e.l.f. Beauty Book (Bright Eyes Edition) Review + Swatches

I saw these at Target when they first released for $5, and thought it was a good bargain. I didn't have time to purchase any. I came back a few days later and they had been put on clearance for $3.12... even more of a bargain!

I nabbed the smokey and bright eyes editions thinking it would be the biggest difference in shade ranges. The neutral book kind of looked like it had some dupes for the Urban Decay Naked palette, but I digress.

e.l.f. is available from Target (limited range) and also from elf.com, and occasionally at dollar stores.

First up, today I'm showing the Bright Eyes palette:

Kinda looks like the Urban Decay Book of Shadows, doesn't it? Weird... anyway.

Top row of shadows, left to right on the palette. All swatches over Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

First shade is a white with a hint of purple (shimmer).
Second shade is a medium lilac (shimmer).
Third shade is a violet with slight blue shift (shimmer).
Fourth shade is a purple with grey undertones (satin).

Decent pigmentation on this -- my favorite shade is the second one. A lot of pale purples tend to not show up or make you look ill and this has nice pigmentation and is slightly pastel without being over the top. The white is pretty standard and the two colors on the right are pretty, but not very unique.

Second row of shadows in the palette.

First shade is a very pale peach (shimmer).
Second shade is a coppery peach (shimmer).
Third shade is a medium gold (shimmer).
Fourth shade is bronzey chocolate brown (shimmer.)

Only okay pigmentation on this, the gold is quite pretty but the first shade makes your skin look a bit muddy. The chocolate brown is pretty but not very pigmented.

Bottom row of shadows.

First shade is a pale gold (shimmer).
Second shade is a seafoam green with a slight teal undertone (satin).
Third shade is a blackened forest green (shimmer).
Fourth shade is a very dark burgundy, mostly black (shimmer).

These four shades are probably my favorite of the palette, especially that seafoam green. The four shadows together make a great combination!

e.l.f.'s shadows are quite soft so you do have to pack on the color a little. You can't expect vibrant payoff with these -- they're meant to be a sheerer wash of color. You can get decent pigmentation out of some of the shadows with an eyeshadow primer, but you're not going to have anything eyeseeringly bright. I think the palette would be great for a beginner or anyone who wants to experiment with color and not go overboard.

Now, my complaint is the design of the palette. These would be awesome for travel, but they're cardboard, for one, and second they are quite bulky. I get that they wanted to have a 'book' feel but they could have designed the palette into something more compact -- maybe 6 shadows across the top and 6 across the bottom, or a pull tray? There's just a lot of wasted space on these.

They also come with a little eyeliner but I would have foregone that to just cut off the entire bottom half of the palette!

Despite that, I like this palette and I find myself reaching for that bottom row more often than I realize! Those are worth $3.12 in my opinion.