Beauty Spot: e.l.f cosmetics review

So my workmates and I have been on a bit of a healthy snack buying rampage recently. Natural, organic, raw: you name it; we’ve been devouring it at our desks. Honestly, before our most recent office fad, I never knew that coconut chips existed, let alone that they are one of the best tasting things on the planet!

Anyway, as delicious as organic snacks are, they are notoriously expensive in New Zealand so, on the recommendation of one of my colleagues, I set up an account on the US website iHerb.com to have a look at the delicious groceries that they had to offer. That’s when I noticed something exciting: iHerb have a makeup page devoted purely to organic and/or cruelty-free cosmetics and that they were major stockists of the inexpensive and well-regarded brand,  e.l.f Cosmetics.

Now, you can purchase e.l.f from Kmart in NZ, but it tends to be marked up considerably, so I saw this as a good opportunity to trial some products I was curious about.

Subsequently, when I received my parcel full of tasty treats from iHerb, I just so happened to find some new makeup products nestled in between the coconut chips and raw food bars. Hmmm, I wonder how they got there?!

Naturally, I had to try everything out all at once…

e.l.f Cosmetics HD Blush in Headliner

This is the first blush I’ve bought that is pumped out of a dispenser as usually I go for a solid, cream-based blush, although I do have a small sample-sized Posie Tint from Benefit that I quite fancy. Having seen the colour of Headliner (a rather natural looking pink shade, which I thought would be complimentary to my skin tone), I thought I’d take a gamble. After all, it only cost me $3 USD, so it wasn’t as though I was breaking the bank if I made a bad investment.

When I opened the packaging, I was surprised: the pictures on the internet made the container look sizable, but it was only a teeny, tiny bottle. As it turned out though, the size of this bottle didn’t matter, as a little of this product goes a long, long way….

If I had one piece of advice about using HD Blush, it would be this: Apply this product with caution as the pigmentation is ridiculous! I used the tiniest amount and, upon application, my blush looked borderline garish. I managed to tone down the pink before leaving the house with a fine coat of finishing powder but even then I was a bit worried that I looked a bit like a Cabbage Patch Doll.

I quite like the colour and I was impressed with the fact that, despite the awful weather, the HD Blush wore really well throughout the course of the day (unsurprising, perhaps, considering how much of it I was wearing!).

e.l.f Lip Lock Pencil in Clear

As someone who does tend to have a bit of a problem with their bright lipsticks ‘bleeding’ or feathering out from my lip line, I thought that a product that promised the lock my lip colour in place for the day would be just the ticket for solving one of my most loathed makeup problems.

The instructions were pretty simple: using the clear pencil, just trace a line around your lip line. Apply your lipstick over the top and  marvel as the pencil creates a barrier between your lipstick and the rest of your face!

To test this theory, I decided to use a relatively new lipstick in my makeup artillery: a Rimmel Kate Moss Lasting Lipstick in Shade 05. I’m undecided as to whether this extreme shade of pink suits me, so your feedback is most welcome.

But I digress. As someone who isn’t a fan of lip pencils, I’m loving this product. True to its word, it held my lipstick in place and even prolonged its wear; as much as I love my Rimmel lipsticks, they’re not known for being especially long-wearing. This lippie application, however, practically clung to my lips all day…all thanks to this nifty pencil.

Impressive stuff!

e.l.f Eye Primer and Liner Seal

I’ve blogged before (multiple times, I think) about how I religiously use eyeshadow primer before I apply my eye makeup. Having tried multiple primers, I think I’m pretty qualified to judge which ones are and aren’t worth investing in and I must admit I’m still undecided on this one.

The first big surprise was that the consistency of the primer is quite yellow and waxy. Despite this, it goes on rather smoothly and I did notice that it kept my eye makeup in place longer than if I hadn’t of used primer at all. Having said this though, I’d much rather fork out the extra dosh and invest in a primer from a high-end brand like Smashbox or Urban Decay.

The liner seal though; oh the liner seal! It’s a clear formula and, although it suggests that you mix this with you eyeshadows to create your own liner, I simply applied this seal over my normal eyeliner and waited to see what happened.

Rather than have my eyeliner crease into my eyelids (as is what inevitably happens after hours of normal wear), this kept my eyeliner in place. Seriously, even though it was windy and practically raining sideways when I left the house, my eye liner did not budge all day. That may actually be a personal best for me in the eye makeup wearing olympics. Amazing.

Oh, and here’s my face wearing all my e.l.f cosmetics (including their phenomenal brow kit that I purchased off beautyjoint several months ago and seriously cannot stop raving about both in print and in person):

Oh look, it’s my (rather pink) face!

 Needless to say, overall I’m really impressed that a range that costs so little can produce cosmetics of such a high quality. Add that to the fact that these products are not tested on animals and I think I’m sold on this budget brand that doesn’t break the bank.

Are you already an e.l.f convert? What e.l.f products do you swear by?

Analiese x