ELF Review Part 2 of 3

I won't be able to upload pictures tonight, but I will do so as soon as I can in the morning time. (Its midnight my time.) I just wanted to finish the Studio Review of ELF cosmetics and hopefully, later today, have the final review up with all the good picture swatch stuff. :D Here is a list of products I've tried:

Studio Line

• HD Powder
• Complexion Perfection
• Shimmer Palette
  
• Golden Bronzer
  
• Blush and Bronzer Compact
• Blushes in Peachy Keen and Tickled Pink
• Eyeshadow singles in Raspberry Truffle, Pebble, Sanddollar and Mystic Moss
• Eye Primer and Sealer
• Two Minty Lip glosses in Miami and New York City
• Complete line of brushes
• Brush Shampoo

Their HD Powder is a silica based product. Many of you might not like this because Silica can be bad for you and your precious lungs. However, I wanted to try a silica based face product for awhile now and since ELF jumped on the bandwagon of HD products, I tried theirs. For the past three days, I haven't noticed anything significant, other than if you tap too hard, too much product comes out. (You'd think I'd have learned from my mineral shadow experience by now.) I like its texture but overall, I don't see it doing anything spectacular to my skin. Has anyone else tried this? Have you seen improvements?

Their Complexion Perfection. I like. Its got a silky texture (perhaps more silica, tomorrow I'll check...) and a mattifying one too. But so far I haven't tried it out on bare primed skin to see what it does. I do use certain parts of the compact for some redness around my nose and chin, and the yellow is nice layer under mineral eye concealer. I think this was a good buy that I have learn how to use it well. lol

The Shimmer Palette. Oh lawdie, I love it so much! It contains 4 shimmers in a white, a taupe, a pink and a peach creme. All look amazing on my fair skin tone. All are incredibly easy to blend and work into the skin and I highly recommend this product simply because I believe it will work with just about anyone's skin tone. It is a creme base product, not a powder, so if you prefer one of there other, now you know about ELF's Shimmer Palette.

Their Bronzers. A love hate relationship. I almost fell for their Cool Bronzer because I am a cool skin neutral undertone gal. Pinks liven up my complexion, and browns work well with my hair and golden flecks in my eyes. However, I bought their blush and contour duo (ELF's knockoff to Orgasm blush) awhile back and learned the hard way, just because the product on the site looks one way doesn't mean it will work on me.

Case and point, the brown is dark enough to be a brow filler.When I first applied it, it was too dark to blend right and finally, I just had to remove it because it left brush streaks on my skin. As for the Orgasm knockoff, the pink is also too dark for me. Even with a light hand, I looked sun burnt. So I've given it to my mom whose more golden undertone and warmer complected than myself.  

Advice: 

when choosing a bronzer, 
especially for pale to light skinned folks, 
go 2-3 shades deeper than your foundation powder. 
Don't go off buying some all purpose summer bronzer 
that matches your oak cabinets in your bathroom. 

Work with yourself, not just the trend. :)

Their Golden Bronzer does exactly what I hoped it would, the browns are light to medium colors with shimmer but it doesn't look like I've sprayed myself with halloween all over hair and body glitter. Its very pretty when blended well. It gives the definintion a goil like me needs without looking gaunt, gawdy or gosh darn silly. I would suggest the Warm pallete for ladies who are light to medium skin toned, and the cool for darker skin tones. The Cool bronzer has that pink that would make your cheeks look flushed and pretty not like me, who was red the clown for a day.

Onto their Blushes and Eyeshadows! All I can say is there are amazing. I've never owned a true peachy color blush, and Peachy Keen works wonders on me. The pink is a pretty sheer color, so if you like your blush with oomph! you'll have to build Tickled Pink. Their eye shadows are much better than their dollar line. Raspberry Truffle is a dark brown cranberry. Its oh so sophisticated! :) Their Mystic moss is a charcoal gray meets emerald and made an enchanting baby. Its murky but elegant, its not your Irish Green you see screaming at St Patti's day Parades, its a hello, I'm green...with some major allure power going on. ;) Pebble, I got because it looked like a nice contour color for my light make up days, and turns out, I like it mixed with everything, even by itself! Its one of their safer colors but still fun to use. Finally Sanddollar. It was bought simply because I needed a good white for the inner corners of my eyes. Overall, if you had to drop money on ELF makeup start with the eyeshadows and blushes then experiment elsewhere. :)

The Eye Primer and Sealer failed me so bad. The Sealer is really a clear wand that you can mix your eyeshadows and create a liquid liner. But I got it for the primer, and the primer was too orangy for my skin tone, creased on a few occasions and after sanitizing the product, I gave it to my sister. She thinks it works well. I hope the two of them have a beautiful relationship for years to come. lol

The Minty Lip Glosses. I bought a safe color, Miami and on impulse a bright pink-red, New York City. When I received the boxes of them both, one looked almost nude and the other one looked like wine. I thought oh how nice a wine color gloss, never had one of those. Yet when I opened NYC and saw it for what it was, I was like...wine? WTH was I thinking??... Its pink! Bright pink! Barbie Bright Pink! I tried it on and was sort of slighted by the taste and smell. It isn't a thick gloss, it won't drench your lips in uber pinkness, but after awhile my confidence grew as I got a compliment every now and then. The color is a richer more magenta pink than what I expected after applying it to my lips. There is some sparkle but what one must contend with is the taste and smell.

See, I have a thing for Bath and Body work's peppermint lip glosses. The double peppermint gloss. I think of it as the meeting of two great minds, pretty lips and nice breath. I use to be an avid mint consumer (but I got pregnant and no more mints for me, so i needed a fix. lol) and since then, every mint flavored gloss has come up to challenge B&B and has failed.

So as the day wore on, and I reapplied NYC a few times, the scent sort of faded and the taste became more comfortable for me. It was like a candy mint, but you could taste more of the sweetness than the burning coolness of the mint. Then I had a tick-tack and all came together. ELF's minty glosses are like Barbie meets itty bitty mints and makes a cheap knock off to B&B and for once, I am satisfied with all things minty, glossy and girly. lol

(I didn't intend for this to be so long! Almost through!)

Their Studio Brushes. ELF, you make amazing brushes. The black is so sleek, and if you can afford the whole 11 brushes for 30 dollars, you really wouldn't need to buy other brushes. Do the math with me: 30 goes into 11 about 2.8 (or 2.9 times). Where are you going to be able to find quality soft brushes at a price like that? MAC has met its match at the fraction of the cost. And each brush doesn't have to be used just the way it was made. Furthermore you could use the Dollar Line 'C brushes' too because both are equally as soft. ELF's brushes were the best investment I've made since finding the right shade of foundation for myself. They truly are all around good brushes. The kabuki isn't dense like a flat top brush but it does its job well. (I use to to blend in my face powder. I don't want super stiffness, I want a lighter application.)

As for the Brush Cleaner, Its cool but for the amount you get, just buy Target Baby shampoo. It works just as good and is very gentle to the bristles, wand and glue keeping everything together.

Summery:

I highly recommend the Shimmer Palette, the shadows, blushes and brush line. No matter if you buy 1 brush or them all, you won't be disappointed. Everything else is a bit of a gamble, but ELF isn't a high stake game. And if you play your cards right, and you have a super steep discount, it really is a win win situation. :) Cheap and pretty, what do you think of that?

Take care,
ChristinaReviews