Brand Impressions - Elf

 

Hello loves!

I've only done one other brand round up post but I enjoyed writing it and thought why not share another one? These types of posts give good insights into the brand and hopefully can help you decide if you want to give them a try or not.

We all know elf is one of the more affordable drug store brands but are they worth it?

I don't have many products pictured here but I've been using elf for years and now know how I truly feel about the brand.

I find their product range hit and miss. I've tried products I've absolutely loved such as their brushes and others like their primers that I would pass on purchasing again. Elf brushes are extremely affordable and work wonders. If you ask me you can't go wrong with their brushes. I bought an entire set of I believe about 25 brushes for $75 CAD a few years back and they are only now starting to wear and fall apart. Seventy five dollars for an entire brush set is an astounding price when you look at brands such as MAC and Fenty where you're paying just about $30 for one brush.

If you've never tried Elf I'd recommend giving them a go. For how cheap their products are even if you are disappointed by something at least you won't have spent a fortune on it. 

What are your feelings on elf?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

Instagram - Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest

 

Elf - Fairy Dust

 

Hello loves.

Has anyone else noticed how little products and brands have been spoken about lately?

With all the drama in the beauty community during the past two weeks what we originally loved talking about has been pushed aside as influencers have all begun publishing videos about their "truths."

Honestly, I don't even know where all this has stemmed from but I try not to read too much into it because if you don't like a certain person, don't follow them, don't support them and certainly don't go leaving hateful comments. There's no need to bash people. 

Now, let's get back to makeup shall we?

Oh, Elf. I have such a love/hate relationship with this brand. The good products are excellent but the bad well they're disasters. Unfortunately, this nail polish is taking a trip to the trash. The formula is so thick that it never dries down and you have to layer it so much for any of the sparkles to show up. Last night, I sat and watched Weeds for a good hour letting this dry and as soon as I went to do anything the whole nail got destroyed. The polish moved around leaving huge clumps on the nail bed. There was no way to salvage the horror movie that was my nails last night, so it immediately got removed.

What's the worst product you've tried?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

Love of the Week

 

 Good afternoon loves!

I hope you're all having a wonderful day.

I've been obsessed with trying to perfect my brows these days. I'll admit I'm a newbie when it comes to brows and have only just started dabbling in the world of brow products. For the longest time I'd use powder to fill them but I'd never set them. A huge mistake on my part leading to brown smudges above and below my brows, not a good look. Off on a hunt to find a clear gel to set them with I stumbled into a Wal Mart that had a huge selection of elf products.

Elf is a wonderfully affordable brand that I've had good luck with through the years. This brow gel was only two dollars. I couldn't pass up something that cheap especially if the outcome was so bad that it was tossed to the trash at least I didn't spend a fortune right?

There is a brow side and eyelash side. I use both for my brows as I don't see the need for gel in my lashes. There's a lot of product on the spoolie when it's pulled out but I wipe off the excess and brush it through my brows creating the shape I want and it sets them flawlessly for the whole day. For two dollars this in amazing product that does what it says, your brows won't budge all day. Just out of curiosity I might try some in the high end range but after using this I don't see why anyone would spend more than two dollars if you don't have to.

Thank you elf for this perfect brow gel at such an outstanding price.

What's your favorite brow product?

♥

Bri

Please follow on Bloglovin

e.l.f mineral infused primer

Hello loves!

E.l.f is a great affordable brand with amazing products! Searching for these hits however can be a daunting task.

I've yet to find a primer that really wows me and I'm starting to wonder if I ever will. For me I've never used a primer that has actually seemed to do anything it promises. Even though I'm beginning to doubt that primers are even necessary, I'm still trying them in hopes that one day I will find one that creates that flawless base for makeup application.

The elf mineral infused primer comes in a variety of different formulas. I picked up the clear one  as I wasn't really looking for anything in regards to special skin concerns.It's a silicone based primer so when applying it it feels very greasy on the skin but dries down quickly. 

I absolutely hate saying this but I didn't notice any difference in the way my base applied or how long my makeup lasted. Overall I feel like this did nothing. I feel like I was just adding another layer of product on my skin that I didn't need. 

Elf, you are a great brand but I was so disappointed in this primer. Especially after reading rave reviews about it.

What primer would you recommend?

♥

Bri

Please follow me on Bloglovin

E.l.f. - Flirty Fuschia

Hey guys.

I know I just did a recent e.l.f polish review but I'm back with a new shade!

I hope you guys don't mind these posts and I'm sorry to be repetitive but this shade is perfect for Spring and
Summer.

It's a gorgeous bright pink, much brighter than the aforementioned shade almost leaning more towards a coral toned shade (though you can't tell in the photo).

