A while back I was on the hunt for a lipstick and ended up at the E.L.F. Cosmetics end-cap at CVS. The selection wasn’t extensive, but they had a color similar to the one I had in mind, and everything was ridiculously affordable, so I purchased the lipstick and a couple of other things (a stipple brush and a bronzer) and took them home to try.
To say I was impressed is an understatement. I thought for sure that my $3 lipstick would last approximately 10 seconds before wearing off, or be so faint that it was pointless. I was dead wrong. The pigment was great, the staying power was awesome – and I was hooked.
After ogling the website for a few months I finally bit the bullet and put in an order around Christmas time as a little gift to myself. With free shipping on orders over $25 or $35 (depending on whether or not you use a discount code), and such awesome pricing I was able to stock up on tons of goodies for less than $40!
Before I get into the haul, I also just want to say that I love E.L.F.’s packaging. When you’re paying less than $5 for most of their products you might expect the packaging to feel cheap – but it doesn’t! Everything is really, really nice. From the way everything is boxed, to the actual plastic and finishes they use on compacts. A+!
Eyes
The first thing I decided to stock up on were new brushes. I’ve been slowly adding “good” brushes to my collection for a few months now, but prior to that I had been using some cheapo ones I bought at CVS. For someone who doesn’t wear makeup very often they were fine – but once I became a married woman I decided to go buy some adult brushes. I ended up snagging five different brushes, all for different eye shadow/eyebrow purposes.
Basically, my eye brush game was lacking, and – for me – eye shadow is the most fun part of doing my makeup, because it’s where I can really “experiment” and try new things.
Lips
Next up, two lipsticks and a lip liner. As I said above, one of the things that spurred me to first try E.L.F. products was a hunt for lipstick. At the time I had been looking for a dark red-ish shade, and found exactly what I was looking for. I also love their moisturizing lipstick formula, so I decided to try out two other shades.
I’ve been searching for the perfect nude shade to wear on a day-to-day basis, and also a dark berry color for a winter-y nighttime glam look. Of course E.L.F. delivered and I found exactly what I was looking for with Black Berry and In The Nude. I also snagged a lip liner/lip smudge in Natural. They didn’t have a lip liner for Black Berry, but I decided that I can probably use Natural to line my lips and prevent smudging without it looking weird, since Black Berry is so much darker.
Face
Next up was face products – in addition to not really wearing makeup on a day-to-day basis, I am also atrocious at throwing my makeup out when it’s probably “expired.” I’ve been using the same Sephora blush for oh… I don’t know… 2 years. Yeah, gross. I decided it was time to ditch it and get a new one. I went with Blushing Rose, which is close in color to the Sephora baked blush I had, and it’s lovely. It might be a tinge too dark for my presently pale skin, but for $3 it was totally worth it. When you’ll scroll down you’ll see why I didn’t bother getting a lighter shade to replace it (or just join it in my makeup cabinet).
Now on to the best thing I purchased… and actually, the best thing I’ve purchased in a while – this 83-piece palette. That cost $20. Yeah, let that sink in for a second.
This palette contains 64 eye shadows, 4 blushes, 4 bronzers, and 8 lip shades. It also came with a large mirror in the cover and 3 brushes. As I said before, eye shadows – to me – are the most fun part of doing my makeup. With this palette I can create a ton of different looks, in basically any color. When I feel like there might be a color lacking, I reach for my Sephora palette, which has just the right colors to fill in the gap.
I repeat, this palette cost a whopping $20.
And that is that – for now. I’m already eyeing a few additional brushes and products on the E.L.F. website, so I’m sure I’ll be doing another haul in the near future!
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