Tuesday, May 10, 2011

ELF HAUL AND REVIEW

Hey everyone, so I've been M.I.A. for quite some time now and I apologize for that but I've been busy with my study and recently I did a haul from ELF Cosmetics. For those of you who don't know ELF Cosmetics, it stands for Eyes Lips and Face and let me tell you guys, I've been more than impress with this brand plus their products retails at such amazing prices. They have 3 different range of products which includes the Professional range which only cost £1.50 for each item, their Studio range (whose brushes are AWESOME) which only cost £3.50 per item and their mineral range which is about £3 each, if I'm not mistaken, there are some products which cost around 6 pounds or even slightly more for special sets. But all in all, their products are amazing, though there are some hits and misses but for the price, you can't really complain now can you? ELF Cosmetics UK has such great customer service and delivery is amazingly quick and prompt! I'm really happy and impressed! Now, let's get on with the haul:


(L-R: Lip Defining Brush, Studio Small Angled Brush, Studio Powder Brush, Blending Eye Brush)

Lip Defining Brush: This is an ok item for £1.50, it does its job and its quite small as you can see in the picture so it fits nicely in my make up bag. The bristles are soft, not scratchy but not the most soft bristles of all. Definitely worth the £1.50. (I got all these items during an offer period of 25% discount therefoe products that are £1.50 are £1.13, £3.00 products  are £2.23 and £3.50 items are £2.63  after discount)

Studio Small Angled Brush: Amazing! Its dense, super thin (which is good for lining the eyes or doing the brows) and it looks exp for £3.50.

Studio Powder Brush: AMAZING TOO! This brush is dense and its just basically a flat top kabuki on a stick which is great for buffing in powder and it gives a flawless full coverage when used for applying foundation! I love this sooo much that this is a back-up for the one I already have. Get this if you could only purchase one thing, you will not be disappointed! This was £3.50.

Professional Blending Eye Brush: This is actually an ok item, not scratchy, quite full and blends well, but I think the one i got was a faulty one because it just kept shedding like hell! I used it on my eye for blending in shadows and the next thing I know, my eyes were left with tons of bristles! It was crazy! Its a good brush, maybe mine is just faulty. Will definitely give this another try. This was £1.50.



(L-R: Natural Radiance Blush in Coy and Natural Radiance Blush in Innocence)


(L-R: Natural Radiance Blush in Coy and Natural Radiance Blush in Innocence)

Natural Radiance Blush in Coy: This is a purplish, plummy pink blush with gold shimmer, not glitters. It pretty yet subtle as you can see in the picture. The blushes are quite chalky but it feels silky at the same time. The packaging it comes in is quite small and it slides up unlike usual blushes compact making it very difficult to open it. This was £1.50.

Natural Radiance Blush in Innocence: This is a baby peachy pink shade, very milky tone. Its quite matte on and it has the tendency to look ashy so for darker skin tone ladies, this is not for you. Like Coy, it is quite chalky but silky nonetheless but I realize that this shade gives the face a very radiant look just like its name. I don't know why, but it looks nice on. I'm an NW25 for reference for MAC. This was also £1.50.


(Mineral Eye Shadow Primer)

Mineral Eye Shadow Primer: This is the mineral eye shadow primer in the shade Sheer. It only comes in one shade as far as I know and let me tell you this stuff is amazing! It is definitely on par with Urban Decay primer potion, and I'm not even joking, I tried this yesterday, this stuff's amazing, no creasing in the eye after 8 hours, my shadow still looks as good as new. I tried on eye with the U.D. Primer Potion and the other eye with this mineral primer and it is the same! How amazing is that for £3?



(L-R: Studio Conditioning Lip Balm SPF 15 in Nice and Natural and Mellow Melon)


(L-R: Studio Conditioning Lip Balm SPF 15 in Nice and Natural and Mellow Melon)

Studio Conditioning Lip Balm SPF 15 in Nice and Natural: This lip balm is gorgeous! Is a pinky-beige nude shade, no shimmer to it whatsoever, super creamy and pigmented even though its a lip balm, coverage is semi-opaque. On the lips, it doesn't give a 'dead or ill' look, just a very natural nude shade. It has a vanilla-ish scent to it. This is definitely a good buy for £3.50.

