Elf Hits and Misses

Elf as many of you know is a drugstore makeup brand that is, for the most part, extremely affordable. While there are some products that unfortunately do not work well, there are also some that are good enough to rival more expensive products. Most of their products range from $1, $3, $5 and a few things have a slightly different price. One of my favourite things about this brand is that it allows you to test out numerous products for the same price as one good eyeshadow palette from sephora. Even if one of the products you tried out you end up hating, you can rest easy knowing you probably only spent a couple dollars on it. 

To keep this post short and to the point, I will be sharing with you two products that I like and two products that I don’t like from elf. Along with the products I will also be posting the prices of each of them and links to the website where you can purchase them!

Hits:

1. Elf Expert Liquid Liner in Jet black $2

Words can not describe how glad I am that I chose to purchase this liquid eyeliner. At first I was skeptical due to the applicator of the product. Instead of having a felt tip like the liquid eyeliners I have used in the past, it has an applicator that resembles a very thin nail polish brush. The eyeliner is super black and pigmented and doesn’t fade as you wear it. It is also extremely smug proof. After wearing the eyeliner all day it was still completely intact. To take it one step further, at the end of the day I even took my finger to the line and smudged it out, and was happy to find it did not smudge. I would definitely repurchase this product and recommend it to anybody who is looking for an affordable option for a liquid liner. I would give this product a 5/5.

2.  Elf Contouring Blush and Bronzer duo in St. Lucia $4

The quality of product you receive from this duo really makes it a fantastic deal for the amount of money you are spending. The blush is a really nice pink colour with a touch of shimmer. A high end product that this reminds me of is the Nars Orgasm blush which retails for $38 Canadian and $30 US.  The bronzer does also have a slight shimmer to it as well, however it s not overpowering at all! When a person is looking to contour or bronze up their face, it is pretty common to look for products without any shimmer in them. However, the bronzer in this product actually works very well and the sparkles are pretty much unnoticable on the skin. The duo itself is a dupe for the Nars Orgasm/Laguna blush and bronzer duo which retains for $54 Canadian and $42 US. I would repurchase this product and recommend it to anyone who loves the Nars products but does not love the price tag or anyone who has been looking for a cheap blush and bronzer option. I would give this product a 4/5.

Misses:

1. Elf Flawless Finish Foundation SPF 15 $6

I just wanted to start off this review by stating while overall this foundation was a miss for me, there were some positive aspects about it. The coverage of this foundation I would say is light and can be built up quite easily to a medium coverage. For a cheap foundation, the colours matched fairly well and blended out quite nicely. However, the cons about this product slightly outweighed the pros for me personally. First of all, I thought this product went on a little patchy in areas that might be more dry on the face. This could be fixed by applying more moisturizer than normal in those areas, however it was still a pain. Second of all, I found that when I wore this foundation for a few days in a row, my skin would tend to breakout a little. Another thing that I did not like about this product was, the fact that it simply was not long wearing at all. Within the next couple hours, when I looked in the mirror, the foundation had worn off and looked extremely patchy. I tried wearing more powder and even changing up the powder I was using but it didn’t make much of a difference. I also made sure I used a primer beforehand and also a setting spray when I was completely done my makeup. I would no repurchase this product, and would give it a 2/5.

1. Elf Concealer (stick concealer) $3

When I purchased this concealer, I was very excited to try it out and ended up being very disappointed. For starters, the colour was really upsetting and not true to how it looked online at all. The colour I ordered it in was ivory. When I actually applied it onto my skin, it came across very orange and did not blend out well at all. Second of all, the consistency of the product was terribly drying on the skin. It clung very easily to the dry patches on the skin and even the lightest layer looked extremely cakey. It was very hard to apply and even harder to blend out. Despite the good price tag, I would not repurchase this product and would give it a 1/5. 

Although not every product in the Elf line is perfect, it is still overall a great brand with numerous hidden gems within the line and man products that are definitely a steal for the low price! Although it is definitely very hit or miss, I definitely encourage any makeup lover or anyone just getting into makeup now to do some experimenting with the brand. Although there is a few products I have tried from Elf that I consider to be misses, I have also found many products that I love and I will definitely continue purchasing from the brand!

All pictures are from the Elf cosmetics website :)