ELF studio HD blush review and swatches

I just couldn't wait for my package to come in from the mail since i was too excited to get my HD blushes from elf :D.  I mean who can! Their products are awesome and the price is awesome...what more can I say! And plus people are comparing them to Makeup forever HD blushes which run for $30 per bottle, i think these are a steal then!

Elf's description of the HD blushes:

"Rich and creamy HD Blush naturally sculpts and highlights the cheekbones for a soft-focus effect that is great for everyday use. The Vitamin E enriched formula conditions and hydrates the skin for a healthy, radiant glow. Velvety soft, lightweight and highly pigmented color creates a long-lasting result for all day wear. "

Product packaging:

 These all come in a skinny, sleek, thin cardboard box with the corresponding shade highlighting the name of the product. Simple, straightforward, I like it.

The back of the box...read away.

 These come with 0.34 fl. oz. (10 mL)...sorry I know i'm stating the obvious :/.

 To show you guys how small these are,  I have a ruler :D.  These are 7.3 cm in height.

 Compared to a Mac fix+, its like a tiny mini me.  Sho cute!

These HD blushes come in a really handy pump, but even though you can control the pump easily, it still despenses a little too much product since they are crazy pigmented as you will see down below. I believe how the pump works is by the pressure from pressing the top.  This is convient since a straw sticking down the tube doesn't always get all the product, so this is a good thing that they use pressure instead of relaying on stupid straws.

Color Pigmentation/ Payoff:

Just like what I have heard from all of the reviews I have read so far, everyone says that their first impression of the bottle is that they are small, but when they go to apply it on their skin, they understand why it is such a small bottle.  This is because you really need a tip of a tweezers amount to do both your cheeks.  Pumping it a little bit and getting a needle tip amount might be already too much! These are crazy crazy pigmented so you really have to be careful.

Something I would like to note is that these do somewhat stain. When I went to swatch these on my hand and wipe it off, it left a giant stain and my hand now looks like either I'm having a allergic reaction or I'm in an abusive relationship HAHA. Even with MAC make up remover (the pink one which takes off eyeliner easy) can't get rid of the color. So I'm left with this red stain on my own left arm. So word of advice, make sure you either use a primer and/or a foundation before you use these because they WILL STAIN!

A problem that I had with a few of these blushes was that when i went to pump it out, oil came squirting out.  I think either that the blush is splitting, blush has been sitting too long in the factory, or it just wasn't mixed properly to begin with.  Even after shaking it vigorously, it didn't really help.

The studio HD blush collection comes in 5 shades as for now and I did buy all five, its only $3 each so what not! The five shades are headliner, encore, superstar, diva and showstopper.

 

Most of these shades are really out there and I'm a pale asian girl.  I got these already so I'm going to have to make it work somehow.  I thought even if you did get these and you don't like it on your cheeks, you could use these as a lip color too! So Here are swatches on my skin and my lips :).  Enjoy!

Headliner- light pale pink color with fine light pink shimmer (shimmers don't really show unless you take a magnifying glass to look at your cheeks; finish is quite matte). This color is perrrfect for those pale girls out there since it is the most wearable and more safe color since its a pale pink color.

On the lips, this is a gorgeous pale pinky nude color and it works for my NC 20-25 skin! So pretty!

Superstar-  wearable pinky coral color (matte finish with minimal fine shimmers...little to none).  This color is the second color I'd reccomend for pale girls too but this would be quite strong on the cheeks if you don't use this one right.  Be careful!

Even though in the picture it doesn't seem so orangy undertone, in real life this does have that mandarine orange tone.  This color on the lips just screams summer to me :), and it is really wearable and pretty!

Encore- This color is crazy, lets just start off with that.  I don't even know how I'm going to be able to pull this one off, even with a duo fiber brush! That swatch on the right is just a tiny bit and if i have that color on my cheeks, I'd look like a sunburnt santa claus (that is if santa even goes anywhere else other then North Pole LOL. Maybe for vacation he went to haiwaii :), just to treat himself.) This is a relaly cool red tone fuschia color and its completely matte finish.

I've always wanted a crazy fushia lip color and now i have it :D.  So happy since i wouldn't get myself a crazy lipstick because I'm not really a lipstick person, but this i can do.

Diva- Gorgeous hot pink color with a warm red undertone.  This can easily make you look like you got a sunburn if you aren't careful with these.  Completely matte finish like most of these.

Stunning barbie pink color :). Do I look like barbie :D.

Showstopper-

If you look really carefully, this blush does have really really fine purple and blue shimmers but you really can't tell on the skin after being applied.  This color is straight up wine, purple grapes color.  Stunning but I think this would work well with really dark chocolate girls out there.  I myself don't think I can pull this off even with the slightest pin tip sized amount but this would be super cool for photos as a contour!

