In 1998 Mazdack Rassi opened a photography studio in a former department store warehouse at 450 15th Street, in New York's Meatpacking District. He had arrived in the city in 1994 and talked the building's owners into the idea. It became Milk Studios, and Calvin Klein turned into a fixture for its shows. Picture that building on a show morning: fast, bright, and no time for a base that slides.

Milk Makeup came out of that world, and I think you can still see it. The brand names four founders, Mazdack Rassi, Dianna Ruth, Georgie Greville and Zanna Roberts Rassi, and its whole way of thinking is backstage: quick, multi-use, made for people who have to look good under a light at a moment's notice. That is the right frame for the Milk Hydro Grip Primer. The brand says it grips makeup for up to 12 hours with hyaluronic acid and niacinamide, plus blue agave extract, hemp seed extract and aloe water, and that it is silicone-free, vegan and cruelty-free. It also says to patch test if you react to niacinamide, which I appreciate.

The trick is to see the first grid as one system. Milk's own routine is primer on skin, a 60-second wait, makeup, then the spray. The Hydro Grip Hydrating Makeup Primer is the gel. The Hydro Grip + Glow Illuminating Primer adds light-reflecting pearls for people who want the shine built in. The Hydro Grip 12HR Dewy Setting Spray is the finish, and the Gel Skin Tint and Gel Stick Concealer bring the same hydrating idea into colour.

On the other side is Pore Eclipse: a mattifying and blurring primer with niacinamide, a primer stick and a transfer-proof setting spray. Grip for dry days, blur for oily ones.

One rule for stick makeup: go in order, cream before anything powdery, thin swipes before thick ones. A stick is easy to over-apply because it feels like a crayon, and building slowly is how you keep it looking like skin.

Lip + Cheek Cream Blush Stick does exactly what its name says, one colour on two places, which is why it lives in my pocket instead of my drawer, and the Blurred Finish version is the softer, matte take on it. The Quick Sculpt Creamy Matte Contour Stick and the Creamy Matte Bronzer Stick handle shape, and both are named with hyaluronic acid.

For light, you have choices. The High Light Luminous Cream Highlighter Stick is the classic cream glow. The Cooling Water Jelly Shimmer Highlighter Stick is made for face and eyes, so one swipe can do both. The Watermelon Jelly Brightening Serum Stick with Peptides and the Cooling Water Under Eye Gel Stick sit closer to skincare, and I like that they are stick-shaped, because a cooling swipe is a good way to wake up a tired morning.

A pairing I like: the cream blush stick on the cheeks and a dab on the lips, then the Hydro Grip spray from the first grid over both.

What I would skip: a full stick routine when you are five minutes from the door. Pick one colour and one highlight, and leave the rest for the weekend.

Start with the brows and work down. Brows frame everything, so if they are right the rest of the face can be quiet, and that is a very Milk idea.

The KUSH Fiber Eyebrow Gel is the brush-through option, and the KUSH Brow Shadow Stick Waterproof Eyebrow Pencil is for filling gaps. I would use them together, gel for the shape and the stick only where the hairs are sparse. The KUSH Big Hit Lifting + Volumizing Mascara and the Infinity Long Lasting Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil finish the eye, and both are built for a long day.

The lip side is the softer half. The KUSH Hydrating Sheer Lip Oil and the Odyssey Hydrating Non-Sticky Lip Oil Gloss are the two glosses, and the word non-sticky in the second name makes it the one for hair-blowing-into-your-face weather. The Balmade Hydrating Tinted Lip Balm with Electrolytes is the low-effort one. The Line + Fill Lip Liner and Lip Color gives you edge and colour in one.

A pairing I like: the Line + Fill in the centre of the lips, then the Odyssey on top, so the colour has some definition under the shine.

What I would skip: wearing the lip oil and the tinted balm together. Choose the glossier or the balmier mood and commit to it.

Here is how I would choose a hydrating primer: pick the finish you want at hour six, not the one you want at hour one. Some primers leave a dewy, lit-from-within look, and some are built to feel like a moisturiser that happens to help your base.

Dior's Forever Skin Veil Hydrating Glow Primer and MAC's Studio Radiance Moisturizing + Illuminating Silky Primer are for people who want light. Laura Mercier's Pure Canvas Primer in its Hydrating version is the calm one, and Kylie Cosmetics' Supple Glaze Hydrating Primer sounds like a shine you would wear to dinner. Too Faced's Primed & Peachy Hydrating Makeup Primer is the one with the friendliest name.

Charlotte Tilbury's Wonderglow Face Primer, Armani Beauty's Luminous Silk Hydrating & Glow-Extending Primer and Estée Lauder's Futurist Aqua Brilliance Watery Glow Primer are the three at the glowier end of the group. Next to those, the Hydro Grip Primer is the grippier, less glossy choice, and the one I would pick for hold.

A pairing I like: a glow primer on the high points of the face and the Hydro Grip Primer everywhere else. Shine goes where you want it, grip goes everywhere.

What I would skip: a glow-extending primer on a day when you are already shiny, like a hot commute. That is a day for Pore Eclipse.

I think most people should start with the Hydro Grip primer and spray pair, and add Pore Eclipse only if their T-zone tells them to. The brand's method is simple, and simple is what makes it work on a rushed morning. If your skin runs dry, the gel is the step I would never skip. If it runs oily, swap in the Pore Eclipse primer and keep the spray.

Apply the primer, wait a full minute, and look at it again at lunch. Rassi filled a warehouse with cameras and called it a studio. You have a bathroom mirror and 60 seconds. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Neutrogena Hydro Boost and Tatcha Dewy Milk Moisturizer.

If you like your primer tacky enough to feel it working, I compared the sticky grip primer that started the trend with its rivals.