Long time, no see! I’ve been wanting to try out Elf Cosmetics for the longest time and the Black Friday sale was the perfect time to dive in! Elf is widely regarded across the beauty community as having some of the best quality, affordable makeup products on the market. So I thought I’d find out for myself what all the fuss was really about!

Products:
– Putty eye primer in Rose
– Lip plumping gloss in Pink Sugar
– Liquid glitter eyeshadow in 24k Gold
– Instant lift brow pencil in Neutral Brown
– Hydrating camo concealer in Fair Warm
– Bitesize eyeshadows in Cream & Sugar and Pumpkin Pie
Putty Eye Primer

For a total eyeshadow lover, it’s strange that I’ve never really used an eyeshadow primer before. I’ve only ever used Urban Decay Primer Potion and hated it for how runny it was. The putty primer is a pretty dry formula (not as emollient as a colour corrector in a pot) so you won’t pick up that much product with your finger or a brush. As there are multiple shades, you should be able find a shade that matches quite well – I went for Rose which I thought could be a little pink but it actually does a good job of prepping the eye with a pretty neutral base. The product itself is not mega pigmented, so it blends in well with your foundation and doesn’t appear too stark the way some primers do. You will have to go in a few times with your brush/finger to get enough product on your eye (unless you do a very light prime) but that wasn’t an issue for me.
Lip Plumping Gloss

Personally, I’m not one for plumping lip glosses. I don’t enjoy the tingling feeling and I don’t think it actually does anything to noticeably plump the lips. I really like glosses with very little actual colour pigment but that have shimmer, so that’s what drew me to this. The shade Pink Sugar shifts from white to pink reflect and is a really nice accent for a nude lip. There is definitely a noticeable tingle, which is manageable, but not all that pleasant. If you have sensitive lips or are prone to any dryness around your lips/broken skin in winter, you might like to avoid this one.
Liquid Glitter Eyeshadow

I’ve wanted to try a liquid shadow for the longest time and have never bitten the bullet with more expensive brands. This more affordable version was my chance! I got the shade 24K Gold which is very much a bright yellow gold, which isn’t my fave kind of gold. In the pictures on the website it looked a bit more muted and a more neutral gold (old gold). On deep skin tones, I bet it would look absolutely amazing, but on my pale skin it’s a bit much. I’ve found a way to work with it where I dab a small amount onto the back of my hand and then use my finger to lightly dab it where I want it. It’s much less pigmented but it’s much more wearable. It’s a lot more like a topper shade but I think I would prefer to use it this way. I often find that a lovely champagne shade is missing in ranges like this. Gold can sometimes be a bit too bold for pale skin like mine, but champagne is always a winner for me!
Instant Lift Brow Pencil
I was interested to try this to see if it was a dupe for the NYX Micro Brow Pencil – especially as this retails for Β£3 rather than the Β£9 that the NYX product is. Because I got this in the sale, it was even less at Β£1.80(!?). The spoolie on the end is large like the one on the ABH Brow Definer, rather than nice and small like the NYX one. It’s not the end of the world but I find the smaller ones give you more precision when it comes to shaping the brows. I got the shade neutral brown which was a really good match for my hair colour. The pencil itself was quite thick (around double the thickness of the NYX one) which means I can’t really make such fine strokes, but it’s still very usable. Because of the thicker pencil, this probably wouldn’t become my go-to brow pencil but would definitely come back to this every now and again.

Hydrating Camo Concealer
I love a budget concealer and I think this one could knock my Collection Lasting Perfection concealer off the top spot! This concealer comes in at Β£5 but I got it in the sale for Β£3 (!!!). There are a two different versions of the Camo Concealer – the hydrating and the 16 hour matte finish version. As I have dry skin, I went for the hydrating one. I thought I might struggle with the shade match online but I’m really happy with it actually! I went for Fair Warm which is fair with yellow undertones. The doe foot applicator is really nice and fat, especially at the tip where the product congregates. As you can see from the picture above, you get quite a lot of product on the applicator and will cover pretty much your entire face in one application! The formula itself is easy to blend and leaves a lovely fresh look to the skin. I didn’t notice any creasing under my eye area but I did set it instantly with a loose powder. I think I might actually prefer this to my holy grail Collection Lasting Perfection concealer as it’s more hydrating and leaves me looking a bit dewier, whereas the Lasting Perfection has become much more matte (not sure if there has been a reformulation or my skin has changed). DO NOT SLEEP ON DRUGSTORE CONCEALERS. Save yourself mega money and forget the high end ones!
Bitesize Eyeshadows

When they say ‘bitesize’, they really mean it. These are the size of the palm of my hand… they’re tiny! Cream & Sugar features a very light beige and a deep brown matte, with a champagne and gold shimmer. Pumpkin Pie has a mid-tone warm brown along with a more neutral/cool toned brown matte, along with copper and bronze-brown shimmers. When swatched, the shimmers are really very impressive, while the mattes appear okay but nothing special. However, when applied with a brush on the eyes, the mattes work beautifully. I was really pleasantly surprised how well these blend and build. There was no patchiness for me, the blend was really easy and when used with the putty eye primer, they lasted all day. These are Β£3 (!?!?) but I picked them up in the sale for Β£1.50. How on earth do they make good shadows for so little!? I’ve heard that some of these quads are better than others, but for Β£3 I’d definitely be willing to try out more! I haven’t stopped using these since I picked them up.
For me, the price of these products for the quality you’re getting is unbeatable – I got this entire order for Β£18. I may have got all of this on sale, but the original price is still an absolute steal! I would definitely repurchase the hydrating camo concealer and want to try more shades of the bitesize shadows. I had really wanted to try out the putty blush but it was sold out in the shade I had been eyeing up, so I’ll be coming back to that one when I next place an order. If you have been wanting to try Elf for a while, this is the sign you’ve been looking for – try them.
After taking quite a bit of time away from this blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed my first post back!
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