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

I showed you the Bright Eyes Edition last week and now I'm back with the smokey eyes one!

Same info and basic review as the other one, but in case you missed it:

e.l.f. is available from Target (limited range) and also from elf.com, and occasionally at dollar stores. I picked this up on clearance for $3.12, but they normally cost $5.

Here is the smokey eyes palette:

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

First shade is a pale white-grey (shimmer).
Second shade is a medium 'blurple' (satin with loose glitter).
Third shade is a navy blue (shimmer).
Fourth shade is a very dark blue with blue glitter (satin with loose glitter).

Only so-so pigmentation on this. The colors in the pan just don't transfer onto the skin! The black/blue on the far right is crazy pigmented, though.

Middle row of shadows.

First shade is a fair skintone shade with grey undertones (matte).
Second shade is a violet burgundy (matte).
Third shade is a blackened burgundy (matte).
Fourth shade is a black with a hint of burgundy (satin with sparkle).

Does this look like the WetnWild Lust palette to you? It reminds me of it. Decent pigmentation here for mattes, the second shade in is my favorite. The first skintone like shade is a bit muddy and unnatural on the skin; you could use it as a color to blend out other shadows.

Bottom row of shadows.

First shade is a pale grey silver with a hint of purple (shimmer).
Second shade is a medium silver with a green overtone (shimmer).
Third shade is a dark grey with silver shimmer (shimmer).
Fourth shade is a flat black (matte).

This would be my favorite row if not for the crap pigmentation on the black. It's surprising because the blue higher up in the palette is SO pigmented. Anyway, the silvers in this row are quite nice. I think you could make a good smokey eye if you use a different black.

This palette has a better range of finishes than the Bright Eyes palette (which was mostly shimmers), so that I can appreciate. A few colors are disappointing, however... mainly the top row. They look gorgeous in the pans but really sheer out on the skin.

From here is basically the same overview I gave the Bright Eyes palette:


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.

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!

As I said with the Bright Eyes palette, this would be great for a beginner who wants to experiment with smokey eyes or if you're not into really intense ones. I know I have trouble wearing them so this palette is appreciated for someone like me who prefers to create a softer smokey eye.

5 Days of E.l.f. #4: Single/Duo Eyeshadow and Mineral Eyeshadow Review

More e.l.f. items, yay!

I picked up the Olive eyeshadow duo, the single eyeshadow in Mystic Moss and the mineral eyeshadow in Royal.

First off, swatches:






































I will start off by saying that Mystic Moss is a bit of a misleading name, at least to me anyway. When I think of moss, I think of a deep, rich grey green. This colour leans more grey than green... but it's still pretty.

The light green in the duo is a bit powdery but an interesting colour; the darker shade is close to Mac Sumptuous Olive.

The mineral eyeshadow applies very smoothly and is a lovely blue-purple with microshimmer. Very nice.

Overall, I prefer the texture of the quad eyeshadows over the singles and the duos. I feel like the duos lack a bit of pigmentation and the single is a bit chalky. The mineral eyeshadow is fantastic.

I will give credit to the packaging -- the duo, along with the duo cream shadow, has a little screw off lid. Quite cute. Also, the single is packaged much like NARS' packaging. Clever.

Defintiely worth purchasing if you see a colour combo that suits your fancy. The single and mineral eyeshadows are $3 and the duos are $2.

5 Days of e.l.f. #3: Duo Eyeshadow Cream Review

Getting the hang of this yet?

Let's play a game: Guess the price!

I'll leave it to you :-).

I picked these up after seeing a couple of bloggers do posts about them... I'm having fun experimenting with eye shadow bases and I figured for the price, why not?

I picked up Sugar Cookie and Eggplant, which swatch like this:






































Sugar Cookie is a gold and a pale pink, similar to Urban Decay's Sin in eyeshadow form. Eggplant is an olive green that swatches an odd shade of olive/taupe and a purple with a pink sheen.

The cream duos are soft, but not too soft, and slightly oily. They are a bit of a weird consistency. Think of NYX's jumbo pencils minus the stickyness. I've used 3 of the 4 shades and experienced no creasing when used over Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

Eggplant is decently pigmented - the purple will tint your eyelid darker and help when applying dark eyeshadows. I used it to create the Punk Funk look. However, the gold is not very pigmented.

As this is a short review - all in all, if you want one, get one, maybe two, but go for a darker set. The darker colours seem to swatch and perform better.

Wendy's grade... B-.

5 Days of e.l.f. #2: Brightening Eyeshadow Quads Review + Look

I picked up two quads along with the other items I was reviewing -- I wanted to get a "neutral" and a more colourful palette.

I think I had the black/white/grey quad a couple years ago... before I learned about primer, and I used it up without much hesitation. They were decent even without primer.

I picked up Day2Night and Punk Funk. These sell from e.l.f. for a scandulous $1. (I paid 50cents)







































Ooooh... Day2Night has my kind of colours! The swatches are dry, no base. Very impressive... the taupe on the end is gorgeous!








































This quad swatched a little weakly... except for the pink on the end, what a stunner! I still have to stress that for $1, the quality is insanely impressive. I immediately thought of MUFE #92 when I saw the purple and of course this isn't as pigmented.

The quads are a good mix of textures... satin, sparkle and frost. It seems like the sparkle shades (usually on the far right) swatch the most strongly. These also are the only shades with fallout.

After the fiasco with the bad primer, I wanted to try these out with Too Faced Shadow Insurance and the brand's duo cream eyeshadows (I will post a quick review on those tomorrow)

Here's what I came up with from Punk Funk:








































































(You will notice my hair back in most FOTDs now... it helps to keep my bangs from ruining the shots =P)

This is reminiscent of my Christina Aguilera look. I liked it -- I paired it with really glowy cheeks. The eyes was TFSI, the purple from the Eggplant cream eyeshadow duo as a base, all 4 of the colours from Punk Funk, the navy blue e.l.f. liquid liner and Max Factor Masterpiece mascara. Cheeks were the Hard Candy Living Doll blush topped with MeMeMe's Moon Beam highlighter... they were ULTRA GLOWY :D. I think I just had Maybelline Pink Please on the lips with a clear gloss over top.

I am going to see Tangled tonight and thus did a look with the Day2Night quad (again). Holy moly the base made a HUGE difference. The colours in this quad are absolutely stunning. The "white" in the pan turned into a lovely white gold on the eyes... I see myself using it a lot in the future.






















































































I am completely shocked at the difference! In the primer review, these colours looked muddy and bland... with a proper primer, they are so nice!

I again used TFSI, the gold cream base from the Sugar Cookie duo (e.l.f. brand) and all 4 colours from the Day2Night quad. I lined with the black/gold shade from the quad and used Max Factor's Masterpiece mascara again (can you tell I'm starting to like it? :D). To add a little sparkle, I used MUA's glitter liner in Shade 2 on the inner corner and on the tips of my eyelashes (which doesn't really show). Cheeks were Sleek's Rose Gold and lips were Maybelline Nearly There with Mac Nymphette gloss over top.

Overall, I am very pleased with these quads... I want more!