Elf Long Lasting Lustrous Shadow: Love it or Lose it?

I bought the shade toast, which is a warm yellow-gold color. I had hoped to use it on my lids as a center of the lid highlight to bring some shimmer and life to my eyes. But trying to use a brush with this product is impossible to get any color out of the pot, and even with your fingers the product is much more likely to stick to your fingers than it is to stick to anything else. I had absolutely no luck getting this color to give me any pay off on the lids. It reminds me of a poorly formulated version of the Loreal Infallible shadows, which I will likely replace this color with down the road. I will keep trying to see if I can get it to work because the color is beautiful, especially over my favorite eyeshadow Laura Mercier African Violet, which a review is coming soon on so stay tuned for that!

Back to Elf's Toast, its super soft and appears pigmented in the pot as well as on your finger when you go to swatch it, but it doesn't transfer to the lids over other shadow or on bare skin. I had a bit more luck smudging it onto the inner corner of the eye, but it has a ton of fallout and turned me into the glitter fairy for the entire day. I kept seeing little light reflections on my face when the glitter would fall out and it was all over my under eyes by the end of work. I feel like I have a more workable version of this shade in the elf 144 palette with all the rainbow colors in it. And, if I don't I can always pick up an Anistasia Beverly Hills single to match when I pick up Pink Champagne soon.

As creamy and gorgeous as this shadow appears at first, it seems very picky about how it applies and what it is applied over top of. I'll keep trying, but this has been a total flop so far.

Have fun in the sun, and Stay Beautiful!

BNB

Future me here! This is still something I'm struggling to use, but I have since had some luck in the past few months in figuring out how this product works and applies best. You have to pack it on your fingers by pressing kind of hard into the product because it is essentially a powder shadow with a creamy texture. I actually like it more now than I did, but it still turns me into a glitter fallout fairy mess by the end of the day. Probably not going to buy it again, but it's a fun little product when I use it here and there.

Frugal Flop: Beauty Treats Lip Scrub

I snatched this up at Five Below during the end of winter to help cope with dry lips when my Elf Lip Exfoliator was too harsh for me. Its in a squeeze tube, so it's nice for sanitary application and travel. The formula was much softer and gentler than the Elf one, but still worked well enough to get the job done.

It was claimed to be mango scented, but it has a rather soapy smell and taste to it which is unfortunate and somewhat disgusting. On the tube it also proclaims that it is all natural and no animal testing was done, but for the price of the product as well as the fact it was manufactured in Taiwan I am not so sure I believe these claims.  Also, the mango label is a sticker, so it could be very easily mixed up with another scent on accident, which isn't all together terrible, but could explain the smell of the product. Finally, it states in the directions that the product should be removed with a washcloth or washed off the lips, which doesn't speak to the product being all natural in my mind, but it still may be.

I'm about a third of the way done the tube, and will be finishing it up, but I think I will find another scrub to use once this one is done. I still stand by my Elf exfoliator, but it's often to harsh for my always dry and peeling lips. Because of the smell and taste of this product alone it was a complete flop. I'll finish it because it's not horrible, but I don't see myself rushing out to buy it a second time.

Stay Healthy, And Beautiful!

BNB

The Creative Contour

Walking through the drugstore recently I saw a few things I thought would be useful additions to my makeup routine. But among these was a brush labeled "Contour Brush"on the ELF display, and I was curious. It is a small domed brush, stiff but not overly so. I snatched it up and brought it home. After reading the package I discovered that it was for your eyes, though I had bought it thinking it would be the perfect size for contouring and highlighting my nose.

While it works great for it's intended use of contouring your eyes for a natural look, it is also wonderful for contour and highlight on the nose area and applies the color and blends it beautifully into the skin. I ended up also using it to apply my highlight under my eyebrows as well as on my Cupid's bow because of it's small size and ease of blending. It may also work in place of using the edge of my flat contour brush to get the sharp cheek contour I like.

I'm absolutely in love with this brush after playing with it a few times, I love every ELF I have ever purchased and strongly recommend them to anyone who needs affordable and reliable brushes for makeup. I now own two Small Stipple Brushes, the Eyeliner Brush, the Contour Brush, and their Pointed Foundation Brush (which I'll be posting about another day, but am totally in love with as well) and I plan to buy many more of their brushes to add to my collection because of the affordability and the quality of their brushes.