Elf Haul and Review

Hey all!

I ordered quite a few products from Elf the other day, well I had to take advantage of the free delivery over £30!

They came in the post yesterday (Saturday), I only ordered them on Wednesday so impressed with the speedy delivery!

First things first, each item came in it's own individual packaging which says the product name and colour etc, but when you take the items out, the majority do not have the colour name printed on the actual product itself, not a huge issue but annoying when you want to refer back to a product colour / name, most people probably don't keep the cardboard packaging!

NB: All of these products were £1.50 each apart from the mineral make up Warm Starter Kit which was £15 for five products.

Lip products

The first product I tried was the Therapeutic Conditioning Balm in Orange Creme. I really like this product, it smells lovely (if you like the smell of oranges!) and goes on really nicely, it's very moisturising, a really lovely lip balm for such an inexpensive price.

Next up was a huge fail, the Feather Proof Moisturising Lip Liner in Bark. This product made me so mad. I was warming it up on my hand prior to using it on my lips and it broke straight away. I then started to sharpen it (with the sharpener than comes with it) and it broke at least two more times, and then proceeded to break another time when I started to apply it to my lips. Ridiculous! Aside from that it wasn't particularly moisturising and it didn't last very long. Definitely will not re-purchase...

Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Ruby Slipper. This is a nice autumnal colour, applies well, not massively pigmented but good for the price. It smells kind of minty which is quite nice. This has a foam applicator, you twist the bottom of the lipstick and the product comes out of the top. I would describe as a lip gloss not a lipstick.

Hypershine Gloss in Sugar Plum. This smells of chocolate which is fab! Although once you've got it on it kind of tastes a bit perfumey in the mouth which isn't so nice. It's very sheer, but can be built up for more colour. Nice product.

Super Glossy Lip Shine SPF 15 in Mauve Luxe. I haven't worn this on my lips yet but when I swatched them all this was the most pigmented. It's a gorgeous colour too, a kind of deep reddy brown with a gold shimmer. This smells lovely and fruity too.

Plumping Lip Glaze in Ruby Kiss. This is a double ended product, one end is a clear gloss and the other is the colour. It's another one which is fairly sheer but can be built up. It's a nice red with pink shimmer.

Cheeks

Natural Radiance Blusher in Glow. This is a really nice natural blush, it gives a lovely glow (hence the name!) to the face. You do get an awful lot of fallout when swirling your brush around in it though. Tap off the excess!

Eyes

Duo Eye Shadow Cream in Butter Pecan. This is a disappointment too. Nice colours, a pinky bronze and a chocolate brown with a gold shimmer. I've only used the pinky bronze colour but it creased almost straight away even with a primer underneath.

Liquid Eyeshadow in Misty Mauve. This is a pale lilac with some shimmer. It comes with a foam applicator and is supposed to dry like a powder eyeshadow. I'm not particularly impressed with this product, it looks quite cheap on the eye, not very pigmented. However I do have hope for it, I think I just need to experiment with it a bit more. When I swatch it on my hand it looks lovely, so we'll see!

Brightening Eye Colour in Drama. This is a quad with a matte white, sparkly light grey/silver, sparkly dark grey and sparkly black. I've only used the light grey/silver and the matte white so far, they are quite pigmented for the price and the silver is a lovely colour. Great for daytime and can be used with the other colours to do a smokey eye too. I can't comment on the longevity of the product as I've only applied it this morning so we'll see what it looks like by tonight.

Nails

I bought three nail polishes; Mint Cream, a gorgeous pastel pale mint green, Medium Red, a basic dark red, and Clear, which is... clear! I've only used the clear one so far as am giving my nails a bit of a rest from colour for a couple of days, no problems with it so far! The other two colours look gorgeous and I can't wait to try them!

Mineral make up

I bought the Warm Starter Kit as I've heard lots of good things about mineral make up so I wanted to give it a try. This kit contains Warm Foundation, Warm Concealer, Bliss Blush, Bronzing Brush (which is angled) and Total Face Brush. I don't know if this is just the Elf products or mineral make up in general but I'm not convinced. The foundation does give a nice healthy glow to the face but both the foundation and the concealer don't provide nearly enough coverage for me. I could still see blemishes and redness after applying quite a lot! I don't see how they can provide as much coverage as liquid foundation. I want to like them so if anyone with problem skin uses and likes mineral make up please let me know, any tips would be much appreciated! I would use the blusher again, it's a nice pinky colour. On the first use of the brushes they malted an awful lot, I looked down and had a load of brush hairs all over my top. However on the second use of the bronzer brush, which I used to apply my blusher today, it was much better.