Again however the formula is not up to par. It went on smooth and opaque in two coats but once again chipped within a day and who wants to spend time painting their nails for it to just chip off before the next morning even comes? 

Not me.

With it being a sample sized bottle I'll continue to use it this summer as the color is a stunning summer shade!

What's your favorite nail polish

P.s. Go enter my giveaway here

♥

Bri

 

E.L.F. - Electric Fuschia

Okay I've only had this on for one day BUT before you tell me one day is not long enough to form an opinion. It is when the polish is total crap.

E.l.f is a an affordable brand with a lot of wonderful products but affordable can sometimes come with some garbage products as well. This polish is categorized as garbage. It is kind of old though so maybe it's because I've had it sitting around so long but it applied streaky and uneven bunching up in areas on the nail. The color when first applied is this gorgeous bright fuschia! As it wears it dries down to a darker toned down fuschia. Don't get me wrong the color isn't bad but I really loved how it looked when I first applied it so to see it become so much darker was disappointing. Before the night was even over and doing minimal work with my hands the polish was already chipping off around the sides of my nail beds.

All in all I'm so incredibly disappointed with this and am happy it was only a mini bottle (which I ended up tossing in the trash). It was that bad.

Have you tried E.l.f.s polish range?

♥

Bri 

Please follow on Bloglovin

{NOTD} // Musical Monday

Habits - Tove Lo

Hey everyone. 

I don't know about you guys but I had quite the Monday that started off terribly at 6:30 this morning and honestly hasn't got much better. I hope everyone had a better day than me!

I've always really liked this song and I'm not in a great spot in my relationship at the moment and this in a way this is how I'm feeling - minus the getting high part of course. But I've got some tough decisions to make...

I also wanted to share a quick little Nails of the Day, nothing super fancy but thought why the hell not?

e.l.f cosmetics - Banana Split and a glitter top coat from the dollar store (it's garbage it's already peeling off)

Until next time...

=)

Bri

E.L.F. Dual Ended Concealer/Highlighter

I don't know about you guys but I love the idea of multiple products in one as I don't have a vast amount of storage space to accomadate my makeup addiction so products like these draw my eye.

This is the E.L.F. cosmetics highlighter and concealer wand. I have a strong love/hate relationship with this product because the concealer is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, the highlight was honestly disappointing.

 

First off I know with E.L.F. there is a lot of hit and miss products because they're such an affordable brand but I have purchased a lot of items from E.L.F. and there has only been two products I've been upset with which was this which to me isn't a total miss because I love the concealer end. My other product disappointment was a concealer pencil with a built in sharpener that I went to use and on first use the pencil broke and got stuck in the sharpener making the rest of it unusable so into the garbage that went. On to my thoughts about this...

Concealer: I could rave about this concealer for days, if anyone knows if this is made separately please let me know because I would purchase a million more! This is fantastic for brightening in the under eye area although for total coverage if you have very dark circles it will require some building up. I mostly use this to brighten up certain areas of my face because I think it performs better as a brightening concealer then one for coverage although it is buildable but anything can look cakey if too much products used. I use it under/around my nose, my chin, forehead and under eye area. Goes on flawlessly, blends into the skin like a dream. For $6 CAD you can't go wrong with this, I might even purchase another one when this runs out as I love the concealer that much.

Highlighter: The one good point I have to say about this is for people who like a subtle highlight you may like this. I'm one of those people who want my highlight seen from space, haha. So for me I don't use this at all it could work to brighten up or skin if you mixed it with foundation which I didn't think of doing until just now so I might give it another go using it that way but as far as a stand alone highlight this did nothing for me. As you can see from the swatch it doesn't have shimmer to it so it's a matte liquid highlighter and when it sets there's really nothing there. I don't even think this should be classified as a highlight...

Please, please, please if anyone has a good concealer recommendation from e.l.f let me know because I had nothing but love for the concealer portion of this wand!

=)

 Bri

DUPES? MAC VS. ELF

 

The stipple brush.

MAC (187) Vs. ELF

I love using stipple brushes to apply foundation however I still don't have the greatest grasp on the stipple technique but I still wanted to compare these brushes as the ELF brush is said to dupe MAC's. 

 From the above photo you can see a clear difference in size, the MAC one is larger although the size of the actual brush head looks about the same. I prefer the look of the MAC brush over the ELF because the silver on the handle gives it a much more polished look but that's about all I like about MACS stipple brush. These were freshly washed and I could not for the life of me get the MAC one back to it's pristine white bristles. While washing my 187 it shed like no other brush I've ever owned! You can see in the photo below that the bristles on my 187 are sticking out everywhere where as the elf stipple brush stayed in great shape after being washed nor did it shed a single hair. When paying over fifty dollars for a brush you expect it not to shed everywhere.

