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e.l.f.

Power Grip Primer.

e.l.f. Power Grip Primer
Powder & Setting

About this product

A tacky gel primer formulated with niacinamide, designed to grip makeup and extend wear while evening out textured or porous skin.

Type

Powder & SettingGel

Formula notes

Fragrance-freeNo drying alcohol

Full ingredients

Guru Score

77%

Approved

6 experts · Moderate agreement
6Gurus
5Approved
0Mixed
1Skip
#6 in Powder & SettingSee the ranking →

What the gurus are saying

This primer's sticky texture earns consistent praise for gripping makeup and creating a smooth base, especially for those with uneven skin texture, dryness, or pores. Gurus note it requires only a tiny amount (typically one to two pumps) worked gently into the skin rather than left on the surface. However, one expert cautions against pairing it with silicone-heavy moisturisers, as the combination may cause the products to clash rather than work together smoothly.
Synthesized from 6 expert reviews · most recent take September 2025
Every take, in full

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

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Approved
"The Power Grip Primer is considered a dupe of Milk's Primer."
Approved
"My go-to is from E.L.F. This is their Power Grip Primer. It's quite sticky when you first take it out of the tube, and you just need the smallest amount. I will just press it with my fingertips into the areas around my nose, my mid cheek, forehead, chin. I will let that set for about 30 seconds or so, and then I'm ready to go in with foundation."
Top Pick: go-to primer
Skip
"The combination of one of the cones and the e.l.f. Power Grip Primer to me sounds like a bad combo. It feels like that's where we're going wrong. I would suggest is trying to skip the e.l.f. Power Grip Primer in this situation and see if that does something. The combination of the e.l.f. Power Grip Primer and the dimethicone in the moisturizer to me it just feels like those might be clashing. They might not be working together very easily."
Approved
"I'm not usually a primer gal but this is the one primer I feel like actually does something for my makeup. I like how it grips your makeup but is also hydrating. This makes my foundation last so long and I find it works well with so many products."
All 2 takes from Allie Glines
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"I'm not usually a primer gal but this is the one primer I feel like actually does something for my makeup. I like how it grips your makeup but is also hydrating. This makes my foundation last so long and I find it works well with so many products."
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"For primer we're going to go into the ELF Power Grip Primer. This one has the niacinamide in it. I'm just going to smooth this through the T-Zone and then drag the excess all over the rest of the face."
Approved
"She got me the Elf Power Grip Primer, this one has niacinamide."
Approved
"I like it as a primer and the setting spray, too. I would still use a powder with it for those areas that need fixing. But I would just use it as the same thing, the primer and the setting spray. Drench your face in it when you're using it as a primer and tap tap tap into the skin until you get that sticky feeling."
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All 4 takes from Robert Welsh
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"The e.l.f Power Grip Primer gives you a slight tackiness to the skin. When it dries, you get a bit more of a sticky texture. I love these sticky textures, not because they are sticky, but because they tend to help with the texture of overly textured skin. So if you're dry in some areas, or you're extra porous on the skin, or perhaps makeup tends to cling in between your brows, something like a sticky primer is really, really good because it creates that layer on your skin that's a little bit tacky and gives your foundation something else to stick to rather than your skin. This is actually a slightly thinner formula, so on those days when you want to wear a fuller coverage foundation, something like the e.l.f one's really good."
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"I like it as a primer and the setting spray, too. I would still use a powder with it for those areas that need fixing. But I would just use it as the same thing, the primer and the setting spray. Drench your face in it when you're using it as a primer and tap tap tap into the skin until you get that sticky feeling."
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"This is the e.l.f. Power Grip Primer. I love this. I love this. And I've said before, I prefer it to its competition. I think there's a temptation to go in with loads of primer, especially for those people dripping it around the face. You just want, like, one pump. Okay, maybe two. Very sticky, a little tiny, tiny, tiny bit. And then just gradually smooth it out very slowly, blend it outwards a tiny, tiny bit. I'm going to be using, like, the arch of my finger here just to really push it into the skin and really get it moving around. We don't want it to sit on top of our skin. We want it to be part of our skin."
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"The reason I really like this one, the reason I really rely on this is because of the texture of my skin. My skin is oily but with a dehydrated texture, so I'm very very greasy but also around my nose here very dry, very flaky. Sometimes this primer really gives me that. I don't even use it for the tackiness, it's the texture it leaves my skin. The way it leaves the surface of the skin is incredible. It has that perfect amount of bounce. Like I could just use a serum and then use this and feel my skin is absolutely set and perfect. I only use the power grip in areas where I experience a dry, dehydrated texture or I'm a little bit pory around here, for example."
Common questions

Frequently asked.

What is e.l.f. Power Grip Primer?

A tacky gel primer formulated with niacinamide, designed to grip makeup and extend wear while evening out textured or porous skin.

Is e.l.f. Power Grip Primer worth it?

Mostly yes. 5 of the 6 gurus who reviewed it give it their stamp of approval, for a Guru Score of 77%.

What is e.l.f. Power Grip Primer's Guru Score?

e.l.f. Power Grip Primer holds a Guru Score of 77%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 6 independent expert reviewers we have collected. At least one expert has named it a Top Pick in its category.

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