Newest product from ELF

As you all know, I love elf cosmetics over anything.  Not all their products are pigmented but I'd say 80% of there stuff is fantastic for the price you pay which is dirt cheap!  I'm always on the website and recently, they have been added more and more new products :D.

I always just go on their website and click on the "new" section. Always get super excited when there is something brand spanking new!  As you can see, there are a lot of geometric palettes and new baked products~~.  I NEED IT (No I don't but i just want it haha.)

ELF studio HD concealer release

Back on the first of Feburary, Elf cosmetics released a sneak peak on a few upcoming products they would be carrying.  If you haven't already, you might want to check out their instagram because that is the place where they post sneak peeks.

I swear that this picture was released wayy earlier but thats what it says haha.  Maybe it was just me that felt like it was released back during the Christmas time.  In the picture is their upcoming HD Mattifying Cream Foundation (oil-free) and the already released HD Lifting Concealer.

This photo was released back in December 17,2012 and is said to be in the studio line called "mineral perals."  This product reminisces the Guerlain Météorites Powder For The Face which comes with a hefty price of $67 while the elf one is around $6 :D.  But sadly they are still taking their sweet time to release this product.

ELF Studio Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow review and swatch

 Like always, these awesome eyeshadow was on the ELF cosmetics instagram sneak peek so when these came out back in November, I jumped on the horse and bought them on Cyber Monday.  The description of these eyeshadows just intrigued me since its suppose to be a whipped gel eyeshadows which i don't even think there is anything like it on the market right now.

ELF's description on this product: "Soft and fluffy, these vibrant, shimmering Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow colors can be used as eyeshadow or a bold liner. The whipped gel texture is easy to blend and lightweight for lasting comfort and wear. Perfect for highlighting the brow bone and adding extra shimmer for a truly glam look."

Product Packaging: Let me just start off by saying that the cardboard packaging for this was so annoying! The eyeshadow was stuck in there! You have to actually rip the packaging to get it out but I had to try so hard to not rip it for picture purposes LOL.  

Another thing that is super annoying is that the names for the eyeshadow was the names are not on them.  You either have to write it with a sharpie yourself on the bottom or you would manually have to rip the little sliver sticker off the back of the box.  I really hope that they don't do that for all of them because that just makes me question if they were thinking when they made this product.

 These have super simple packaging with a black lid on top with "ELF long lasting lustrous eyeshadow" printed on them and a clear plastic bottom. In pictures before I got it, I thought the bottom would be glass like the Maybelline color tattoos.

I stuck that sticker on myself by the way.

Texture:

Unlike anything I've ever tried before, but these do remind me of their studio cream blushes which has the same "bouncy" texture. These are "bouncy" but they are more wet then the cream blush which turns slightly powder on the skin.  I wouldn't slide my finger around since they are really squishy and I would just create a huge crator so i would actually just dab my finger over it. On the skin, it still has a slight wetness to it but it does set well.  The wetness does also help attract powders to show their true color, exactly what a eyeshadow base is suppose to do.

Color Pigmentation/ Payoff:
Out of the 7 shades, i only bought three of them since most of them are very boring shades to me and the three shades I bought, I thought I could get the most use of. The seven shades they sell are Toast (yellow golden bronze color), Soiree (light pinky purple), Gala (browny raspberry purple shade), Festivity (dark purple amethyst), confetti (white with silver shimmer), celebration (sliver), and party (dark silvery blue color).

As you can tell from my description, gala, soiree and festivity all are different shades of purple and on the skin (from swatch pictures  I've seen, they all look very similar so that saved me some money there knowing that I didn't have to buy all of them.

All of the shades are shimmery which stopped me from getting them right when they first came out but when it came time to the cyber Monday sale, I went crazy and just picked some up. Now I'm not the type to like crazy shimmer on my eyes but these makes the skin look like there are Swarovski crystals on my eyes. They are stunningly gorgeous! It has this metallic element with tons of shimmers that does actually adhere to the skin nicely.

The colors are very buildable and it will be true to color after about three layers.  The good thing about these is that you can actually wear these by themselves and it wouldn't crease or you could use these as a color base which is quite effective as well.

Smell:

Good news for those that don't like frangances in their products.  These do not have any smell :).

Lasting power:

From the name, you could kind of tell but these do last quite a long time. I would put these on in the morning and when I go to take my make up off late at night, it is still there.  It fades a slight  bit but nothing dramatic.