Studio Conditioning Lip Balm SPF 15 in Mellow Melon: This is a coral pink shade, on my lips it looks more coral than pink. There are 6 colours in total to choose from, but I chose these two to try out and it is amazing. Im not too sure about how conditioning they are, but they seem to be getting along well with my chapped lips, I have really terrible dry lips but these seem to be conditioning enough for it. With the SPF 15, it's a plus especially now that Summer's coming up! This was £3.50.


Just for reference of some of the lip products that I have which looks somewhat similar but not quite.
(L-R: Studio Conditioning Lip Balm SPF 15 in Nice and Natural, MAC Viva Glam Gaga 2 Lipglass, ELF Mineral Lipgloss in Bare)



(Mineral Eye Shadow in Socialite)

Mineral Eye Shadow in Socialite: This is a very unique shade, in the pot, it looks like its nothing special and bland, not even attractive, but when swatched, as you can see, it's very high shine and it very unique. It looks like a taupe but it has grey tones and purple tones to it with a silver sheen. It is definitely very pretty and on the eyes, it gives a very sultry smokey look. I have another one in Royal which I purchase last time and its a deep purple, they look somewhat similar, but this is less purple and more taupe with the same gorgeous sheen to it. The swatch is a dry swatch with no primer on, so it's definitely pigmented and smooth! This was £3.

Any comments or if you would like a more in-depth review, please do not hesitate to comment below. Thank you for reading =) 


XOXO,
Alvina

12 comments:

Sofia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sofia said...

Hi Alviana,

Nice haul. :-)
The swatch of the mineral eyeshadow was kind of wet? It's so shiny!
Keep the good work!

Kiss*


http://thingsthatmakemebeautiful.blogspot.com/

Alvina said...

Hi Sofia :) thank you. Yes the mineral eye shadow is really really amazing, I did not even swatch it wet and I definitely did not dip my finger into the pot, I just swipe my finger once in the cap and that was the swatch I got. Amazing product especially for the price :)

Georgina said...

Hi!

Great blog, I love the photos you have used! ELF is really addictive, and the brushes are amazing- I also got the blending eye brush and it malted a little, but nothing like you described, so you must've got a faulty one.

I must recommend the mineral eye brightener, it's absolutely AMAZING and makes the eyes look so much...well, brighter! The mineral concealer is also fantastic.

I got some ELF products in the mail today myself :D I got the manicure nail varnish set (in nude, not pink) the mineral concealer and a mineral eyeshadow- in the shade of 'smouldering'. Really great stuff. Thanks for your blog!

P.S. I love your nail varnish lol!

Alvina said...

Thank you for visiting :) and thanks for the recommendation, will definitely purchase those next :) my nail varnish is actualy from ELF as well, it's the Smokey Brown one :)

Unknown said...

This is a great review! I'll be reviewing my haul soon! Do you have a Twitter would love to follow for updates @TheOPIJunkie

Anonymous said...

Those conditioning lip balms look massive lol

Check out my blog: http://hairandbeautylicious.blogspot.com/

Alvina said...

The OPI Junkie : thank you :) yes I have twitter @QQueen9

Hair and Beautylicious: Yes they are.. But excess packaging mainly :)

Unknown said...

Hi Alvina, thanks for that haul - actually I was wondering whether i should get the mineral loose eyeshadows because of the pigment strength. Hate the eyeshadows which don't give out a true colour - ELF have some bad eyeshadows in this sense (the two 35 clour paletts for example). So you recommend the mineral shadows for professional make up? Thanks Pat, MUA Malta x

Anonymous said...

LoL Yes the packaging is what makes it 20 times bigger lol.

Check out my blog: http://hairandbeautylicious.blogspot.com/

Shimmer and Fizz said...

thanks for the tips. i LOVE ELF.... my favorite product is the pink lemonade blush stick... and candlelight lipgloss... will have to try the eyelid primer on my next order. also love the golden mineral eyeshadow. love to hear from other ELF fans...

Alvina said...

Hi Patricia: Yes I'd definitely recommend the Mineral e/s from ELF. Its pigmented and smooth, but because it's loose pigment, it may have drop outs, if you dont mind that then it's great, because i really dont mind that and I find that it's an amazing product especially for the price =)

Thank you to everyone for visiting and leaving your comments =) definitely appreciate it. =)