Elf-Baked Eyeshadow in Toasted

Hi dolls.  Happy 4/20 today.  :)  In a tongue in cheek kind of way, I thought that today's post seeemed coincidentally appropriate.  Today I am showing you one of Elf's baked shadows, in Toasted.

Toasted is a warm, coppery shade with a metallic sheen to it.  I bought this at Kmart for $3, and I have yet to see them appear at my local Target yet.

 It is a baked product, which means it can be worn wet or dry.  I swatched this shadow dry down below, and it shows up quite well.  Very nicely pigmented.

I was quite impressed with it upon first swatch.  Normally,  I tend to stay away from baked shadows.  The few that I have in my collection are super shimmery and more often than not, I have to use them wet in order to see any color payoff.  This was a nice surprise. 


I know that there are other colors available, so I definitely want to see some more from this line.  What about you?  Do you liked baked shadows? 

xoxo

March-Dollar Tree Finds

Hello dolls.  Welcome to this month's edition of Dollar Tree Finds.

I didn't hit the motherload this month, as it seems like after one holiday proceeds another.  This month was St. Patty's day stuff and Easter all in one, so the makeup aisle sort of suffered.  I did manage to find some goodies though.

NYC Polishes 

These polishes came out last year with NYC's Summer in the City collection, and Peach Sparkle was one of the must-have polishes.  I didn't pick it up as I didn't think it was really flattering on me, but G over at Nouveau Cheap thought it was pretty.

I swatched Peach Sparkle, and as figured, I didn't like it.  It's too light for my skin tone, and makes my fingers look dirty.  It's also very sheer, and requires three coats to be opaque.  But two polishes for a dollar is quite a deal, especially limited edition polishes, and so I can't complain much.

Elf Lengthening and Defining Mascara

I have never tried a mascara from Elf yet, can you believe that?  Granted, these are only a dollar, but I don't remember seeing mascara over at Target.  I don't have a lot of expectations for this mascara, as I pulled it out of the tube and the formula is very oily and dry.  

The wand is pretty typical, and I got the color Black.  I haven't tried this out yet, as I am still working through my L'Oreal mascara but when I do, I will get a proper review up on the good ole blog for you guys.

Elf Eyeshadow Brush

Lastly, I picked up another eyeshadow brush from Elf.  These are seriously some of my favorite brushes.  This is my fifth one actually.  I always keep two of these brushes in my daily makeup brush organizer, because I use them so often.  

They wash out nicely and I haven't experienced any shedding with the ones that I have.  Because they are mass produced though, you will see some varying differences in them i.e. the length is not all of the same, and the amount of bristles might differ from brush to brush.  I like to pull out a couple of them at once at the store and compare them to get the best ones.  But seriously, for $1?  How can you not pick these up?  I would recommend these for those who are beginning in makeup and not quite sure which eye shadow brushes to get yet.

And that's it for this month's edition of Dollar Tree Finds.  Did you get lucky this month at your Dollar Tree?  Do tell!

Always,

Elf Matte Lip Color-Praline

Hello dolls.  I picked up this new matte lip color from Elf as it was being clearanced out from Target earlier this month. 

I had picked up the red color from this line before and blogged about it, but never went back for more colors til now.  Praline is a peachy-nude color, matte lip color.

This is a self sharpening stick, with the same packaging as the Rich Red color I mentioned.  

I thought it would be a totally wearable color upon first swatch, but on my lips, it looks a tad more brown.  It also emphasizes all of my cracks and lines.  :/

Wear time is pretty simple-it transfers easily if you are eating or drinking.  It does dry my lips out a bit-so chapstick is a must if you are planning on wearing it all day/night. 

  

Do I love it as much as my Rich Red pencil?  No.  I think it needs to be lightened up a bit more for my liking.  

 

 Love,

Elf Eye Palette-Neutral Look

Hi dolls.  I have a sweet, neutral look here today to show you guys.  The reason I kept it neutral is because I have bright, bold lips today.

Anyways, for this look, I dug out my old Elf eye palette.  I used four colors from the top row to create my look today:

These aren't the most pigmented shadows, and some are a bit chalky but with some primer underneath, they are workable.

I added some really long, fluttery lashes to play up my eyes.  These lashes are from the Dollar store! 

I am trying to come up with some Valentines day looks, and trying to go through my collection to see what I have to play with.  Let me know if you want to see anything specific!

Elf-Glitter Eye 12 Eye Shadow Palette

Hi dolls.  Here is another Elf eye shadow palette that I picked up in addition to the Natural Eye one that I blogged about here.

This one was also only $2.50, marked down on clearance after the holiday season.  Again, this palette opens up like a book, with the shadows on one side and directions on the other side.

 There are 12 glittery eye shadows included in this palette:

 (The glitter can be better seen at an angle.)

Here are swatches of the colors, shot under my Ottlite.  These are all swatched dry with no primer underneath:

The neutrals are a big let down, especially the black, but the greens, blues and purples really show up well!  The glitter factor doesn't really pay off either, because once blended out onto skin, it looks rather sparse. The black color is the one all the way to the right in the picture above.  It was really hard to swatch for some reason, and I felt like I had to literally scrape it off in order to get anything.  Otherwise, the greens, purples and blues were rather soft and much easier to swatch.

Contemplating a look yet with this palette, as you know I don't really wear colors all that often.  Maybe this weekend I will be able to come up with something. 

 

 Love,

Elf-Natural Eye Palette Look

Hello dolls.  Here is a look that I created with the Elf Natural Eye palette that I purchased here.

This look is just a simple smokey eye that is day-time appropriate.

I used five shades from the palette to create this look, along with some other staples from my makeup kit.

Shade #1 was my allover lid color.  After I applied that, I took my Prestige liner in dark brown and lined my lids, but you can use any dark brown liner that you have on hand. I smudged that out and blended that upwards towards the brow.

Then, I took shade #5 to blend that into the smudged liner and worked that upwards towards the brow as well.  Shade #2 was my brow bone highlight and shade #3 was what I used in my inner corners.  I wanted more contrast closer to the lash line, so I went back in with shade #4 and used that to darken it a bit more before lining my lids and adding false lashes.

I used my Sonia Kashuk full glam lashes to complete the look.  

It would also be easy to turn this look into something more glamorous for night by just adding some liner to the lower lash and waterline.

Always,

ELF-Natural Eye 12 Palette Shadows

Hi dolls.  I went to Walgreens after Christmas, just to check out any after holiday deals.  I found this ELF shadow palette marked down to fifty percent off-only $2.50!  Steal!

I picked up this one and the glittery palette as well.  You know I can't say no to a great deal!  

Anyways, the palette opens up like a book.  On the inside cover page, there is a step by step tutorial complete with pictures and diagrams.  Eh, I skipped over that. 

On to the good stuff, the shadows.  Right away, I liked how there was a good mix of matte and shimmers in the palette.  There are four matte colors and 8 shimmery/frost colors.

You also get a mini pencil eyeliner and the double ended applicator, but I didn't bother with swatching the liner.  Let me know if you want to see it.

I swatched some of the colors here for you, but not all.  That will be coming in a separate post.

Look at those three shimmers!  I will say that they were soft to the touch and much easier to swatch than the first row of colors.  Maybe even some dupes here? 

If shimmers and frosts are more your thing, check out your holiday shelf clearance items at your local Walgreens to see if you can score this palette for cheap.

Always,