I've noticed though, in recent years, that elf (short for Eyes Lips Face) has undergone a rebranding. Though it is definitely at the "budget" end of the beauty spectrum, you'll see elf popping up in the makeup tutorials of some of social media's most famous makeup artists.
Leading up to, and following the inauguration, I've been spending my feelings a little bit, and elf is an easy place to do it. They were running a great deal last week, as they do most weeks, free shipping over $25 and a free gift with purchase. We'll get to my free gift in the 2nd part of this series, but suffice it to say in the mean time, for $25, you can get a LOT of stuff at elf!
Of all the makeup products out there, lipstick is probably the one that least requires you to spend a lot of money. I own lipstick all over the price spectrum, and honestly, they are all pretty much the same. Unless there is a specific brand that has your heart, like Besame does mine, you can honestly find great lipstick anywhere. Shortly before Christmas, I must have had a small stroke or something, because I actually considered asking my husband to get me this. Can you imagine? Do you know how much lipstick I could buy elsewhere for $90??? And, no offense to Mr. Louboutin, because my dream is to one day own a pair of his shoes, but I'm guessing that his lipstick doesn't wear any different than anyone else's.
Anyway, as I was saying, I was in my feelings, and elf is at a price point that I decided to buy several different types of their lipstick, to see which ones I liked best. I decided to buy them all in more or less the same color (red, obviously) so that the only thing changing would be the type of lipstick itself. Behold:
Here they are swatched in the same order, with the exfoliator making a cameo, as Cher Horowitz would say, because it doesn't swatch:
I will caution you that some of these pictures look sort of insane. I did these swatches last night, and my makeup had sort of run south of the border by then, if you know what I mean. I was also contending with my two year old makeup assistant who feels the need to try everything on as well, all at the same time if she gets her preference, so I had to move fast. I thought about doing the pictures over tonight, but honestly, they would have been the same. Mom life is for real, ya'll. So bear with me. Also, by the 5th lipstick color, my face looks like I've broken out in a rash, because you cannot put on that much red lipstick and then take it right back off without it irritating your skin. So anyway, with that bit of business out of the way, here are the colors themselves.
First up is the elf Essential Lipstick in the shade FEARLESS:
This is elf's original lipstick and it will run you exactly $1.00. Yes, thats right, 100 pennies. ONE. DOLLAR. Put your hand up on your computer screen to cover the top half of my sad face, which slightly resembles Winston Churchill's favorite french bulldog in this picture, and just check out the lower half. Good, right? As you can see, this isn't matte. If you are only open to matte, this probably isn't going to be your deal, because 75% of the colors I am going to show you don't fit that bill. The good news here is, the more shine there is to color, the easier it is to apply. Red is the hardest color to apply, it can be really unforgiving, and matte is the hardest red to apply. So this one is really easy. It glided right on, and didn't bleed at all. Because it is shiny, it is not kiss/smudge proof, but it also didn't run out onto the sides of my face. Also, I should mention that all of the elf colors I tried tasted great! They were all very sweet, but not in a cloying, bubble gummy way. This one might have actually been my favorite of all of the colors, just because it was so easy to apply, and this shade is so great. Anyone would be flattered in this color, so I would tell everyone to try it. And if you hate it, its a dollar, so its not like anyone's college fund is disappearing over it. This one is a great bet and comes in five other colors, so, hey, get them all.
Keeping things going in order, the next product would be the Lip Exfoliator which I don't have any pictures of, other than the one above, because there isn't really anything to see with it on. This product costs $3.00, and comes in a variety of flavors, grapefruit, coconut, cherry, and mint. I picked this one, which doesn't have a flavor, per se, because it has the little granules in it. You are supposed to rub it across your lips in a circular motion. I actually really loved it. I've been wearing Colourpop a lot this week, and though I love it, it is super drying, so this is just what the doctor ordered. After I took it off, I just kept rubbing my lips on each other because they felt so soft. I was definitely happy with this buy as well.
Next up was the Aqua Beauty Radiant Gel Lipstain which I got in the color, "Pink Splash." I see now that they have the color "Rouge Radiance" back in stock, which is probably closer to what I was looking for in this little experiment, but oh well.
As you can see, this one is way more matte. It actually feels like water going on. Its very slippery, but definitely more water than gel. Because it is a lip stain, rather than a lipstick, the color is not as opaque, and you have to do a few swipes to build up some good color payoff. Because it is matte, and because it is a stain, it does exactly that. Once it is on and dry, which takes less than a minute, it is going to stay set. 24 hours and a shower later, the swatch still remains on my inner arm. Despite its watery texture, I didn't find that it bled (none of them did) which is saying a lot for red and red adjacent colors. This one also tasted great, and though I licked my lips a lot, I didn't feel like the inner color faded. Its still a pretty robust pink, though, if I had it to do over, I'd probably get the true red one. You could probably pass this off as a warm red and wear it in the spring and summer. Earlier this week, I got a message on Facebook from a woman asking about the trend of wearing two colors at the same time, with one color on the upper lip and another on the lower. The two colors I talked about here would actually be a fun way to ease into that trend, because they are different, but not super so.
The next product was a little different, in that it was a 2 in 1. Its the Day to Night Lipstick Duo in the shade combo "Red Hot Reds."
The helpful details blurb on the website tells me that, "This dual-ended lipstick conveniently has a beautiful soft shade for day and a bolder shade for night. The velvety satin formula is enriched with Shea, and Vitamins A, C, and E to help nourish and hydrate."
While the picture would have you believe that neither of these colors can stay inside the lines, don't be fooled. Thats just my skin. After putting on and taking off several colors the skin around my mouth is irritated, which makes the colors look bleedy, but I can assure you, none of them were. The Shea thats in these products is, again, going to make them read as not matte, but they both ended up being colors that I liked a lot. The "daytime" color on the left also felt almost pink to me, but it was absolutely a color I liked. The color to the right reminded me a lot of Unicorn Blood except not matte. So if you've ever wished for that color, but with a bit of shine, you're in luck. Here it is, it comes with a second color, and it will only cost you $5.00. The other thing I liked about this duo, is that the lipstick parts themselves are more narrow than a traditional lipstick. If you're wanting to try red, but you're new to it, this would be another great one to ease in with, because the narrow sticks make it easier to apply. It would be easier to cover up mistakes, because you aren't covering so much territory all at once.
The last color I tried was The Velvet Matte Lipstick in Ruby Red.
While I am totally and completely in love with this color, calling it "matte" might be on the generous side. Putting it on though, it felt very much like Kat Von D Liquid Lipstick which is really soft and dreamy to put on. It reminded me of clouds, the way Kat's does. Its pillowy soft, and like all the others, tastes great. Of all the colors I tried, this one probably has the best formula. It is just so, so soft. At $3.00, its another one that if you hate, you won't have to cry about it, but I doubt that you will. It comes in a lot of great colors, including a fabulous dark burgundy that would look amazing on any lovelies out there that have been blessed by the melanin gods. If you are a Black Woman who does not immediately buy the burgundy color, you have done yourself a disservice. I don't know what else to tell you. Color wise, I probably enjoyed FEARLESS the most, but for formula, this one is definitely the winner!!
And there you have it! My review of some of elf's most fun reds. It appears, from my further review of their website though, that they have over a hundred kinds of lip products. And just in putting this post together, I've found five more that I'll probably order. Because why not? You can't beat these prices, and I was super impressed with the quality all around. A new lipstick, especially a red lipstick will put a pep in your step. So I would go ahead and treat yo' self.
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