E.L.F Haul & Swatches!

This came a couple of weeks back (although it did take a whole week to get here! I'm blaming the snow ¬_¬). I seized on the free shipping and eye shadow palette offer ELF ran to order a few items I hadn't got around to trying yet (I could probably open an ELF shop with all the stuff I have from them!).

First off, I really love the secure boxes they send their orders in and how everything is so neatly packed. I've ordered from them at least 6 times and nothing's ever been damaged in the post.

All laid out....

Word is the Makeup Mist & Set is the poor man's MAC Fix +...I haven't tried the MAC version so I'll have to let you know how I get on and whether it extends the wear of my makeup...I'm sceptical. 

Individual lashes are something I've never tried, and I think it could all go horribly wrong so I don't mind experimenting with expensive ones.  The Eye Widener is just a plain white pencil to use on my lower waterline.  At the moment I'm using an ancient stubby Rimmel white kohl pencil so it was due for an upgrade!

I was delighted to receive the free 'neutrals' eye shadow palette rather than the smoky ones as some of the browns looked delicious and I wasn't wrong! There's also a cute mirror in the lid.

And swatched...


I'm not hugely impressed with the quality of the eyeshadows, they are a bit loose and chalky but would work fine over a good primer.  It's a great set to keep in my desk at work for a last minute transformation!

I resisted the Shimmering Facial Whips for ages but for £1.50 I thought why not?! Below is the shade 'Lilac Petal' - now it may just be me but I can't even see a trace of Lilac!  It's a very pigmented creamy highlighter and a little goes a very long way! For those with dull complexions it would be useful to mix in with moisturiser or foundation for a bit of a glow, but it would be very easy to overdo it with this stuff!  It does smell like Orange Blossom as promised however!  I don't know how much use I will make out of this product but I don't regret picking it up.

I picked up the studio line primer for my friend's birthday a few months ago and she's really been enjoying it so I ordered one for myself too.  I haven't used primers much recently as I have very oily skin and they can tend to make the shine a bit worse, but my friend reports back that this one keeps your skin matte for ages!

The consistency is quite similar to Smashbox's Photo Finish primer, which I bought with high hopes but was disappointed by.  I'll do a full review on this one for you soon.

I actually picked up two of the mineral lipsticks and it's LOVE.  The colour, pigmentation, texture, packaging, everything - for the price (£3.50) - is fantastic!  This one here is Cheerful Cherry, a very deep berry red, but I also picked up Barely Bitten which is rapidly becoming my all-time-favourite red lippy (Sorry Viva Glam Cyndi!).

Sorry for the messy application, I just swiped it on...

Now this was the one dud purchase.  I knew I shouldn't have ordered it as the bristles looked similar in the image online to a brush I received with an ELF mineral powder set a while back and which frankly was crap.  But it was only £1.50 and I needed to reach a certain basket value to get the free shipping (worth £3) so I bunged it in as I am a sucker for an angled brush.  It's not as awful as I thought it would be, and I'll probably keep it at work for emergency blusher applications, but if I were you there are much better products on the ELF website to spend your money on! Their £1.50 eye shadow brushes are actually pretty amazing - they brought to me my favourite e/s blending brush!  It tends to be out of stock a lot!

So there you have it.  I will do a fuller review on the primer and the mist and do a separate post of Barely Bitten mineral lipstick with swatches comparing it to VG Cyndi as I'm so in love with it!

What's your favourite ELF product of the moment?