So, as you may know, ELF Cosmetics had a huge 70% off Clearance sale, back after Black Friday, that featured the mineral cosmetics line of products. Having only tr ied the few random odds and ends available at my local Target, I decided to jump in and try a few (mineral *and* non-mineral) items to get a better feel for these nifty little $1-$3 prizes.
I've been using these on and off for a few weeks now, so the following are my reviews on a few of the products I purchased. Your results may vary! If you love ELF Cosmetics, comment below and tell me which are YOUR faves!
1.
Shimmer Facial Whip.
At $1 a piece, these are some of my FAVORITES of the products I tried from ELF this time around. I have this in Toasted, Spotlight, Lilac Petal, and Pink Lemonade.
According to the website, you just squeeze a bit on your finger and rub onto the eyes, lips, or face for a slight shimmery effect. I found the Pink Lemonade to be pretty as a blush, and the Spotlight and Toasted to be awesome highlights on the cheek bones or the area under the brow. The Lilac Petal was a little too purplish to look good on my face, but I've found another use for all 4 that just works amazingly for me.
I use these as Eye Primers, and I've been extremely happy with the effect I get. I'll rub a nice, light layer from lid to brow bone, then pack on the shadow on top. For an extra dewy, shimmery effect, I may even add another light layer on top of the shadow to complete the look. Works like a charm.
One big plus for me is that these don't smell overwhelmingly fruity. The scent here is a little more subtle and is a nice orange-y fragrance that is actually soothing to me. The biggest problem I had with the ELF lip glosses was the sickingly sweet odor, so thumbs up on this product for getting it right!
One downside I noticed is that the product tends to get watery. When I pick it in the morning and squirt the tab on my finger, a few drops of liquid will drip out first before I actually touch base with the product. This is a little annoying, but it doesn't really detract from the product itself.
Overall, I love this and would definitely buy again!
2.
Contouring Blush and Bronzer Powder
This one is from the Studio line, so at $3 it carries a slightly higher price. I'd seen so many fantastic reviews of this product on YouTube that I just HAD to try it, despite the fact that it wasn't quite part of this magical sale. Many reviewers compared the blush to NARS, praising the amazing color payoff and longevity of the product, so I had high hopes for this one from the start!
Now, I'm not sure if I'm just applying it too heavy handed, but I'm really and truly just not *that* impressed with this Blush and Bronzer duo. The colors seem so dark, heavy, and unnatural to me. No matter how I apply this Bronzer, it seems too harsh and difficult to blend to me. And, I never wear blush in a shade quite this deep, so I just couldn't make it work at all for my skin tone.
On the flipside, the compact is cute and the mirror is quite large, so I do find myself grabbing it while applying my *other* favorite Bronzer instead. (ha, ha)
3.
Complexion Perfection ($3, Studio line)
The directions on elf.com advise us to "Blend the powder over the entire face to brighten and even out the skin tone as well as neutralize any redness." The idea behind this is that opposite colors cancel one another out. So, if you have a lot of redness in the skin, a green based concealer can be used under your regular foundation/concealer routine to help cancel out the red. Purple and yellow work to cancel one another out, as well, so the violet can be used to tone down olive-toned skins while the yellow can cancel out any purplish on the face. Finally, the idea behind blue is that it tones down orange (aka the bad sunless tanner).
So, the idea behind this powder is that you run your brush through all of the colors, and *BAM*! It's your one stop complexion-fixing stop! Right?
I'm not convinced. I felt that a dash through each of the colors really did nothing to cancel out any particular color on my face, and the colors were too small on their own to really o be applied individually with a powder brush. I tend to have drier skin so I wasn't keen on the idea of applying green powder on small areas of redness with a concealer brush when a creamy concealer would do a lot better for me. (I much prefer the Coastal Scents Camo quad for my color-correcting needs).
Overall, this makes a decent setting powder, though, as it's not thick or cakey. So, if anything, I'll just use a big fluffy brush to dust it over my favorite foundation.
However, I probably wouldn't repurchase this one, as I do have other setting powders that I really prefer.
