E.L.F. Products Review

Hey guys! I hope y’all had a beautiful weekend! The weather was super nice – I really enjoyed it. I even wore a sweater for the first time this season. I’m super excited for more cooler weather so I can break out the boots and scarves for a complete fall/winter look.

Recently, I’ve been planning on doing a full-face makeup look using only Elf products, but I realized that I actually don’t have an Elf primer, foundation, concealer or brow product. There hasn’t been much hype about these type of Elf products so I was really curious. I went to my local Super Target and picked these up. I’ve tried these products a few times now and will be reviewing them for y’all today.

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Hydrating Face Primer

Cost – $6 for 0.49 oz ($12.25/oz). This is an average price for a drugstore primer. Comparing it to Nyx primers, this primer is slightly cheaper but comparing it to Maybelline primers, it’s slightly more expensive.

Packaging – This primer comes in a plastic bottle and pump, which I appreciate. Overall, the packaging looks nice and the quality of packaging is average.

Formula/Performance – I’ve heard that this primer is very comparable to the Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer. I think the formula is similar, but the Elf primer is more hydrating and creamy but still lightweight. This primer does a good job blurring and making my pores less visible. It performed just as well as my other silicone primers, but I wouldn’t say that it out-performed any primer that I already have.

Overall, I give this primer a  rating. I think this primer is a good choice for hydration and blurring. Although, I would still apply a moisturizer before. Again, it doesn’t stand out as a primer, but it does the job. 

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Flawless Finish Foundation

Cost – $6 for 0.8 oz ($7.50/oz). The price for this foundation is great! Elf is known to be an affordable brand and this product definitely reflects that. Most drugstore foundations cost around $10. If you take a step back, a few dollars difference doesn’t seem like much, but when you take a closer look, being a few dollars off means about 40-50% cheaper than the average.

Packaging – This foundation comes in a glass bottle with a black pump. I think Elf did a great job with this packaging compared to the hydrating primer. The packaging of this product feels much more luxurious.

Formula/Performance – I think the formula is very deceptive. At first, when pumped onto the back of my hand, it gives the impression of medium to full coverage because it’s very thick. After you apply and blend it out, it is actually a light to medium coverage foundation and patchy too. I felt that this foundation was really hard to blend out with a buffing brush – it was better with a makeup sponge. When I mixed a drop of beauty oil or hydrating primer with this foundation, it blended out much better. The coverage was still light to medium, but there was no more patchiness. The coverage is build-able, but still not full coverage. With just one layer, the foundation lasted about four hours before it started to breakdown. There is a slight scent of sunscreen or chlorinated pool water but it doesn’t bother me and actually goes away after application.

Overall, I would give this foundation a  rating because I prefer foundations with better coverage but the price and packaging was on point! On chill days, I don’t mind just going with medium coverage so I do see myself using this. 

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HD Lifting Concealer

Cost – $3 for 0.25 oz ($12/oz). The price for this much concealer is amazing. I’ve compared the quantity and price to other brands and this product, by far, beats out the others.

Packaging – Although this concealer comes in a plastic square tube, it still gives a very luxurious feeling to it. It has similar packing as the Flawless Finish foundation. It has a black cap with a doe foot applicator.

Formula/Performance – Like the Flawless Finish foundation, this concealer has light coverage. This is something I really didn’t like about this product because I like my concealers to have at least a medium coverage. Another thing I don’t like about this product is the shade range. There’s only four shades! I got the lightest shade in Fair and it was just the slightest bit lighter than my regular shade. So I would say that for very fair/light skin tones, you can’t use this concealer to highlight or brighten. Last thing I didn’t like is how badly and quickly this concealer creases. However, one thing I did really like about this product is how smoothly it applies. This product also has a scent that reminds me of Sprite.

Overall, I give this product a  rating. I don’t like the coverage or shade range, but if you don’t need as much coverage or have darker skin, I think this concealer would be great. 

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Brow Pencil

Cost – $2 This is seriously one of the cheapest brow products out there. Essence cosmetics is tied with Elf for having such affordable makeup.

Packaging – This brow pencil is white and plastic. It feels kind of cheap, but I think that’s okay, considering how much it costs. The spoolie is nice and fluffy, which I appreciate. Some spoolies are really skinny and stiff which I don’t think work as well. It is a twist up, so no sharpening – yay! I don’t like sharpening things because I feel like there’s a chance of cross contamination when you use multiple things with one sharpener. However, the tip isn’t that small so after the initial use, the tip gets blunt, which may affect how it is applied.

Formula/Performance – Again, the color range sucks. There’s only three shades, but I was fortunate to find a shade that surprisingly matches me really well. I have the shade Neutral Brown. I love the formula. It’s creamy and applies very smoothly.

Overall, I give this product a  rating. I really like this brow pencil but I hate that there isn’t a bigger shade range and I would prefer if the packaging was black instead of white. 

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Announcements

For the rest of the week, I will continue to post Elf related content. I will be doing a my Top 3 Bottom 3 Elf products and another for a full-face Elf makeup look, so keep an eye out for those!

I also went live on Periscope for the first time yesterday morning! It was a really weird but fun experience. The picture above is the warm natural makeup look that I did. I think I’m going to try to do a Periscope session once a week or every other week. If you ever miss a session, it is available for replay for 24 hrs after the initial broadcast. So follow me on Twitter or Periscope for more!

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Have you tried any of these Elf products before? Which one(s) and how did you like it?

Let me know in the comments below and I will ttyl~