Price:

 These go for $3 each in their studio line but you can easily get these for $1.50 a piece if you use a studio 50% off code which you just have to google for one. 

Overall I really do love these even though I am not a big sparkle girl but wow I'm in love with the shades.  I  wouldn't be going out to get all of the shades since I have too much stuff already  as it is but i just wanted to try something new. 

ELF essential jumbo eyeshadow sticks review and swatches

 These came out not too long, about one and a half month ago.  I was completely intrigued by these because they really reminded me of the NYX jumbo eyeshadow penicls.  I think everyone's first impression would be that these look like a dupe for the NYX ones. They do the same job but I think these are actually better! They come in nine different shades and I have all of them to do a review for you guys :D.

 ELF's description of the jumbo eyeshadow sticks:

"This creamy and pigment rich Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick is perfect for creating a natural or smoky eyeshadow look. Infused with nourishing Vitamin E to condition the delicate eye area. The twist up component and smooth glide formula is easy to use for on-the-go beauty. All colors, except Like A Boss, have a shimmer finish."

 Product Packaging:

These eyeshadow sticks first came in the simple flimsy cardboard and plastic, just like any of the other elf products from their essentials line.  Each stick has 0.11 oz/3 g of product which isn't a bad amount. They come in a crayon pencil tube with a twisty bottom which has a glossy finish to them. The tube itself is a matte white with "E.L.F Jumbo eyeshadow stick" printed in sliver on them. The bottoms correspond to the color of the product and has a sticker on the bottom with yet again ant printing.  I really wish that they would have a sticker with the font thats not -0.004. The lid is clear so you can see the color of stick, which is kinda of obvious but I felt the need to type it anyways.

Color Pigmentation/ Payoff:

Out of all nine of these shades, two of these aren't the best and really dissapointed me.  The two lightest shades were actually the biggest dissapointment.  When I was ordering these on the website, I thought that French lace and Little Miss thing would be matte and creamy but most of these are frosty finish. I'll divide these into categories by finish so you guys will get an idea of which you might want to purchase.

Frosty:French lace, Little miss thing, Rock out, Turkish Coffee, Bail Bound

Semi frosty/ a little more matte: Check me out, Feeling lucky
Matte: Like a boss, Midnight Rendez Vous

French lace: Light champange color with pinky peach shimmers
Little Miss thing: Light golden bronze color with gold shimmers
Rock out: Taupey brown color with bronze shimmer
Turkish coffee: Chocolate brown color with bronze brown shimmers
Feeling Lucky: Dark chocolate raspberry color (Just like the Raspberry truffle studio single eyeshadow color) with slight dark purple shimmers
Check me out: Dark purple amethyst color with slight purple shimmers
Bail Bound: Forest green with light green shimmers
Like a boss: Primary matte blue
Midnight rendezvous: Traditional matte black

Even though French lace isn't a matte skintone color that I hopped for, it actally is very close and similar to my make up forever waterproof eyeliner in Champagne color.  It is a really light true champagne color and on my MAC NC25 skintone shade, this looks super natural.  On the corners of my eyes, it just looks like I'm super naturally glowy  and healthy.  I could actually use this on my face and cupids bow too.As for the other colors, I would just use it as a base for my eyeshadows. 

Texture/ Lasting Power:
They are really pigmented and not too too creamy to the point where it would just slide off my eyes. This has just the perfect consistency.  You could wear these on its own but I wouldn't advise it since it will crease on the eyelids.  Use a primer underneath these for a longer lasting eye look but you woudln't actually have to. I would be happy to report that this product is worth buying and spending your time on.  These are even better then the studio cream eyeshadow that I love so much from them! I'm impressed.


Smell:
These have a really plasticy crayon smell.  If you know what wax crayon smells like, this would have the exact smell.  It isn't too strong where it is really annoying to use or you could still smell it once you have used it on your skin.

Price:
I don't know why, but elf has been raising their price from their essential line which I really hope they don't change everything from $1 to $2. But all of these jumbo eyeshadows are $2 each each is still cheap but it was more fun when things were only one buck.

Overall:
This is a really good product and It would be something that I would actually repurchase but I don't think that I would be able to finish one ever.  These do remind me of my Make up forever base but they just don't have the awesome bright colors Make up forever has.  The texture is almost the same but the ELF ones are a little more waxy but still is easy to blend.