 

 

See that little black hair on my face, that's from the side of my face that I used the 187 to apply foundation with. Needless to say I'm not impressed as MAC is known to have amazing brushes. When my six dollar stipple brush performs better than a fifty dollar brush I am left questioning why I wasted my money?

In terms of performance they both performed well although like I previously stated the ELF brush did not shed a single hair while buffing in my foundation where as the MAC shed not only one but many others! It's quite annoying having to pick off tiny little hairs off your face after you apply your makeup. If you want a good stipple brush don't splash out money on the MAC one because the ELF one is much better in terms of quality and price.

<3 p="">

Bri

FOTD #2

Hey! Another cheeky little FOTD I really need to get a better camera but it just isn't in the budget at the moment. I'm sorry guys, I wish you could actually see my blush/bronzer/highlight.

Foundation: Revlon Color Stay 24 HR (Dry Skin)

Concealer: E.l.f.s highlighter/concealer pen

Bronzer: Hoola

Blush: Lancome (couldn't find name on it)

Highlight: Watt's Up by Benefit (didn't show up in my photos unfortunately)

Brows: Sleek - The Balm Nude Tude palette

Eyes: Lancome quad (no name)

Eyeliner: Wet n' Wilds Kohl Pencil

Mascara: Too Faced Better Than Sex 

Lips: Shy Girl - MAC

=)

Bri

{NOTD}

Hey everyone!

Wanted to share a quick little "Nails of the day"

For this I used E.L.F.s Flirty Fuschia as my base and for the glitter I used a Mariposa dollar store polish, don't knock em till you try em.

I know they aren't the neatest but I still wanted to show you.

=)

Bri

e.l.f. - Cream Eyeliner

 

Hello again!

Eyeliner - my can't live without beauty product 

I have tried a wide range of eyeliners of different kinds and colors. I will always come back to black as its such a classic. Today I wanted to talk about my favorite eyeliner find, e.l.f.s cream eyeliner(Black) E.l.f. has many other shades in this liner and I haven't tried it but I am definitely going to pick up the shade Teal Tease it looks gorgeous!

This liner comes with a small brush as well which I tossed in the trash as I ordered a brush set with this as well. {The brush above is from the set - small angled brush} so I cannot comment on the brush as I never actually used it...

 On e.l.f.s website they claim this liner is; "smudge proof, budge proof and water resistant and can combat tears, rain and sweat."

Let's see about that...

 

Swatch 

The above photos are number of times I wiped this with a makeup remover wipe.

I have cried with this on and can attest that tears do not smudge it however if you do need to get it off it will come off pretty easily with water and a good makeup remover!

\

 I also use this on my waterline and it just about holds up through an eight hour work day which for $3.00 is incredible. This is the only cream liner I've used however I did have a variety of eyeliners on the go and therefore did not use up my container before it dried out but it still took a few good months before it dried out.

What's your favorite type of eyeliner to use? 

=)

Bri

Halloween - Half Skeleton

            

Well tomorrow is Halloween! I did this look a few nights ago and it was my FIRST ever attempt at any sort of Halloween makeup. I don't think I did too bad for a first timer I'm actually thinking of retrying this look for Halloween night!

Products used:

- e.l.f. Gel liner

-e.l.f. Neutral palette

And believe it or not that's all I used I think it would have turned out a lot better had I actually used face paint but I didn't have that on hand so I did my best with what I had! 

Leave links to your Halloween looks down below 👇🏻

=)

Bri

Friday Loves....on a Saturday: Kabuki Brushes

Hello everybody! 

Sorry about this, you know my Friday loves being posted on well a Saturday, unfortunately sometimes there are other things I need to take care of. Please pardon the dirty brush as Sunday is brush cleaning day!

My Friday love for this week is Kabukis. They are FANTASTIC and a great multipurpose brush (for my ladies/gents who don't like to carry a thousand things on a trip)

The polka dot one is from Disneyland (of all places) but its so soft, I've washed it multiple times and haven't had a problem with shedding nor has it lost it's shape, I can't remember the cost of this one.  My other kabuki and the clearly more loved one is e.l.f.s now e.l.f is very hit and miss but I bought this in a set of 25 brushes and I believe the cost was around $75 for the set and I use a good majority of them daily so it is a good buy and comes with a brush wrap as well for all you MUA's out there.

Honestly, the only reason I use the E.l.f one more is that the Disney one is just to pretty to use so I just leave it on my vanity, haha. 

I like to use these to buff my foundation in as I HATE the foundation brushes that are like painting your face it takes way too long and I can never get an even application and with these there are no problems! Easiest way I've found to apply foundation and could also be used for powder, blush. bronzer etc.

