I'm a huge fan of ELF cosmetics, I know I have to order it online and it takes longer than forever to get here but most of their products are only 1 dollar and their Studio line is amazing. And usually there's always some promotion coupon thing going on and you actually get the products for a whole lot cheaper. There's always sprees happening on lowyat forums. My only issue with that is the fact that you would think with the US exchange it'll cost RM 3.60, RM 4 at most, but some girls sell at rm8, some as high as rm10, of course there's shipping cost and taxes and what, but I'm guessing they turn a pretty high profit, I don't blame them everyone has to make a dime or two.
I admit not all ELF products are perfection but the products I have are actually pretty good, I do realize that I do not have a lot of their $1 products. I order mainly from their Studio line because its amazing and I don't mind spending 10 or 15 bucks on product if its worth it. I'll list them down and give a short ELF review of everything from not so faves to super loves.
Mineral Blush - Rose and Candid coral
I bought two of the mineral blushes, one in candid coral and the other in rose. Let me start off with the positive, online they cost $5, I got both of them during a 50% off their Mineral line for only 15rm a piece, so yay. Both have a great color payoff. Candid coral looks stunning and glow-like on my face, it looks so natural and rose looks scary dark, but is quite pretty blush color that is pigmented but high quality. I really really wanted to use this as my everyday blushes because I'm becoming a huge fan of mineral products. Unfortunately, I can't wear this at all without my face feeling a bit itchy and breaking out. I just put on candid coral to try on and it looks great, but I'm already feeling the rash. I think my skin doesn't like a certain ingredient in it called Bismuth oxychloride. I would totally still recommend the product if you don't have issues with that ingredient, sadly I do, I had to wash the product off before finishing this sentence. Candid coral will look great on most skin tones.
Duo eyeshadow cream (olive)
This is such a strange product. But I actually like it, this is one of my first cream shadows, and I'm guessing anything creamy would crease on eyes and this does crease if used improperly. I got this for free when buying something else and I was a bit iffy about. Olive is a lime green and dark brown duo, I think both colors are fantastic. Super pigmented and great for green eyeshadow days. There's a certain trick in using this and its not using it alone, its more of a base color. So what I do is apply a very thin layer from my eyelashes to just above my crease and then I put on my normal shadows and they really bring out the color and adhere quite well, the plus side, no crease! If it does crease it means you're applying too much, I don't even bother putting eyeshadow primer on. I was doing a test a couple weeks back. I put primer on one eye and this on the other and guess what, this actually lasted longer in terms of vibrancy. I would definitely purchase more of these
ELF Studio Eye transformer
I did not know what the hell this was. All the colors were super light, think of brow highlighting colors, they didn't seem pigmented at all, barely showed up on my tan'ish skin. Then I figured out the best way to use it. I took a random black kajal eyeliner and lined my eyes, slightly thick and then I smudged it out a bit and I took one the colors from the eye transformer and holy moly, I got a gorgeous eyeshadow color. It creates the most gorgeous metallic shades in different colors. My favorite has to be the green, it turns like gorgeous smokey green. The blue turns into a vibrant blue/purple. The gold/yellow turns sparkly brown and the pink one turns purpley violet. I'll try to put up a picture. If this does that with just black, imagine what it can do with other colors :) I really like pairing this with ELF cream eyeliner in black, the staying power is amazing.
Studio Warm Bronzer
I'm no where near being a bronzer fanatic, or even a user of bronzer. I have the type of skin tone that tans so easily its annoying. Like if I wore sunglasses for a day there would be a significant color difference once I take off the glasses(as in you can see an obvious non-tan line at the bride of my nose), I have very uneven skin tone because I tan so easily. So I avoid the sun as much as I can and since I can do the bronzer "brown" look so easily, I tend to avoid it. But I saw this at ELF and it looked interesting.
I actually like this, I'm still playing around with it, I don't wear this as an all over color but more like a blush and its look pretty alright. It has quite a bit of shimmer and there's four colors. I think I might want to purchase the golden one because it looks lighter and it looks like it could be a good highlighter.
Studio 'C' brush
I read all the raves about this brush and I must say, its meh. I still use it of course, but only for packing in color, its super dense and soft, it looks very stylish. But its much too big for my tiny Asian eyes, I can't really blend with it because its super dense. I prefer my elianto eyeshadow brush, its smaller and more flexible.