Studio baked eyeshadow palette in California review and swatches

I still remember when Elf first posted their sneak picture on instagram, i completely freaked out! I absolutely loved their baked eyeshadows they came out with earlier and if i could get it in a palette and a smaller size, i'm up for it.  The price for these was a little high considering all of their other products are less then $6 usually.  So $10 made me a little bit hesitant. :) Please enjoy my review on these.  I have been using these for a while now.

Elf's description of the studio baked eyeshadow palette: "Each Baked Palette features 10 gorgeous baked eyeshadows so you can achieve a flawless look whenever, wherever. The silky and bendable formula of our Baked Eyeshadow provides smooth and even application with each sweep of color. Baked in an oven, these eyeshadows offer rich pigmentation for a beautiful effect. Infused with active key ingredients Jojoba, Rose, Sunflower, Apricot and Grape to nourish and hydrate the skin. The long-lasting and shimmering color can be worn wet for a vibrant effect or dry for sheer pigmentation, offering a variety of gorgeous eye looks!"

Product packaging:

This palette comes in a sleek black little case. I do not really like how thick the palette is though (14cm length X 6cm width X 2 cm thick). Each color comes in a pressed dome shape which is quite typical for baked products. I do understand that the shadows are domed but thickness of the palette is still not justified for its thickness. I did actually take apart the palette and the whole bottom of the palette is empty. Fail! The palette has a nice snap which isn’t too hard to open but it closes perfectly so it would be safe to leave this palette in your purse.

Color pigmentation/ payoff:

These palettes currently come in two versions: California which is all neutral palettes and NYC which is a smoky palette. I choose to only get the California since I thought that I would get the most use out of but I know you guys don’t care about that LOL. Okay I’ll try to get to the point how. The color pigmentation of these is only average but with a primer it is a little better. Most of these colors have a satin finish with a hint of shimmers, few have shimmery finish and only two has more of a matte finish. I wouldn’t bring this palette with me to a trip hoping that this would be the only palette since a lot of these shades are only shimmer/ satin and has no matte color which is one of the downsides to it.

Top row (from left to right)

1) Light beige skin tone highlight color with sliver shimmers; satin finish with slight shimmers

2) Warm toned bronze shade with golden shimmers; satin finish

3) Beige peach color with golden shimmer; satin finish

4) Rose gold color with peach shimmer; satin finish

5) Light coffee color with sliver shimmer; shimmery finish

Bottom row (from left to right)

1) Sliver shade; frosty finish

2) Dark brown shade with small sliver shimmers; matte with slight shimmers

3) Golden bronze color with golden shimmers; frost/ satin finish

4) Burgundy plum shade (very comparable to raspberry truffle from their studio single eye shadows); stain finish

5) Amethyst color with purple sheen; satin finish

Dupe to Sephora moon shadow in The nude:

Once these came out, everyone couldn’t stop comparing these. I had to see these for myself so I went to the store. The palette was basically 95% the same!! The palette case for the Sephora is fancier but the color selections of these are so similar, I’d say go get the elf one. Colors are almost all the same. Texture and packaging. Wow…elf you are awesome and stepping up your game :).

Texture:

Baked eye shadows usually are somewhat dry to the touch since they are baked and doesn’t have that silky texture like MAC eye shadows. But boy was I surprised. These were actually quite silky and doesn’t have too much fall out. Yes you will have a little bit of powderyness but I mean what eye shadow doesn’t right? Fallout I mean once you dip your brush into the domes and not when you use them on your eyes.

Smell:

I’m happy to report that this has no smell :). Sometimes with some products from elf, they have a really bad plastic smell to them but these have absolutely no smell!

Lasting power:

These doesn’t have the best lasting power on bare skin so I would suggest you use a good primer before you step out the door. Those would stay about 3-4 hours on bare skin but if you use primer, they would stay on for about 5-7 hours. Using these wet is an option for these too but not my favorite method.

Price:

These are $10 which I find it a little bit expensive for ELF since everything else is $3 and $6 and a whole palette is $15 for 144, so $10 to me for a small ten color baked eye shadow palette seems a lot LOL. I did get this for $5 since I used a 50% off studio line. There is going to be a cyber-Monday 50% off everything sale so watch out for that.

Hope you enjoyed my review on this palette. If you have anymore questions, don’t hesitant to comment down below, or if you want to see a review on a certain product. Would you get this palette for yourself? Which colors do you usually prefer? Neutral or smokey?