So all in all mixed feelings towards Elf so far. The products are really inexpensive but with some of them this is definitely reflected in their quality. However I really like the lip balm, blush and most of the lip glosses.

Hope this was helpful, please leave a comment below!

:D

 

I'm Naked!

Hi All!

I've not blogged in a while because my camera / laptop won't let me upload any photos which is so frustrating! I still can't but I need to blog before I explode (or something...) so I'm going to have a picture-less blog which is pretty rubbish so I'm sorry and hopefully I'll sort the pictures issue out soon!

So as you may have guessed from the title I have got the Urban Decay Naked palette! Wooooop! I got this as a birthday present last week and I was so excited. It's every bit as good as I wanted it to be, and more.

If you don't know, this is an eyeshadow palette containing 12 neutral shades. They are mainly shimmery shadows but there are three matte colours (Virgin, Naked and Buck). They range from a pale nude colour (Virgin) to a gold shimmery colour (Half Baked) to shimmery black (Creep).

These are probably the best eyeshadows I've ever used. They are really highly pigmented so you only need a small amount (I tend to use my fingers to apply the colours, then blend with a blending brush, they are really easy to blend too). The colours are so gorgeous. You can create so many different looks with this palette. A subtle neutral daytime look, a shimmery fun look, a dark smokey eye and more! You also get a mini eyeshadow primer potion and a double ended black (Zero) and brown (Whiskey) eyeliner which are really nice and creamy, and I already have a large size primer potion which I adore, you only need a small amount and it makes your eyeshadow stay perfect all day, no creasing. The packaging of the Naked palette is gorgeous too, deep brown velvet type material with gold writing. if you like neutral shades you need this palette!

I have a few other products which I'm loving at the moment too so I'll try to quickly run through those.

Face products:

L'Oreal Studio Secrets Anti-Dull Skin Primer for medium skin.

This is a fab primer which I use under my foundation whenever I'm going to be wearing make-up all day, so every day for work basically! It a kind of orangey-pink colour which looks a bit scary but as the name of it suggests it's supposed to make your skin look less dull. I really like this product as it's really easy to blend, you don't need a lot and it creates a nice base for foundation and helps keep it looking fab all day.

Estee Lauder Double Wear in Desert Beige

This is my every day foundation at the moment and I love it. I like a full coverage foundation as I don't have the best skin, a lot of redness and I always have some blemishes going on. This gives such good coverage and you only need a small amount. The colour is perfect for my skin too. One word of warning though: this comes out of the bottle really fast so be careful!

NARS Sheer Matte in Santa Fe

This is a foundation I tend to use if I want less coverage or a more natural look. As the name suggests it is a sheer foundation but it still gives an amount of coverage which I'm comfortable with if I have fewer blemishes and am maybe just doing something during the day on a weekend. This is the complete opposite of the Double Wear in terms of getting it out of the bottle, it's a bloomin' pain! I'd recommend keeping it upside down if you can so you're not shaking it for ages trying the get the product out! Also you can get NARS Sheer Glow, I got the Matte version as I have oily skin.

Eyes:
GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Hypnotic Grey and Purple Stain.

These were also birthday presents and I love them. They're really creamy, easy to apply liners. I like to use them on my lower lash line as close to the lashes as possible (not on the water line) from the outer corner to about 3/4 of the way in then smudge, great for an everyday look and really brings out the eyes.

Rimmel Lash Accelerator in Black

Gorgeous mascara, really lengthens and thickens the lashes, really easy to apply and doesn't make the lashes clumpy at all. Fab, inexpensive mascara!

Beauty UK Eyeshadow palette in No4

This is a palette of 10 shadows, it includes, black, two greys, 3 browns, two greens, one cream and one white. It was really inexpensive (about £3 from Superdrug) and I was really impressed with it. I wore some of these shadows with no primer and they lasted really well. It's a great neutral palette which is a small size so great for travelling. This is the first product I've tried by Beauty UK so I'll be interested to try some more! Would definitely recommend for a cheap treat!

Nails:
Famous nail varnish in Nude (20).

This is the first product I've tried by Famous and I really liked it. It's a beigey nude colour with a hint of pink and some gold shimmer, fab for a neutral work look.

Lips:
Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Nude Delight (700)

As you may have noticed I'm really into neutral shades at the moment! This is a great nude colour for me (probably wouldn't work for all skin tones). I'd describe it as a pinky-peach colour, it's quite creamy and nice to apply, and is great to wear with a more dramatic eye look. Also would work with a neutral gloss over the top to make it more shiny as it's quite matte. On a separate note I love the smell of this lipstick, it's so old school. May not be to everyone's taste but I like it!

So that's it guys! Hope you enjoyed and sorry again about the lack of pictures!

Please leave a comment!

xxx