FGW: E.L.F Products. Or, You get what you pay for?

After reading an earlier post about how great someone thought E.L.F’s Mineral Makeup was I had to try it.  It sounded wonderful, and for only 5 smackers it wouldn’t be a total loss if I wasn’t crazy about it.  Besides, I have plenty of friends who are just waiting for all the products I try but don’t love to be gifted to them.  I prefer to buy my friends off the old fashioned way instead of earning them, it’s so much easier

I popped over to the website and immediately added the lightest color (fair) mineral makeup to my cart. It can be hard to tell color on a website, but it looked like it just might work.  Since I had those great codes to choose from at check out, I decided to buy a few brushes as well.  I’ve bought some inexpensive brushes from Target before that I’ve been quite fond of, and for only a dollar apiece I think these qualify as inexpensive as well.  It couldn’t hurt right?  Some of the brushes had rave reviews on the website, particularly the eye shadow brush.  Not wanting to miss out on a good thing, I ordered 3 of those.  I also tacked on a liner brush, an all over face brush, and a smudge eye sponge.

Hit checkout, entered my info, and waited for my package to arrive.  Thanks to one of the spiffy codes we were supplied with, my total was only around $16 and $6 of that was shipping!  I’d like to add here that my package arrived in under a week, which is better than some other major companies I’ve purchased cosmetics from recently.

Of course I ripped open my package and the mineral makeup as soon as it arrived.  I couldn’t wait to see it!  The minerals come in a 1.2 oz package.  No matter how small you think that is, it’s actually smaller.  It would be easy to carry around in your purse, but it looks a little disappointing when you first open it.  When I first applied it I thought it made my pores look far more noticeable, not a great first impression. The color was also a little off, matching more closely with the picture of the “light” makeup than the “fair” I was expecting.  Be aware if you order it that it does run a bit darker than the picture on the site.  Many people who wrote reviews had the same problem and suggest getting the “fair” mineral concealer instead.   After a few minutes it seemed to settle in and my pores were less visible. The coverage was good and the feeling of the powder was smooth, and I really like that it has a soft dewy look instead of the matte you see so often.  It left me with a radiant natural look.   My friend who received the excess noticed the poor color match on me, so while I was sad to let it go I know it was for the best.  With a lighter offering for fair skin tones I would happily purchase this again.  I would hesitate to rank it up there with Everyday Minerals, but it’s a very good product for the money.

The brushes seemed to be hit or miss.  I took the face brush out of its package and shook it against my hand to puff it out a bit and the top popped right off in the process! I’m no fragile flower, but I’m not that strong either. I always recommend having some Gorilla glue around, and it sure came in handy fixing this brush.  The bristles of the brush were very long but not very dense, leaving powders to get lost in the brush instead of applied to your face.  The liner brushes were pretty standard, perfect for the popsicle stick method Jen learned from Laura Mercier.  It would be nice to see them in a narrower size for some of my gel liners and such.  I have to admit that the eye shadow brushes are pretty fantastic.  The short dense bristles hold an ample amount of product and keep it on the brush instead of allowing it to fall on your cheeks. I got good solid color application. My only gripe is that there was a rough spot one some of the bristles on one brush. Some of the glue perhaps? Altogether not a huge disappointment from a $1 brush though. Well worth the money to stock up on a bunch and refresh your brush supply if need be.

I’ve not yet tried the shadows and other products from E.L.F., but with the decent showing by these products I wouldn’t hesitate to try them in the future. They have a nice red gloss I’ve got my eye on. I know there are many of you out there who’ve taken advantage of their amazing prices, so please help out your fellow deal seekers and let us know what you thought!