ELF fall haul featuring Jumbo eyeshadow sticks, blush and contouring cream and mineral pressed eyeshadow

I know I know…I have been going crazy with the elf hauls. They are like back to back, but this is the last one I swear. Okay maybe I might get a few things on cyber Monday but I swear! LOL I even banned myself from going to Winners since I’m basically get prepared to go on a shopping spree on Boxing Day! First store I’m going to hit is Nine west for more heels! I’m eyeing this really cool black heel with a wedge, but its not exactly a full on wedge and it has really beautiful, somewhat indian-estque gold sun embellishments on the wedge but it is $345. Geez :/ That’s a lot of money. Anyways back to the elf haul!

Since they had a 50% off all eye product coupon code and I really wanted their new jumbo eye shadow sticks, I thought this would the perfect opportunity to go ahead and order. When I found out that elf was coming out with jumbo eye shadow sticks, I freaked out! And since it was just a sneak peek on instagram, I just couldn’t wait! Sad thing is that they are $2, not $1 but still good! They came out with nine colors but a lot of them are frosty. Only about two are matte. The biggest disappointment was the two lightest shades since I was hoping it would be a matte skin color like the soft ochre from MAC. Nope, it’s a shimmery mess and it doesn’t even show up on the skin. What a bummer. My first impressions of them are that they are really creamy, really pigmented (well at least the darker shades), and easy to blend. I was somewhat hesitate about getting these since I did not like their past cream eye shadows. They were greasy and just plain gross. I still have to experiment with them but overall I like these :). Oh yea, these don’t need sharpening! Stupid NYX jumbo eye shadow sharpening cough cough*. They twist up, how convenient.

Another really new product was their contouring blush and bronzing cream! Now everyone already know and love their powder form but they have it in cream version now! I don’t know why but I kept thinking that these would be just like their cream blushes, which has the same texture as the Maybelline bouncy blushes. So when I opened the compact, I was surprised it wasn’t that formula! It’s just the typical cream texture, easy to blend and pigmented! I think you guys would like it. This goes for $3 from their studio line.

Some other random eye products I picked up was their essentials custom eye eye shadows for $1. I really do love these eye shadows but the one complain I have with these is that it isn’t pressed tight enough cause them to be somewhat powdery fall out city! This I can easily fix with pressing it myself so I didn’t really mind. They came out with a lot of new colors so I picked up three of the ones that interested me the most, Wheat (light brown wheat color with golden brown shimmers), Taupe (taupe gold with a hint of warm green; shimmery finish) and a bright teal. I might pick up the rest when it comes around to cyber Monday but I am pleased with these.

 

I also go some backups of my favorite eyelid primers from their essential line for $1, sheer and champagne. I love love love the color champagne since it is the least shimmery out of the three colored ones and the color is really natural. They came out with primer eye shadows a long time ago but I never got around trying it. Their cream eyeliners (in black and coffee) are a must for my since it’s so cheap but it works well and it doesn’t budge at all! Not bad for only $1.50. Not really liking the fact it is really frosty but we’ll see. Just like the usual, I got the free gift which is their hypershine lipgloss in Flirt.

The last two items I got were their newest pressed mineral eye shadows from their mineral line for $3 each. I didn’t want to go crazy with these since a lot of the colors were really similar and the swatches I saw online didn’t really excite me. I only got two shades which would be lunch break (light cool wheat brown color; satin frosty finish) and What’s your name (cool purple shade; satin finish). Not really excited about these colors but they would be a color I’d be comfortable using day to day.

Which products are you most excited about? Which ones do you want to see reviews on? :)

Maleficent look

 Halloween is just around the corner so I thought an evil queen look would be perfect! ELF came out with exclusive Disney villain palettes and the evil villain from sleeping beauty, Maleficent. looked like something that would have been awesome to recreate. She’s got that classic villain look, the high arch brows, tall black horns coming out of her head, strong make up and cold toned colors…it’s just perfect! Everything about her screamed scary and so does Halloween HAHA. I actually never watched sleeping beauty but I have read the books many many times. Hope you guys enjoy my recreation. I was going to do my whole face, but I didn’t have the horns and the cloak to complete the outfit, so I just did the eye look. This was an okay medium difficulty level but you just had to make sure everything was clean and crisp since this is a Cut crease look with strong eyebrows. Her eyebrows are way thinner and dark but I just wanted to keep my eyebrows like normal but filled it in with black eyeliner. Enjoy :)

