented I just can’t blend them out!
I do prefer my foundation and bronzer to be sheer. For my foundation I just use the Smashbox green pencil to cover my red and that works for me. I am not drawn to a full-coverage foundation because I like to look like I don’t have any on at all.
I like my eyelid colors ( have hooded lids), to be opaque. Everything from duo chromes to metallics.
I am in the market for a sheerer bronzer than the Smashbox one I currently own. Or maybe I am using the wrong brush??
Generally:
Blush
Setting powders
Highlighters
Browbone eye shadow
Prefer medium coverage foundations.
Never!
I’m like NC10-15 so I prefer sheerer pigmentation in my blushes & eyeshadows. Heavily pigmented blush tends to look clownish on me & if I’d like my eyeshadow to be more dramatic I usually am limited to a deep grey/black/brown in the crease.
I wear sheer foundation during the day but prefer heavier coverage for evening looks.
On the cheeks for sure! Eyeshadows and lipstick I like pigment but also sometimes less pigment when the color is too dark for this ghost so I’m more free to play with it.
Highlighter and bronzer
I’m super pale, MAC NW10-15, so I actually prefer almost everything to be sheer. The only things I like to be opaque are concealer and mascara. Everything else, I’d prefer to be sheerer.
Some lipsticks, especially some reds and purples; tinted lip balms; blush (sheer to buildable); BB creams.
Forgot setting powder.
I prefer sheerer blushes and brow products.