NYX Pore Filler Primer has the best record on pore blurring: 20 of 20 reviewers who mentioned pores said it blurs them, and all of those reviews come from Ulta. Smashbox Photo Finish Smooth & Blur Primer follows at 40 of 50 and holds up at both Ulta and Sephora. Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer has the weakest record here at 5 of 12.
Updated . How we count
Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for pore blurring. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.
Benefit POREfessional Primer splits by store, with 7 of 22 at Ulta and 20 of 29 at Sephora. Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer does better on combination skin (7 of 9) than on oily skin (3 of 7).
Praise and complaints are the points buyers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.
NYX
Every reviewer who weighed in said it blurs, and all counted reviews come from Ulta. 20% call it a smooth base and 16% say it controls oil. No complaint came up more than once.
No repeated complaints yet.
Smashbox
Holds up at both stores, with 18 of 23 at Ulta and 22 of 27 at Sephora. 39% call it a smooth base, and the main complaint is no visible difference, at 15%.
e.l.f.
10 of 11 reviewers who mentioned pores said it blurs them, a small group and all at Ulta. Reviews praise the base more than the blur: 78% call it smooth and 72% say makeup lasts longer.
No repeated complaints yet.
Tatcha
All counted reviews are from Sephora. 67% of its reviews mention blurred pores and 13% call it hydrating. Complaints are small: 10% saw no difference and 7% say it settles into pores.
Hourglass
14 of 16 among fair-light Sephora reviewers said it blurs their pores. 20% of its reviews saw no visible difference, and 10% say it is too expensive.
Benefit
More reviewers weighed in on this primer than any other here, and opinion is split. 42% of its reviews say it made no visible difference and 20% call it greasy or slippery. Sold at Sephora and Ulta.
Milk Makeup
Weakest record here, at 5 of 12. 21% of its reviews saw no visible difference. On Milk's own site, 16 of 19 said it blurs, which we show but don't count.
No repeated complaints yet.
The 7 products ranked here carry 79,944 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for pore blurring and read the newest matching reviews, up to 30 per product and store, posted between Aug 2020 and Oct 2026.
A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (0 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.
Ulta also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. They run much more positive than store reviews of the same products (across 19 products with both, 76% of brand-site reviewers said the product solved the problem, against 55% of Ulta shoppers), so we show them on product cards but never count them.
Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.
Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.
Amazon buttons appear only on products that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else gets no buy link.
An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts and link to the product pages, never the reviews themselves.
NYX Pore Filler Primer comes first at 20 of 20, then Smashbox Photo Finish Smooth & Blur Primer at 40 of 50 and e.l.f. Power Grip Primer at 10 of 11. Both the NYX and e.l.f. records rest on Ulta reviews alone.
It depends on the store. 7 of 22 at Ulta said it blurs, against 20 of 29 at Sephora. 42% of its reviews say it made no visible difference.
For many reviewers, yes. 40 of 50 who mentioned pores said it blurs them, and the result is similar at Ulta and Sephora. The main complaint is no visible difference, at 15%.
Often not, by these reviews. Just 5 of 12 said it blurs them, the weakest record here. 16% of its reviews say it settles into pores.
HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through "Check price on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.