 Green lid :

Color base: Make up forever flash palette, green shade from bottom right

All over the lid: Leishi pigment #60

Mid crease green highlightt: Maybelline Eye studio color explosion in Emerald Forest fury (light green to the left)

Cut crease : Maybelline eye studio color explosion in Emerald Forest fury (dark green in the V)

 Purple surroundings:

Color base : Make up forever flash palette, red shade(bottom row next to the white)

Warm reddish base: 88 color palette reddish pink color; third row to the right, bottom

Purple highlights : Leishi pigments #78 & #56 and Maybelline Eye studio color explosion in Amethyst ablaze (light pinkish purple shade)

Eyeliner : 1) Elf liquid eyeliner in black 2) ELF studio kohl eyeliner 3) Mac eye kohl in smolder

Mascara : Maybelline one by one mascara

False lashes: Daiso (Sorry I forgot the brand and the name :/)

Eyeliner : 1) Elf liquid eyeliner in black 2) ELF studio kohl eyeliner 3) Mac eye kohl in smolder

Mascara : Maybelline one by one mascara

False lashes: Daiso (Sorry I forgot the brand and the name :/)

Small ELF haul of the newest products fall 2012

 Elf has been on a roll lately! Since fall is already here, they have been coming out with awesome products like the jumbo eye shadow pencils, jumbo lip pencils and an upcoming gel eye shadow which I find really interesting.  If you haven't noticed by now, I am a really big ELF cosmetics fan! It just feeds my makeup cravings and I'm completely satisfied.  I love elf for that they are super cheap and the quality for what you pay is amazing. My love :)

 ELF came out with a new line of lashes called the Studio Lash collection.  They have four different styles to choose from: Everyday, natural, dramatic and flirty (Which i got). Each of these collections are $4 which isn't that bad for two pairs of lashes and a pair of decent travel friendly tweezers.

 Natural

Everyday

 Dramatic

Flirty

Each of the collections comes with two sets of lashes (one pair full band and one pair of half band), a mini set of tweezer and some lash glue.  I already knew myself that the glue would suck and i was right.  My glue was completely leaked in the package and ws stuck! It was annoying, and by the time i got it out of the package and smelled it, UGH.  It smelled exactly like super glue and the sticking power was like super glue O_O.  Are they sure they didn't give me super glue?  That is not going ANYWHERE near my eyes!

 Everytime i order, i'd always get the same lip gloss but i don't mind since its free and the color irs neutral :). All you have to do is to refer three of your friends and you will get a free gift.  This year its a hypershine lip gloss in the shade Flirt. :/ I have about seven of these now LOL.

I was also going through a few things I was interested to try but were kind of old and i never really got around buying it since i wasn't THAT interested in it, but i just bit the bullet :). Review will come but i don't know which ones to review first! So much stuff! I can't wait to try the mascara primer, lip balm in peach and the lock & seal.  AHH~ Everything is $3 except the lip gloss which was a free gift.

 

 These three are the latesty and the newest brushes they added to their collection.  The first two from the left actually is the newest but i wanted another small stipple brush because its amazing! It has the duo fiber so you can get that airbrush effect but because this one has short white bristles, you get full control of where you want to place your product.  First first one from the left is a pointed foundation brush which is basically like using your finger but in a brush form. The middle one called the small tapered brush which i was hoping that it was more of an egg shape brush like what it looks like on the website but it is more of a smaller version of the complexion brush which is nice for highlighting, contouring and applying blush. Can't wait to use these brushes! :D. $3 each

 ELF also updated their complexion powder collection and added two new shades: warm and shimmer.  I got the warm but at that time, they didn't come out with the shimmer one. I don't know about this one since the shimmers are actually quite big. I'm going to have to see about this one.  $3 each

I have never used an actually make up remover so i thought i might try this one out.  I know that this has been in their line for a while and a lot of people love this stuff. I normally use baby wipes from Huggies and I find it works pretty good but I also use my Clarisonic pro with it too so I don't find that i really need a make up remover but this will be nice for on the go when i can't really wash my face when i'm out.  This is $3 for 20 sheets.  I hope it works.

If you guys want any reviews, remember to comment and it will be on my priority list :).