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Joey King knows the power of a good primer.
The 25-year-old actress has teamed up with e.l.f. Cosmetics to introduce its new “eyes. lips. face. fandom.” campaign that speaks directly to sports fanatics — and fans of its best-selling Power Grip Primer.
In a hilarious video, King stars alongside Emily in Paris actor Lucien Laviscount to recreate a familiar — and often awkward — scenario: meeting the parents. Under the guise of superstition, King’s character dons a half-face of face paint in her team’s colors throughout the entire football season — including while meeting Laviscount’s character’s parents.
“So, you never take it off?” the parents ask, before the ad jumps into a montage of King in waking up in bed, pedaling away in a spin class and at the office, all while wearing her face paint.
The makeup stays put thanks to e.l.f. Power Grip Primer, of course.
e.l.f. Cosmetics
“There’s a reason it is so beloved and so popular, because it works so well and the formula is incredible,” King tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I can’t say enough good things about it.”
In a press release, e.l.f. Beauty’s Chief Marketing Officer Kory Marchisotto says that one Power Grip Primer is sold every 3.5 seconds.
“Fandom fueled by an e.l.f.ing amazing community of undefeated enthusiasts,” Marchisotto continues. “Our community is comprised of a beautiful tapestry of kindred spirits rallying around a shared passion, not because they fit into a box defined by someone else. We don’t allow stereotypes to limit the audience of our products.”
“I loved that he was as down to get as ridiculous and funny and silly as I was and we just had so much fun together,” she says of working with Laviscount. “I think it’s always nice it’s like a judgment free zone. You can try different things. You can embarrass yourself and it’s not embarrassing at all. And so I really appreciated that.”
Thankfully, the Emmy nominee’s real-life experiences with her significant other’s family is substantially less awkward than her e.l.f. character’s. This holiday season, she’s excited to celebrate with her husband, Steven Piet.
King also sees the holidays as an opportunity to play with beauty looks.
“I like to do matching makeup to whatever the holiday is,” the actress explains. “So on our Hanukkah dinner, I like to sometimes do blue eyeliner and sometimes I’ll use the H2O Proof Inkwell Eyeliner in the shade Bluebird.” King’s other e.l.f. favorites include the Pout Cloud Lip Plumping Pen and Lash EXNDR Mascara.
“I’ve grown up loving e.l.f.,” she says. “I started dabbling in makeup roughly when I was 13 years old, and e.l.f. has been a part of mine and my sister’s cosmetic lives for so long. I mean, everyone knows about e.l.f. As a longtime fan of the brand, it was just really, really exciting that they thought of me [for this campaign] because everyone’s always thinking of them.”
