These formulations were inspired by the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Blur Face Primer; a $52USD/oz. blurring facial primer that makes your skin look airbrushed. I’ll teach you how to make this primer for less than 1/5 the price, plus how to customize it into extra glowy and truly luxurious variations. Let’s dive in!

Want to watch this project instead of read it?

Watch Now

What is a face primer?

Facial primers are designed to be applied to the face before foundation to improve the performance of the foundation. The formulations we’re making today give the skin an airbrushed appearance and help the foundation glide over the skin smoothly for flawless application.

Some primers, like Milk Makeup’s Hydrogrip Primer, are designed specifically for oily skin to help improve wear time; these formulations are not that sort of primer. If you’d like to get an idea of how (or if) this primer will work for you skin, I recommend checking out the reviews for the inspiration product—the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Blur Face Primer. You can sort reviews by skin type, skin concerns, and age rage on the Sephora website to get an idea for how this primer might work for your skin.

How do you use primer?

Primer is designed to be applied as the first step of your makeup routine, after you’ve wrapped up your skincare routine. You can wear these primers alone for smoother-looking skin, or under foundation.

You can also mix these primers with a bit of concealer or mineral makeup in your palm for a quick creamy foundation.

How did you make the formulation/duping decisions?

I go into a ton of detail on this in the partner video; please watch it to learn more 🙂

Version 1

This version is a simplified version of a dupe-y riff on the Yves Saint Laurent original; check out the video if you want the full dupe formulation.

The ingredients

Silicone gel

This is a blend of Cyclopentasiloxane and Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer. Cyclomethicone is an ultra-light, silky, fast-evaporating emollient that feels absolutely divine on the skin; Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer thickens it into a gel.

This ingredient is the key ingredient in all three formulations: it forms well over 90% of each formulation and provides the core blurring, skin-smoothing, effects. You cannot make any of these formulations without this ingredient. The silicone gel I’m using is from TKB Trading; I’ve found two other products that look like they could work—they’re discussed and linked in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia entry on Silicone Gel.

Passionfruit oil

Each of these formulations includes a small amount of liquid oil; the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Blur Face Primer that inspired these formulations included four different carrier oils below the 1% line; I opted to simplify that down to one and use it at 1%. You could use any liquid carrier oil you love instead of passionfruit oil.

Gold mica

A tiny amount of mica gives this formulation a bit of glow; Sephora describes this ingredient as “light infused pigments”. I’m using Gold Reflecks from TKB Trading because the appearance (and INCI) is a near-perfect match for the Yves Saint Laurent product. At 0.1% you won’t get a disco ball effect—you just get a bit of extra light-catching loveliness ✨ If you wanted to lean more towards a fine shimmer I’d recommend using a finer mica. Gold Reflecks has a fairly large particle size of 43-174 microns, while TKB’s Gold Basics is much finer, with a particle size of 5-25 microns. For contrast, TKB’s Starry Gold Glitter is 40-700 microns! Smaller particle sizes will mean a mica will less sparkly and more shimmery—larger particle sizes start to ease towards more of a glittery effect.

Want to watch this project instead of read it?

Watch Now

The Formulation

Blurring Primer #1: Simplified YSL Dupe

9.89g | 98.9% silicone gel
0.1g | 1% passionfruit oil
0.01g | 0.1% Gold Reflecks

Using a precise scale, weigh all the ingredients for the base into a small disposable mixing cup or tiny beaker. Stir thoroughly to combine. If your ingredient amounts aren’t absolutely perfect, that’s ok.

Once the mixture is uniform, that’s it! Package it up and you’re done 🙂

For packaging suggestions: check out the “Other Questions” section at the bottom of this post.

Version 2

I wanted to have a bit of extra glowy, skin-perfected fun with this formulation 😄

The new ingredients

Colour-shifting mica

I chose a fine, colour-shifting mica for this formulation for a bit of fun! Despite the rather other-worldy look of TKB’s Travel to Neptune when applied straight to the skin, at 0.3% this mica just lends a bit of extra glow and dimension to the skin. You won’t look like you’re in a Star Wars film, I promise 😄 You can definitely use a different mica if you want to.

Silica microspheres

A wee bit of this ultra-fine, ultra-silky powder further boosts the blurring properties of this formulation. I’ve kept the amount low as silica microspheres can be drying in higher concentrations, though if you have oily skin you might benefit from bumping the silica microspheres up to 0.5% (or more—experiment and see what works for you!).