On the plus side, this too has a generous mirror, which is something that seems to be lacking in a lot of these smaller compacts.
4.
Mineral Eyeshadows. $3/each. The ones I got were Angelic, Caffeinated, and Confident.
I wasn't expecting much from these eyeshadows, as the regular-line duo shadows I got from Elf weren't *that* impressive. The color payoff was okay and the longevity was fine, but definitely nothing like I've come to expect in my Napoleon Perdis and Coastal Scents palettes.
But, I was pleasantly surprised by the Mineral Shadows, *especially* the one in Angelic, a slightly shimmery white shade that has become my favorite under-the-brow highlighter. (I'm especially fond of applying the Angelic over the Spotlight facial whip on my lids, which almost gives an ethereal feel to me!)
I'd say these are almost comparable to my Bare Minerals eyeshadows, expect these seem to have larger grain, and as such are a tad bit messier and harder to apply. Make sure to use a good eyeshadow brush, as opposed to those little padded sticks that come in most shadows, as it really makes for an easier application. I found these really stayed on my eye a lot better with a primer or facial whip underneath as well, although I do usually tend to skip the primer with most of my non-mineral shadows.
So, thumbs up for these. The colors are nicely saturated, the staying-power is there, and I really do enjoy these. The range of colors is good, not great, but I wouldn't hesitate to repurchase!
5.
Mineral Lip Liners. $3/each. Comes in only 4 colors: a peachy shade, a slightly purple, a pinky rose, and a bronzy nude. I purchased all 4. (Hey, they were 75% off! LOL)
I'm becoming more into lip products these days, as I've always tended to just play up the eyes and finish off with a quick nude gloss before running out the door in the mornings. But, these days, I'm playing around a bit more with lipsticks and lip liners, but I'm still not really a fan of those liners that always need to be resharpened. There's just something so inconvenient about it all, I think, and even with the best sharpener, I still manage to stab myself in the lip with a little stray shard of pencil.
So, these twist up liners were the perfect product for me to try. I had planned to line the lips before finishing with a lipstick in a complimentary color, but I've actually had a lot more success in lining the lip, filling in the lip completely with the liner, then finishing with a coat of clear gloss. This gives me a nice pop of color without being overtly flashy, and really seems to have a stronger staying power than a lipstick alone, which is definitely a thumbs up for me.
One huge downside, though, is that the lip liner is far too drying to just be worn alone, completely covering the lip, without any gloss. It's fine with the gloss, but without it, the color had a tendency to flake and look really uneven. If you're not planning on finishing with gloss, I'd probably just skip this one, really.
As far as the shades go, my favorite was "Brown" which is really more of a nude than brown at all. The color selection here isn't fabulous, but at $3/each, they work perfectly for what I need, and I would definitely repurchase.
6.
Mineral Lipstick. $5.00/each. I bought this in "Nicely Nude" "Barely Brown" "Natural Nymph" and "Royal Red".
Be wary when you purchase these online, because the colors on the website *really* don't seem to match the colors on the lipstick. For example, Barely Brown looks pinky brown on the website, but it's actually more of a muted brownish reddish color. Royal Red looks a lot brighter on the website, and Nicely Nude is a little more coral-ish than the site shows. Natural Nymph is probably my favorite of the bunch, which is a very pale, very sheer shade that's really fun and versatile.
One thumbs up for these is that they're unscented, which amazes me for an ELF Product. I really don't want to smell cherries or fruit loops on my mouth throughout the day, so I was thrilled to discover that these are completely unscented and untasty! The color payoff is decent, but not great. The lipstick feels nice and creamy going on, but I've actually found these to get *really* drying over time. Thus, I really don't wear these much without a gloss on top, which was a bit of a disappointment, as I was primarily looking for a quick on-the-go kind of lipstick.
For this price, though, I can easily pop in the store and pick up a Rimmel lipstick, which is pretty comparable. Not the best quality, not really any conditioning in the lips, but definitely cheap enough to allow a vast handful of color choices without breaking the bank!
OKAY, there's my ELF mish-mash of reviews. If you've used ELF, give me your thoughts in the comments below!
Thanks for reading!
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