ELF Haul

Watch the video here!

When I got the email saying ELF was having a 50% off everything sale, of course I had to check it out.  And once I checked it out, I couldn't just abandon my shopping cart and all of those good deals.  Since on ELF's website, most of the time it's either "free shipping" or a percentage off, you really have to do the math to see which is the better deal.  Most of the time, I find the free shipping wins over 30-33% off, with the small amounts I tend to purchase at one time.  However, with 50% off, that was definitely a better deal than "free shipping."  I just purchased some stuff I had been wanting to try for awhile now, but didn't really feel the need to hurry up and get.  So here's what I picked up! Enjoy & don't forget to check back for better reviews in the future. 

I heard this was a dupe for NARS Albatross, and I'm definitely not running out to spend that kind of money on a highlighter, so I decided to give this one a go.  This is a great highlighter and I even love it in the inner corner.  It's a great summertime golden glow.

I use a darker powder to fill in my brows as fall and winter approach, so this lighter colored brow gel really helps bring my brows back down a shade lighter and also adds dimension with the two colored products.  This is also a good product to use if your brow products are running a little reddish for your liking, you can use this on top to cancel that out.  This stuff is also really excellent at controlling my brows, the gel really does its job and keeps them in place.  

I also am a huge fan of the "treat" side.  It's supposed to help sparse areas of your brows grow in better, and I truly truly think it's working. I should have taken before and afters!  I've been trying all summer to grow my brows a little thicker and was having horrible luck at that, they were just doing crazy things and I couldn't control them.  Since I started using this, about every other day or so, my brows are looking sooo much better.  I really don't think it's a coincidence, you should definitely give it a try if you have this sort of issue with your brows. 

I really love this blush & bronzer.  The bronzer is so pigmented and dark, with my light skin, I really have to be careful with it.  The light pink/peach blush is great too.  They give a nice bronzy glow to the face when used together. The shimmer looks overpowering in the pan, but it doesn't transfer so harshly onto the face.

I was not impressed by this shadow.  The color reminds me of ash with a tiny bit of purple in it.  Using it dry, it totally sucks, honestly.  Using it wet is alright.  The shaker cap allows tons of product to come out, it isn't too messy though.

I wasn't super impressed by this shadow.  1) The shaker cap hardly lets any shadow out, unlike the shaker on the matte eyeshadow, where tons come out.  2) It looks bright and nice when applied wet or on a good base, but it was very disappointing applied dry.

This cream shadow creases (not crazy bad, but you can just tell) on its own and when used as a base with shadows on top all by itself.  However, with a primer underneath, the creasing is totally fixed.  This was somewhat disappointing but not a huge letdown since it can be fixed.  This color has some really gorgeous sparkle to it that the pictures don't really show, by the way.

The purple has almost a matte finish once it sets and dries, but in the jar, it looks like it has a sheen.

I've tried these as bases without any eyeshadow primer and they do crease about halfway through the day.  It's not super horrible creasing, but if you're using darker shadows, you can definitely tell.  With a primer, they are fine all day.

I said in the video I would be doing a review/comparison between the cream eyeshadows & cream liners, but honestly, they are sooo similar, I don't think that will be necessary.  They both crease without a primer, but last all day with one.  They have the same consistency, I would almost bet they are the same product just with different labels, honestly. 

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Lainamarie91