Argan oil

I selected argan oil as the oil for this formulation because I love it; as with the previous formulation, feel free to use any liquid oil your skin loves.

The Formulation

Blurring Primer #2: Even More Blurring

9.64g | 96.4% silicone gel
0.03g | 0.3% colour-shifting mica
0.03g | 0.3% silica microspheres
0.3g | 3% argan oil

Using a precise scale, weigh all the ingredients for the base into a small disposable mixing cup or tiny beaker. Stir thoroughly to combine. If your ingredient amounts aren’t absolutely perfect, that’s ok.

Once the mixture is uniform, that’s it! Package it up and you’re done 🙂

Version 3

With this version, I wanted to embrace the luxury that the Yves Saint Laurent product could’ve had. I’ve added some potent skincare actives so we get priming & skin-loving benefits! If you don’t have any of the actives feel free to replace them with more silicone gel. You could also try swapping in a different oil-soluble active like Coenzyme Q10 (Ubiquinone); just be sure it’s oil soluble and used within the recommended range.

The ingredients

Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Oil Soluble Vitamin C)

The Yves Saint Laurent product advertised “radiance boosting” properties; I thought I’d take that seriously and include some vitamin C. At 3%, this oil soluble version of vitamin C “has been shown to reduce UV induced skin pigmentation [and] increase collagen synthesis” (source). Part primer, part facial serum!

Rosehip oil

I selected ultra-light, vitamin-rich rosehip oil as the add-in oil for this riff. As before, feel free to use whatever works for your skin!

Bisabolol

Bisabolol brings some soothing and anti-inflammatory benefits to the party.

Tocopherol acetate

A small amount of tocopherol acetate further boosts the antioxidant awesomeness of this formulation, helping protect the skin from environmental damage.

The Formulation

Blurring Primer #3: Turn up the Glow

9.34g | 93.4% silicone gel
0.3g | 3% Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate [Oil Soluble Vitamin C] (USA)
0.2g | 2% rosehip oil
0.05g | 0.5% bisabolol (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 1% tocopherol (vitamin E) acetate (USA)
0.01g | 0.1% pink mica

Using a precise scale, weigh all the ingredients for the base into a small disposable mixing cup or tiny beaker. Stir thoroughly to combine. If your ingredient amounts aren’t absolutely perfect, that’s ok.

Once the mixture is uniform, that’s it! Package it up and you’re done 🙂

Other Questions

Is there any way to modify these formulations to be natural?

I do not know of any suitable natural alternatives to the silicone gel, and that’s absolutely essential to this formulation. You can create formulations that blur and smooth the skin with natural ingredients, but these formulations aren’t a great starting point for that. Think of it a bit like working to create a vegan steak alternative; you wouldn’t start with a recipe for a grilled t-bone 🙂

How much oil can I add?

I’ve tested up to 6.5% successfully, and I know 42.5% is far too much and will split. I suspect up to 8–10% would be ok.

Do these primers need a preservative?

No; there’s no water, so they don’t need a preservative. You could add an antioxidant if you wanted to, but given only 3% (at most) of these formulations can oxidize, I decided not to.

How should I package these primers?

The easiest way to package these primers is in a small wide-mouthed jar.

I packaged some of them in 2-dram HDPE bottles with a pointed dropper top, and that worked really well! This is probably my favourite option.

In the video I use 5mL doe-foot tubes with silver caps from TKB Trading. These look great and work pretty well, but I think I prefer the squeezy bottles.

The Yves Saint Laurent product is packaged in a bottle with a treatment pump. I haven’t tried that, but it seems to work for them.

As these primers are fairly thick, you may need to use a small syringe or a piping bag to fill your container if the opening is quite narrow.

If you know you’ll need to pipe the primer into your package it’s a good idea to make it right in a baggie—smoosh to combine, snip off a corner, and you’re off to the races!

How long will these primers last?

As the bulk of these formulations is ultra-long-lasting silicone gel, you’ll probably get at least a year or two of shelf life out of these formulations. The tiny amounts of oil in the formulation will eventually oxidize, but I’d be surprised if you noticed!

How can I scale this formulation up or down?

Check out this post!

Want to watch this project instead of read it?

Watch Now