 This is a perfect color for the fall time since its so vampy on the lips! Gorgeous but I think i still need to build up my confidence to rock a bold lip!

All the swatches side by side.

Texture:


These are really easy to blend but they are really pigmented so I don't recommend you use your fingers to blend these out on the cheeks. These would be best used with a duo fiber brush. Elf's small stipple brush or their regular stipple brush is perfect for the job but any stipple brush will do. Just make sure; PLEASE make sure you have this over your foundation or primer because THESE DO STAIN! I can’t stress that enough~~ The texture of these are somewhat watery but creamy at the same time.

Smell:
These do not have any smell to it which is a good thing: D.

Lasting power:
These have such good lasting power that it stains your cheeks LOL. I'd say that these would last for about 5-7 hours but it really depends on what are you doing during the day, skin type and if you are using primer/ foundation with these.

Price:
These only go for $3 each which is crazy to me since the make up forever (which everyone is saying these are dupes of) goes for $30 each. For the quality, packaging, color pigmentation, these can easily go for way more than $3 so I think these are a steal. Instead of just thinking of these only as a cheek color, I really think these are basically face paint. Super pigmented and you can mix it into your lip glosses and use it as a lip color. I don't know yet about eye shadows yet but I will have to experiment.

Are you interested in these? Have you tried them?

Hope this review is helpful to you. Arm is so irritated from swatching and rubbing LOL but I love blogging too much.

ELF instagram sneak peeks!

Okay Elf is really driving me crazy! I just ordered two days ago another order since I really want their new brushes and the next day, they release their new studio contouring blush and bronzing cream! It looks exactly like the really popular studio blush and contouring powder so i really wanted to try this! UGH... But since elf had their new instagram, they always add sneak peek pictures which I really like but it teases me too much! I WANT THEM!!!

The new studio blush and contouring cream which is now on their website for only $3. What a steal, i love elf :).

They also just came out with their studio daily moisturizing stick.  I have no idea how this would work but I'm interested to try this, but i'll wait until their black friday sale since this one is $6.

The next product is something I'm like a tiger ready to click away! JUMBO EYESHADOW PENCILS! They remind me of the NYX jumbo eyeshadow sticks but these are only $2 each and the colors look great! I hate that elf doesn't give an exact date when they come out :(.  Guess i will be checking their site everyday.

I want the first color, the second, third....screw it, I WANT IT ALL! GIMMEEEE~

So if you guys haven't checked out their facebook (www.facebook.com/#!/elfcosmetics?fref=ts) or their instagram (http://statigr.am/user/officialelfcosmetics) to see their latest and sneak peeks :).  Enjoy!

Latest elf haul featuring New HD blush and baked eyeshadow palette

When I’m bored, i just go on random site to check out their products.  I remembered that elf had these sneak peek pictures just to tease us.  I couldn't wait until they came out, but I was thinking I should just wait until Black Friday to make a big haul.  But in the end, i couldn't wait! I just broke down and bought them! But main reason why i didn't want to get small hauls was because of Canadian shipping.  They make us pay them $18 shipping! Its ridiculous but i didn't know that if the order was less than $20, it would just be the flat $6.95, whooo thank god. I got myself all five of the studio HD blushes, studio baked eye shadow palette, studio full coverage concealer and a repurchase of studio cream eyeliner in black.

 

Like always, I always go on YouTube and check out if there are videos on the products and read tons of reviews. This just makes me more impatient but I already know from a few peoples impressions on these, the bottle is small and sometimes when you squirt the first few pumps, it comes out with tons of oil. 3 out of 5 of them didn't do that but that’s not a big problem. The colors are (from left to right) Diva, Headliner, superstar, encore and showstopper. These colors right now are out of stock but just wait if you really want to buy these. Reviews and swatches will come up soon :). Each of these are surprisingly only $3! People are comparing these to the Make up forever HD blushes for $25! What a difference in price eh?

I got their baked eye shadows from the studio line not too long ago but when i saw that they had a whole palette just for these, i almost died! These come in two colors: California and NYC.  California is the one i got above which is neutral colors and NYC has more dark colors and perfect for Smokey eyes. I wasn't really interested in the NYC one since i don't really do dark looks so i settled for just California. Almost everyone that has seen this palette compares these to the Sephora collection moonshine palettes which runs for $30! These are only $10 ($5 after my 50% coupon :).  I do have to say they are right since they are both dome shape and the shades are quite similar.

 

The last newest product is the maxium coverage concealer from the studio line.  These have the same packaging but these are much shorter.  My concern with these were that the product night not have been filled up to the rim of the tube like the studio tinted moisturizer but i'm happy to say that these are :).  I also was kind of effy since i didn't really like their essentials line concealer or their cream concealers but i absoultely love their under eye concealer and highlight so i hope this is a nice one.

What are you most excited to see reviews on? Have you tried these products?

