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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.

Full ingredients

Guru Score

67%

Mixed

8 experts · Strong agreement
8Gurus
5Yay
1Mixed
2Nay
#16 in Powder & SettingSee the ranking →

What they liked

  • Requires only a tiny amount per application
  • Hydrating despite the sticky finish
  • Smooths textured or dehydrated patches

What they flagged

  • May clash with dimethicone-based moisturisers

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 8 expert reviews · most recent take August 2026

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.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored
~Yay
"The Power Grip Primer is considered a dupe of Milk's Primer."
~Yay
"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
~Nay
"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."
~Yay
"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 4 takes from Allie Glines
UPDATED: The BEST Primers ACCORDING TO YOU 😱
"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."
Trying NEW Affordable Makeup 😍
"Just a tiny little bit of this in the areas that I want a little bit more staying power"
Trying NEW (Viral) Makeup from NYX 😱
"I'm going to go in with the e.l.f. Power Grip Primer. This one has niacinamide in it, it has a nice grippy texture, it's very comfortable on the skin even though it kind of looks intimidating. I like to focus this on like the T-Zone, that's where I like to have the most smoothing and grip, and also on my nose. I feel like makeup comes off my nose really quickly, so I'm just going to apply this all over."
New Year's Eve Look - ALL Affordable Makeup!
"For primer we're going to go into the e.l.f. 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."
~Yay
"She got me the elf Power Grip Primer"
~Mixed
"This particular primer it has glycerin which is pretty hydrating castor oil hydrogenated castor oil, it's widely used in skincare and cosmetics it's an emollient, but if you're allergic to it you have to avoid it allergy is a possibility there. It's one of those super hyped like it appears in a lot of people's favorites types videos and you I have to wonder is it as good as people claim. Let me know it's only five bucks but that's a pretty small little tube like how much of it are you ending up using, I guess not much."
~Nay
"I was really looking for a new primer because my enlarged pores drive me crazy and I'm always looking for a pore filling primer but something that will make my makeup last longer. The primer itself feels dry and set after 30 seconds, but it's not doing anything for my pores although I don't think that it says it's pore minimizing. However, at the end of the day it failed because this side looks oilier and the foundation is all gathered up here by the side of my nose, so it's slid around more over here compared to the side without the primer, which means the foundation wore better without it."
~Yay
"I absolutely despise e.l.f. as a brand, but what e.l.f. did do is make something their own. They took the Gripy primer concept and made it their own, and now everyone knows that the e.l.f. Gripy primer exists and it's a great alternative for whatever."
Sponsored
All 7 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."
ASK ME ANYTHING | Live Q&A
"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."
Full Face Of viral e.l.f products 2023!
"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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"I like e.l.f.'s grip primer over the Milk one."
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"This combination is one of the best prepping combinations I think I've ever used on my skin. So first things first, elf Power Grip, one little squeeze. 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. To be honest with you, I don't even use it for the tackiness, it's the texture it leaves my skin. It's the way it leaves the surface of the skin that's 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. So 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. I've actually been using this one over the pore putty primer. I will use pore putty when I'm matte, when I am suffering, when my skin just feels like nothing is going to work, then I go to pore putty. Then I literally take the Power Grip, my setting spray, and do my whole face and I drench my face and then I let this fully sink in."
YOU'RE TOO POOR TO LOOK GOOD!!! CHARLOTTE TILBURY SAYS!!
"E.L.F. duped in a way that made their dupes their own iconic products, like their sticky primers. It's a dupe of Milk Makeup, but E.L.F. did one of the best sticky primers. They duped in a way that wasn't a direct copy, you knew what the product was and what it was going to give, and it got to a point where people would recommend the dupe over the original. They did it very very well and it didn't feel like it was invading the space of the other brand."
BIG BRANDS ARE STEALING FROM INDIE BRANDS! | Dupeing has gone too far!
"I absolutely despise e.l.f. as a brand, but what e.l.f. did do is make something their own. They took the Gripy primer concept and made it their own, and now everyone knows that the e.l.f. Gripy primer exists and it's a great alternative for whatever."

What the evidence says.

Independent of what the gurus think, this is what the published research supports about the main active ingredients here.

Vitamin C

Topical vitamin C is an antioxidant with reasonable evidence for dullness and uneven tone. It breaks down in light and air, so how a product is formulated and packaged matters as much as the percentage on the front.

Source: DermNet

Niacinamide

Niacinamide has evidence behind it for redness, uneven tone and supporting the skin barrier, and it is usually well tolerated even by skin that reacts to most things.

Source: DermNet

Humectants and emollients

Ingredients like these draw water into the surface layers and slow how fast it leaves. The evidence is for comfort, softness and hydration rather than for changing the structure of the skin.

Source: DermNet

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?

The gurus are split. 5 of the 8 gurus give it their stamp of approval while 2 would skip it, which lands it in the middle at a Guru Score of 67%.

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

e.l.f. Power Grip Primer holds a Guru Score of 67%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 8 expert reviewers we have collected. At least one expert has named it a Top Pick in its category.

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