If you don't have a Kabuki brush in your collection please go get one! You will thank me!  

=)

Bri

E.L.F. - Neutral Eyes

Hello!

I wanted to share with all of you a bargain palette from E.L.F., this is their neutral eye palette I believe I paid $12 CAD at Winners for it and there are 36 shadows, bargain? Yeah, I'd say so.

As most people know E.L.F.s products are hit and miss they are a cheap online brand however you can find a few of their products in Target, Winners and dollar stores. I have only run into about 2 or 3 products that really let me down from E.L.F. and for the money you pay you can't expect everything to be top of the line.

Below are swatches of all the shadows and I did them by the groupings in the palette. These were all swatches using Coastal Scents eye primer.

As you can see there were two groups that had hardly any pigmentation but the rest of the shadows were great, the only major problem with these shadows is the fallout they get absolutely everywhere but for twelve dollars what do you expect? I've only ever used a brush to apply them so the fallout may be less when using the fingers. I absolutely adore the purple group of shades, so pretty great for fall! Aside from other more expensive palettes this one does have a mirror personally a palette not having a mirror is not a big negative for me as I tend to use my vanity mirror to apply all my makeup.

I really do like this palette and I get a lot of use out of it so if you're looking for a cheap natural palette give this a go if you can find it it was worth every penny!

February Favorites

Hey everyone, yes I have NEVER done a monthly favorites...so here we go... tbh I have been through some financial problems lately so my favorites are mostly old products but I wanted to show you guys anyway!

Victoria's Secret, Love Spell Body Spray -- I LOVE this body spray the scent is cherry blossom & peach definitely more of a summer scent but hey that hasn't stopped me from wearing it. Actually this has become my favorite scent in my collection and I am quite the body spray fanatic.

Lancome Bi Facil eye makeup remover - This is the best eye makeup remover I have ever used and I wear very heavy mascara and eyeliner on a daily basis. It does have oil for you girls or guys out there who don't prefer an oil based remover. However this stuff is so gentle and you're not needlesly tugging at your eye trying to get your makeup off and to get rid of that oily feeling just rinse your face off with water.

A cult favorite - Benefit's Hoola Bronzer - As we all know this has been hyped up for years in the beauty world, great for fair skinned people as it doesn't make you look like you just rubbed dirt on your face. I have that problem a lot....

Rimmel London's Wake Me Up foundation -- When swatched on the hand this stuff looks like a glitter party broke out, oddly enough it doesn't transfer like that on your face., probably to date the best drugstore foundation I've tried but not if you're looking fors omething matte.

e.l.f. studio cream eyeliner -- $3, this little jar of miracles only cost THREE DOLLARS, let me repeat that one more time! If you have not tried this go to e.l.f right now and order it. This is not waterproof but it's withstood every cry I've had with it on, doesn't smudge and I've had for a few months and it hasn't dried out, for three dollars I don't think I'll ever try another eyeliner.

Cetaphil moisturizer -- I'm one to constantly complain about dry skin especially in Alberta's cold harsh winters but this has stopped that and it hasn't bothered my skin at all but it has made it feel ten times more moisturized.

That's everything, what were you guys loving this month?

Winter Wishes

Hey loves, winter is going to be here in a few short months well...for those who live in Alberta like me it's already beginning! Here's my wish list for those chilly winter months. 

The 25 piece E.L.F brush set (I just so cheekily ordered this actually...oops) The newly released MAC Rihanna lipstick, I am such a fan of reds. Oh la la! The Beetlejuice Blackmilk leggings, I've been dreaming of owning a pair of Blackmilk leggings for a long time and I've been on a buying binge lately on their website, once again oopsies. A wine red dress from Aritzia, such a beautiful color for winter! A white knit sweater from Topshop. Hello sweater weather, would it not be cute with those striped leggings? The last thing on my "condensed" wish list haha is a pair of Tory Burch riding boots which I most likely will not be buying but hey a girl can dream...

What's on your winter wish list? Let me know!

Long time coming....beauty wishes*

Hey everyone, long time no talk..

Reading all the beauty blogs and watching a variety of beauty gurus on Youtube I've been creating a list of different beauty products I'd like to invest in.

• Benefit -Hoola Bronzer (won't be buying this until the summertime)

  

  
  
• ELF Cosmetics - nothing in particular just interested in the brand. *If you recommend anything leave it below!
• Benefit - Eye Bright Pencil

  

  
  
• OPI Goldeneye -

  

  
  
• Benefit - Dandelion blush

  

  
  
• MAC - studio finish concealer

   

  
  

That's it for now, most products are for the face. Bye for now!