Primer for a glowy finish

Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer has the best record for a glowy finish at 44 of 44, followed by REFY Glow & Sculpt Face Serum Primer at 21 of 21 and e.l.f. Power Grip Primer at 16 of 16. Even the weakest record here, Milk Makeup Luminous Blur Stick Primer at 23 of 25, is a 92% share. Each record counts just shoppers who said whether it gave a glow.

Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer
Top pick Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer 44 of 44 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked
See price & reviews on Amazon Paid link. The ranking never depends on it.
  • 185 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Feb 2019 to Sep 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it give a glow? What shoppers said
  1. e.l.f. Power Grip Primer 16 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for a glowy finish. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.

Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer Best record Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer 44 of 44 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked See price & reviews on Amazon
What stands out

The two Grip primers stand out for staying power: 77% of the e.l.f. Power Grip Primer reviews and 51% of the Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer reviews say makeup lasts longer.

The ranking, product by product

Praise and complaints are the points reviewers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.

1 Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer

Milk Makeup

Hydro Grip Primer

44/44 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked

Of its 51 reviews, 22% say it grips makeup, though 6% say it pills and 4% call it too sticky.

What buyers praise

  • Makeup lasts longer 51%
  • Grips makeup 22%
  • Smooth base 12%
  • Comfortable on dry skin 8%
  • Lightweight 4%

What buyers complain about

  • Pills 6%
  • Too sticky 4%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 19 of 19
  • Sephora 25 of 25
  • Brand site 9 of 9 shown, not counted
By skin type (from reviewer profiles)
  • Normal6 of 6
  • Combination6 of 6
  • Dry4 of 4
  • Oily3 of 3
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light10 of 10
  • Light-medium to medium5 of 5
2

REFY

Glow & Sculpt Face Serum Primer

21/21 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked

A smooth base comes up in 18% of its 22 reviews, and 14% say it doesn't pill.

What buyers praise

  • Makeup lasts longer 23%
  • Grips makeup 18%
  • Smooth base 18%
  • No pilling 14%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 21 of 21
By skin type (from reviewer profiles)
  • Dry5 of 5
  • Combination5 of 5
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light5 of 5
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 3
  • Deep3 of 3

Share of 22 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

3 e.l.f. Power Grip Primer

e.l.f.

Power Grip Primer

Best for a lightweight feel

16/16 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked

Grip on makeup comes up in 59% of its 22 reviews and good value in 27%.

What buyers praise

  • Makeup lasts longer 77%
  • Grips makeup 59%
  • Lightweight 45%
  • Smooth base 36%
  • Good value 27%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 16 of 16
4

YSL

Touche Éclat Blur Primer

24/25 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked

Smoothness comes up in 30% of its reviews, while a high price draws complaints in 10%.

What buyers praise

  • Smooth base 30%
  • Lightweight 13%
  • Makeup lasts longer 10%
  • Good value 10%
  • Comfortable on dry skin 7%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 10%
  • Breaks skin out 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 24 of 25
By skin type (from reviewer profiles)
  • Combination12 of 13
  • Dry5 of 5
  • Normal4 of 4
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light9 of 10
  • Light-medium to medium7 of 7

Share of 30 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

5

OLEHENRIKSEN

Banana Bright Face Primer

27/29 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked

Shoppers describe it as lightweight in 13% of its 30 reviews and smooth in 13%, while 7% find it too expensive.

What buyers praise

  • Smooth base 13%
  • Lightweight 13%
  • Makeup lasts longer 10%
  • Good value 10%
  • Controls oil 7%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 27 of 29
By skin type (from reviewer profiles)
  • Combination16 of 16
  • Dry6 of 7
  • Normal3 of 3
  • Oily2 of 3
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light13 of 15
  • Light-medium to medium10 of 10
  • Medium-tan to tan4 of 4
Acne-prone reviewers
  • Say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked10 of 12

Share of 30 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

6

Milk Makeup

Luminous Blur Stick Primer

23/25 say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked

This is a stick primer, and its 2 misses found it too glittery. A lightweight feel comes up in 10% of its 30 reviews, while 7% say it feels drying.

What buyers praise

  • Lightweight 10%
  • Smooth base 10%

What buyers complain about

  • Drying 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 23 of 25
By skin type (from reviewer profiles)
  • Combination11 of 12
  • Dry6 of 6
  • Oily4 of 4
  • Normal2 of 3
By skin tone (from reviewer profiles)
  • Fair to light15 of 16
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 4
  • Medium-tan to tan5 of 5
Acne-prone reviewers
  • Say it left a glowy, dewy or radiant base they liked8 of 8

Where these numbers come from

The 6 products ranked here carry 42,615 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for a glowy finish and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between Feb 2019 and Sep 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, never the reviews themselves.

Read the full method

Product pages we read

  1. Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer Ulta and Sephora (51 reviews counted)
  2. REFY Glow & Sculpt Face Serum Primer Sephora (22 reviews counted)
  3. e.l.f. Power Grip Primer Ulta (22 reviews counted)
  4. YSL Touche Éclat Blur Primer Sephora (30 reviews counted)
  5. OLEHENRIKSEN Banana Bright Face Primer Sephora (30 reviews counted)
  6. Milk Makeup Luminous Blur Stick Primer Sephora (30 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Which primer gives a glowy finish?

Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer has the best record (44 of 44), followed by REFY Glow & Sculpt Face Serum Primer (21 of 21), e.l.f. Power Grip Primer (16 of 16), YSL Touche Éclat Blur Primer (24 of 25), OLEHENRIKSEN Banana Bright Face Primer (27 of 29) and Milk Makeup Luminous Blur Stick Primer (23 of 25). The first three tie on share, so group size sets their order: 44 shoppers stated a result for Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer, against 21 for REFY Glow & Sculpt Face Serum Primer and 16 for e.l.f. Power Grip Primer.

Do these records promise a glow?

No. These records come from shoppers who mentioned the finish, and shoppers mostly bring up a glow when they like it, so the numbers compare the primers with each other rather than promise a look.

Are these results from a lab test?

No. The counts are what shoppers said after using each primer, not a lab test, so follow the label directions.

Which of these primers are sold on Amazon?

Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer and e.l.f. Power Grip Primer are sold on Amazon by the brand or Amazon itself. For Milk Makeup Luminous Blur Stick Primer, we could not confirm the exact Amazon listing, so its button searches Amazon for it. We found no official Amazon listing for REFY Glow & Sculpt Face Serum Primer, YSL Touche Éclat Blur Primer or OLEHENRIKSEN Banana Bright Face Primer, so none of the three has a buy link here.

HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through the Amazon buttons on this page. 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.