ELF Collection

Two weeks of silence...But I am back with a blog post! Today i'm going to show you, and talk a bit about ELF cosmetics (eyes, lips, face).

ELF is originally an American brand but is available in places all around the world(online only). The prime purpose of this company is to offer own brand make-up at a cheaper price, some of the products available are half the price of some of the cheapest drugstore make-up brands, but fear not... you won't have to compromise in quality or quantity.

Lip Exfoliator - £3.75

This product is pretty self explanatory... it's a lip exfoliator! I've never seen one like this before... It's in the form of a lipstick. The product itself is very solid, and made up of sandy-like grains. Although it really works well in terms of moisturising. I think this product is a make-up bag essential for the cold season coming up. Say goodbye to dry chapped lips and say hello to smooth, moisturised lips.

Mineral Lipstick - £5

Nicely Nude

This is the perfect "your lips but better" nude colour. This is my go to lipstick when I've done a dramatic smoky eye. The colour itself goes on quite sheer but it's easy to build up into a more bold and intense colour. 

Daily Brush Cleaner - £3.75

I use this brush cleaner on a daily basis, every time after I use a brush. I've done a full blog post on cleaning make-up brushes... and i feature the brush shampoo in it also (which i've currently ran out of!) Click here to see the full routine

Eyebrow Kit - £3.75

Medium 

Excuse how dirty the product is in the picture of it below! I don't know what i'd do without this product, although it's a bit too light for my HD brows, when it matches properly this is the only thing i will use on my eyebrows. It comes with a powder, and a wax. I'm not quite sure what goes first, but i apply the powder to my brows and shape them with an angled brush, afterwords, I take a sponge eye shadow brush and pat the wax on top of the powder, this keeps the product in place.  This is a really good inexpensive make-up product and with all the benefits it brings, you cannot fault the price at all. 

Make-up Brushes

(Left to right)

Crease Brush - £1.50

Fan Brush - £1.50

Foundation Brush - £1.50

Powder Brush - £1.50

Flat top powder Brush - £3.50 

Stippling Brush - £3.50

I seem to have misplaced a few of my ELF brushes, but I also have the studio kabuki brush at £3.50 and a smaller version of the stippling brush, also at £3.50.

These are the best "cheap" make-up brushes i've ever used. More inexpensive make-up brushes never phased me, i thought you had to pay big bucks to get your moneys worth. These brushes completely proved me wrong. A MAC stippling brush costs a whopping £26, why anybody would pay that much money for a make-up brush shocks me... but these products are much cheaper and you get the same quality. 

Zit Zapper - £1.50

This product contains -  Salicylic Acid, Tea Tree Oil, Witch Hazel and Camphor. All of these ingredients are found in more high cost skin care products. I apply this product to spots and it reduces the swelling, i usually apply it at night and by the time i wake up in the morning, i have a smaller lump in place of the really red big lump! It's not very often i get spots, but as a past acne sufferer I get extremely bad hormonal break outs and this is a holy grail product for me. 

All over Colour Stick - £1.50

Pink Lemonade

This product is a 3 in 1 product and can be used on either eyes, lips and on your face as a blusher. Personally i have never used it on my eyes, partly because of the colour i choose to pick up... but mostly because i have oily eyelids and I don't see how a creamy product like this would work as an eyeshadow on me. Thats not to say it won't worth for others though! This is a great product to have if you want to save some space in your make-up bag. I dab the product on to my cheeks, if i want to use it as a blusher, and then blend it out with my fingers of a smaller make-up brush. It can go on quite sheer or you can built it up into a more intense colour. This is also a great lip colour to have and so far this autumn I have used it a few times. I apply this either with my fingers, or if i want it more intense rather than sheer, i use a lip brush to apply it.

High Definition Undereye Setting Powder

£3.75

 

This is a translucent/sheer powder. I apply it underneath my eyes after i apply concealer (particularly creamy concealer such as benefits boi-ing), to keep it in place and stop it from running or creasing throughout the day. This is a HD product and is supposed to work well with camera lighting... and i have to say i've noticed the difference in my make-up on a photo when i've used this product. My concealer is a few shades lighter than the rest of my face (in order to conceal dark circles) but when this product is used, you can't see the difference between my foundation and concealer. 

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It's a Crime Not To Prime - All about primers

 This post will be all about primers (both eye and face). Unfortunately, and for a reason I do not understand primers are completely neglected by the majority of people. Personally, I would never be able to go without them, I've been sucked in by the hype! I've had my fair share of face primers and consider myself to be well informed about them.
                                                                                                                                                                 

The actual definition of the word primer is "a substance used as a preparatory coat on previously unpainted wood, metal or canvas,especially to prevent the absorption of subsequent layers of paint or the development of rust"

The unpainted object is your face, and you use primer to prevent the absorption of make-up into your skin. Primers sit in between your skin and your make-up. Face primers give face make-up lasting power and as said above, stop it absorbing into your skin... making it less patchy and less oily(or more moisturised, depending on what primer your buy). This is the easiest way to explain what it is! 

You can get a range of different primers for different skin types...Green primers mattify oily skin and colour correct redness and blemishes, you can get primers that fill open pored skin (you've seen porefessional by benefit pop up a few times in my blog), anti ageing primers, ones made for dry skin etc too. Luckily and conveniently enough clinique has just came out with a massive new range of primers. I've heard nothing but good from it so far so the only advice i can give you is go to a counter and get matched up to find your ideal primer. (It's worth investing). 

My favourite primer, by far is benefits porefessional. Not everybody will be a fan of this though, it may be completely useless if you have naturally smooth skin... But if you have acne prone, oily, open pored skin like me, this works an absolute treat,

Eye primers work slightly differently. Firstly, they make the eyeshadow stick to the eye longer...No fading throughout the day - it also works on liquid eyeliner. They will also prevent eyeshadow from creasing (when eyeshadow falls away from the eye socket line, caused through simple things like blinking!). And last but not lease it will enhance the eyeshadow colour on your lid. As mentioned before it is a barrier between your skin and the product. Natural oils in the skin wont mess with the colour and the eyeshadow applied will come up true. You've probably (if you don't use an eye primer) that colours will come up differently than they appear in the packaging... This is because it doesn't have anything to stick to, meaning you have to apply even more product to get the correct colour actually wanted. Although, bare in mind that it may be the eyeshadow - cheaper eyeshadow tends to be less pigmented. My favourite eye shadow primer, also mentioned loads of time in my blog is urban decay's primer potion. 

I hope this was helpful! I truly believe that it's a crime not to prime ;-) (how cheesy!) 

Stay tuned to my blog, I have some really exciting stuff coming up in the next few months and i can't wait to share it with everybody :-) Hope you're all having a fabulous evening. XOXO

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