Bluenotes t shirt and sweater haul

I absolutely love the store Bluenotes. I believe this is a Canada only store but its way better than forever 21 I think since the prices are student friendly and they accept SPC card (Student price card which gives you exclusive discounts).  I recently was in Metrotown mall and the Bluenotes was moved next to Winners temporally since they are having a new location elsewhere, so they were having a $3 t-shirt sale which was AWEEESOME.  I found a few t-shirts I really liked and thought were cute, and its $3!! Hello?!? My boyfriend picked out the rubrics cube t-shirt for me, which I wouldn’t have gotten if it wasn’t for him since the material kind of sucks but for $3, why not.  I also got a few for him but it’s at his place so I can’t exactly show you and I’m pretty sure it’s lost somewhere in his crazy messy room. My most favorite t shirt out of the three is the pluto one.  Its too cute :).  The really werid thing Is that their sizes are really messed up.  I’m a small girl, 5’3, 90 pounds so I was quite surprised when I could fit the large. All the t-shirts came to $2.70 each after my SPC 10% off discount. 

I was looking around in the guy section too since I really like to shop for my boyfriend. I found these super comfy pull over sweaters, super plain and super duper FLUFFY! Omg I was sooo fluffy and I was so pleased with the price since it was only $15! It’s from a brand called Toyko laundry, which reminds me a lot of Superdry clothing. I researched this brand a little but there isn’t much information. I did come across the actual site that sells the mensware line and its actually somewhat of an upscale brand so I’m really surprised that bluenotes Is carrying these products for a really affordable price. Good job Bluenotes :). My boyfriend didn’t want the sweaters since he’s always wearing suits to go to work and basically never have any downtime, so I bought it for myself HAHA. I’ve been going back to school for the past three monthes now and in the morning at 6:30 pm, I really don’t feel like dressing up. I need something easy and warm since Vancouver weather is bipolar. One second it’s super cool, next second it’s bloody hot. Make up your mind weather!!! This is perfect for Vancouver weather since its warm enough for me, but thin enough so that I wouldn’t be dance like a crazy chicken in the afternoon.

Have you went to a Bluenotes? They are really known for their graphic tees, which I really like but I only buy the licenced t shirts since they tend to be better quality.

Which one was your favorite t shirt?

ELF studio baked eyeshadow swatches and review

 ELF's description of the product :
"The silky and blendable 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 :
Compared to the other two baked product recently came out with their studio line, the baked eye shadow packing didn’t impress me at all. These come with a clear bubble top that snaps shut when close. The bottom is a really cheap black plastic that holds the dome shaped eye shadow. I mean you honestly can’t really complain, but I mean compared to a lot of their other product packaging, this one might be the worst in their studio line. And the fact that they still have the really tiny ass round sliver stickers on the back with ant like lettering, they need to fix it. Please elf, I love you but you gonna improve this packaging.\

Color Pigmentation/ Payoff :
Currently the baked eye shadow comes in 6 shades. I have only 5 out of the six since the gray shade doesn’t excite me and I rarely use slivers for my daily looks anyways. The five shades I have is:

*Note: swatches have three swatches; first from the left one dry, second one on primer, third one foiled/ applied wet*

 Enchanted (golden tangerine color with golden sheen); I know it looks like orgasm from Nars but it’s just the camera fooling you guys

 Pixie (baby pink color with a light pink sheen)

 Toasted (warm coffee brown with golden sheen)

 Burnt plum (jewel tone plum purple with sliver sheen); this color is very much like the regular single eyeshadow from the studio line “Raspberry truffle”

Bark (chocolate brown with golden sheen)

All of these do have a natural sheen to them, which I would describe them as a satin finish. Its actually really nice, and all of their baked product has this type of sheen. It gives the face a really nice natural glow. All of these are quite pigmented by themselves, but they do work better with a primer. I don’t really like to use them wet, but you could. Just some advice if you do want to use it wet, pat and don’t drag.

Texture :
Think…a smooth rock in an eye shadow form LOL. Fail description. But it’s the exact same texture as a MAC mineralized product. I do like that it does have somewhat of a silky texture to it but it isn’t hard to pick up product. I’d give this product a pass :).

Smell :
This is an unscented product :D. Yey!

Lasting power:
This has a pretty good staying power for about 4-5 hours before it faints if used by itself, but if you use a primer with this then it will last longer. I’d say for in day at school, so about 6-8 hours before it faints.

Price :
These go for $3 each but you can always get these for $1.50 when they have their studio line 50% coupons which you can find if you go to Google and type in “elf coupon code” or use the website that I always use, retailmenot :D. Also, don’t forget to sign up for ebates since you get 4% off every time you shop there and the site to join is completely free…so why not?

So which ones are your favorite colors?
Are you going to try these out?
Have you seen these around?