The best pole grip aids in Australia, compared honestly.

I have been the sweaty-handed person in the room for my entire performing career, and I have bought, borrowed or been given nearly every grip product sold in this country. I also make one — so read this knowing that, and notice how often I recommend somebody else's. This community sniffs out a rigged comparison in seconds, and a rigged comparison would deserve it.

First: grip products only do three things

Every product on the shelf works by one of three mechanisms, and matching the mechanism to your skin matters far more than the brand:

1. Drying agents remove moisture — chalks (magnesium carbonate), alcohol-based liquid chalks, and antiperspirant-style lotions. For hands that sweat.
2. Tacky grips add stick — rosin and wax balms, and tacky gels. For hands that are too dry to grip warm metal.
3. Surface treatments go on the pole, not on you — and most studios have rules about them, so ask before you spray anything on shared equipment.

The drying agents (sweaty hands)

Dry Hands is the default for a reason: a thin silicone-feel drying lotion that most Australian studios sell at the desk. It works, it's cheap, and if your sweat is mild it may be all you need. Its weakness is duration — heavy sweaters reapply constantly, and it can feel slick on some skin.

Tite Grip II is the heavy artillery: an antiperspirant hand lotion you apply well before training so it can shut sweat down at the source. For genuinely severe sweat — the hands-dripping-in-warmup kind — it outperforms everything else in this list, including ours. Its trade-off is planning: it wants application 10–30 minutes before you train, and some people find it drying with daily use.

Liquid chalks — ours included, alongside brands like Liquid Grip and the climbing chalks from gym retailers — suspend magnesium carbonate in a fast-evaporating base. You get the matte, dry grip of chalk without a cloud of powder, which is why many studios that ban loose chalk allow the liquid version. Where Cirque Essentials earns its place: the rosin in the blend adds a touch of tack that plain chalk doesn't have, the scent is mild, and the bottle clips to your rig or bag — a small thing that matters the third time your grip fades mid-combo and your chalk is across the room. Where it doesn't: if your hands barely sweat, chalk of any kind will feel like overkill, and a tacky balm below is the better buy.

The tacky grips (dry hands)

iTac2 is the standard tacky wax for pole in Australia — genuinely sticky, loved by dry-skinned dancers, and available in strengths. Be aware many studios restrict it on shared poles because of residue, and if you sweat, layering tack over sweat makes things worse, not better.

Monkey Hands (gel, several formulas) and Girlie Grip (liquid) sit in the same family with lighter feels. Dry-handed dancers tend to settle on one of these three by preference, and none of them is what a sweaty-handed dancer should buy first.

So which one, actually?

Mild sweat, budget buy: Dry Hands from your studio desk.
Serious sweat: Tite Grip II before training; a liquid chalk — ours or another — in your bag for top-ups.
Sweaty + wants one bottle that lives on the kit bag: that is the buyer our chalk was blended for.
Dry hands slipping on warm brass: iTac2 or Monkey Hands — not chalk, not ours.
Training silks or hammock: none of the above by default — read the apparatus guide before you buy anything.

A note on buying in Australia

Most of the brands above are imports with local resellers; prices swing with shipping. Ours is made in Melbourne and sold direct or through stockist studios. Whatever you buy, check your studio's grip policy first — the fastest way to waste $30 is on a product your studio doesn't allow on shared apparatus.