HD powder
I'm a bit on the fence with this product. See it creates a soft focus, you know how when you take pictures and the blurry pictures kind of makes your face smooth and flawless by "blurring" your flaws, yeah this is what the HD powder does. Its white, like snow white white, but once I put it on, its completely translucent, but I have to make sure I apply well and don't miss any spots, having random powdery white substance on my face doesn't seem like the great idea.
I like this product because when I put it on, it feels so smooth, like my face literally feels like silk. Here's my issue with it, I have combination skin, that means I'm tortured by being super dry and super oily at the same time, this powder is the ultimate mattifier...as in all your oily bits are sucked up. No more gleaming forehead and nose, this would be perfect since I do get a slick like forehead, but on the areas where I'm dry, this makes me shed, flakes of dry skin start peeling off. Not a pretty sight at all, think face dandruff. So if I was using this product, I have to make sure that my face is clean and super moisturized or I only put it on certain parts of my face. There's a whole lot of product too, its 3.5 oz, definitely recommend if you have super oily skin.
Studio contour brush and bronzer
When I first opened the package, I thought the blush was too pink, but it's like a warm neutral soft pink. I don't really use to bronzer that much, its very rare, but I do use it as a contour sometimes. The blush is gorgeous, this is probably my most used ELF makeup product, this is the one blush that I always reach for, even though its not my most expensive blush. Its quite pigmented, but still buildable and overall great color. The texture is not as great as some blushes, its not creamy or silky feeling. If you've checked out their other studio blushes, they have a smoother consistency and waaaay less chunkier glitter. I have candid coral and its really pretty, it leaves a nice glow, instead of random glitter.
I would still use this blush, since it gives me a gorgeous pink that doesn't make me look chalky at all. Probably the greatest thing, it doesn't break me out or oxidizes. I would totally recommend this. It looks very expensive, my friend had the NARS duo and it looks almost exactly alike.
Mineral eye primer
I love this stuff, okay I've never used eye primer before, and I use to barely ever wear eyeshadow because I can't stand the crease factor. But this is magic in a little tube. My eyeshadows stays for sooooooo long, I was so freaking amazed. I never go without this when wearing eyeshadows now. I even tested it out, with one eye having the primer and the other not, and guess what the one without, creased within an hour and the primer side lived for 6 or 7 hours. I'm probably not going to buy expensive brands like Urban Decay Primer Potion or Too faced shadow insurance, they're over RM70, dude that is expensive. So I'll stick with my Elf mineral eyeshadow primer, works great and totally worth the RM10.
Studio Powder brush
I love this brush, I use it for pretty much everything (except my eyes and lips obviously). Its great for mineral foundation, liquid foundation, blush, highlighter, bronzer and wait for it....powder. I love buffing my mineral foundation with this and my liquid foundation, especially if I wet the brush first, it creates the most amazing flawless finish.
I have 2 of these and they are awesome, if you had to get only one thing from ELF, I would totally recommend this. Its soft, its super dense, it looks sophisticated and its synthetic(no animals). I have had absolutely no issues with it shedding, the only problem I had with it was the initial smell, its very chemical, but that washes out quickly, so no worries.
Mineral Booster
This is probably my favorite favorite ELF product.
This stuff is amazing. I actually bought the sample size and tried it for a few weeks and went ahead and bought the larger size. It doesn't make me darker or lighter, it does strangely, even though it suppose to be translucent, it evens out my skin tone. I use this everyday. Sometimes all I need is a lil concealer, blush and this stuff and my makeup is done. It works on top of mineral foundation and liquid foundation and even no foundation. I sometimes use this to set my mineral foundation, but mostly its the last thing to go on, it totally smooths everything out. It matte but it gives me that radient glow thing. I haven't broken out from this at all, it does not oxidize on me, all of EDM products oxidize on me. I carry this in my purse in case I need a touch up, maybe towards the end of the day, I might touch up, but that's around the time I wash off my make up anyways. I really really like this product and I see it lasting a long time for me. I also love the fact that it doesn't dry out my skin, I prefer oily skin over dry skin, oily skin is a quick fix, dry skin on the other hand, i have no idea how to handle. ELF HD powder tends to dry out my skin, but this doesn't.
It light weight, feels silky but not as smooth as the HD powder, my pores literally smooth out. Its such a good value for money.
To be continued....
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