I chided my mom all the time for buying products from e.l.f. This was mainly because I had been tempted into trying their previous brushes and products sheerly due to their incredibly cheap prices as most, if not all, of the original line of products were only a dollar and, originally, the quality simply was not there. The brushes were rough and the colors weren't pigmented at all. Every time I had tried something, hoping it wouldn't be as bad as I thought, I ended up getting aggravated and unsatisfied with the products and gave them away to my mom, who seemed to like them well enough, whereas I was too picky.
Recently, I decided to give e.l.f. another go. I noticed that the amount of shelves of their product displayed in Target stores had increased about three times in size. Instead of the price range being around one or two dollars, the products now ranged in price from $1 to up to $5 or more. A lot of the products were items I've wanted to try after seeing them at Sephora or used by makeup vloggers, but I never could justify spending money on a type of product I've never used before. And, being the socially awkward introvert that I am, I was always way too embarrassed to ask a store employee to show me how to use something. I decided to go with three of their new products: a pressed finishing powder, a dark wine colored matte lipstick, and a felted tip black eyeliner. All of these products were $3 each!
I have never, ever used a finishing powder before. There's been an increase in popularity with the technique known to many makeup connoisseurs known as "baking" your face. It is a technique used after putting any concealer and foundation on in order to set your face so that there is ultimately less shine, creasing, or other forms of makeup disintegration. Essentially, you pat on the finishing powder to trouble areas of your face and leave it to "bake" while you finish your eyes and lips. After everything is done, you brush off the excess powder and your makeup will stay all day and night! Needless to say, I was excited to try this Translucent Mattifying Powder for myself. After using this product for about a week now, I am happy to say it works like a charm! And it also includes a very soft, cloud-like makeup sponge if you need to apply to tighter corners of your face.
I have recently gotten into matte lip products, another growing trend. I recently purchased this Velvet Matte Cream Lip Stain in the color "Adored" from Victoria's Secret - one of my secret favorite places to buy quality makeup, by the way, although their variety of stock has disappointingly decreased in recent years. This Matte Lip Color in the color "Scarlet Night" from e.l.f. is of great quality. The stick is a twist-up and it glides on very smooth and easily fills in any cracks. The color does stain a little bit, but can easily be removed if necessary. I found that if you apply the e.l.f. finishing powder over the lipstick and brush off the excess, the color will last an impressive amount of time and not get on any drinking glasses or smudge in any way. The color by itself is great at not transferring as much as a normal lipstick or liquid lip color would, but it doesn't appear to last all day on its own, unless you avoid eating or drinking anything.
Finally, the Intense Ink Eyeliner was also a hit with me. I am such a finicky person when it comes to my eyeliner. Being Sicilian, all my life I've been dealing with an almond eye shape that I can hardly do anything with in terms of eye makeup. Oftentimes, when I apply eyeshadow just to my lid, it disappears when I open my eyes and it looks like I didn't apply any eyeshadow until they're closed again. This has led me to simply put eyeshadow all over and around my eyes, from underneath my eye to all the way up to my eyebrows, in order to make the color visible when my eyes are open. Because my eyes are so small, I also typically use this Rimmel eyeliner above my lashes to make my eyes appear bigger and normal sized for my face.
Because I've struggled to get my eye-look down, I hardly change up my products in that department. I've tried brush-tipped liners and stick liners, but they are either too light or too thin to give me the pop that my eyes need. When I saw that e.l.f. had a felted tip design, and at such a cheap price, I decided to give it a go. What I liked about Revlon's ColorStay Liquid Liner is that the brush dips directly into the paint pot of black liner. I have tried all-in-one felted liner pens before in the past, and they seem to run out of ink faster than the ones with the paint pot attachment, or they tend to be less saturated with the product leaving a dark gray color instead of jet black. While I haven't used the product for long enough to conclude its endurance, I can say that the color was very pigmented and the control-factor was really easy and smooth. I like it just as much as the Revlon ColorStay Liquid Liner.
In conclusion, the first impressions of the e.l.f. new cosmetic line expansion is great for trying new types of products and for exploring outside of your comfort-zone products without breaking the bank in the process! I will definitely go back and grab some more interesting new items to try in the future. Thank you for reading my product review, keep an eye out for more articles like this by following my Twitter or my Instagram for post updates!
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