elf

Bay Area Beauty Love: E.L.F.

February 22nd, 2019 by Karen 12 Comments

Yay for the Bay! In this series, for the month of February 2019, I’ll be featuring products from and around my stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.

A trifle of trivia for my friends who marvel at makeup minutia: Drugstore brand E.L.F. was founded in Oakland, California, in 2004. Contrary to popular myth, their name stands for “Eyes Lips Face,” and not for the classic Christmas film starring Will Farrell (which I’ve seen about a million times!).

WOW! That’s a lot of fun facts, I know! 😉 You’re soooooo welcome.

E.L.F. is low-key famous for doing a full range of super affordable drugstore makeup — color, tools, skincare, the whole nine yards — with plenty of products to choose from under $10. Whenever I have a beauty itch that needs scratching but don’t want to start a raging bonfire in my wallet, I’ll go to Ulta or Target and grab a few $2 doohickeys in the E.L.F. section for some instant gratification.

Granted, it doesn’t always work out for me, because I’m pickier about textures and finishes now that I’m in my 40s than I was in my 20s and 30s (a.k.a. the age when I could throw any shimmery shadow with the consistency of almond meal on my lids and be just fine), but sometimes I’ll find something great! Sure, it might not be the most perfect product in the history of the world, but it also won’t require me to take out a loan.

What happens when you “smize” and pop your hip in front of your garage… BTW, I’m wearing the E.L.F. Shadow Brow and Liner Palette and the No Budge Retractable Liner on my eyes.

Like their $12 matte powder eye palette with cool-toned mattes (YES!), which you can use to fill in your brows, shade your lids AND line your eyes.

Let me say that again: COOL-TONED MATTES. As in *no* orange or red shades. What a gem! I can do pretty much an entire eye look from start to finish with this palette (just add a tightline and mascara), and it works with practically every blush/lip combo around.

The caveat? Nil wear time…so I absolutely have to use it with an eye primer. If I don’t, the shadow vanishes in less than two hours.

Even with primer, it fades more and faster than higher-end shadows. But still…it’s $12! For that price, I’ll take it. I’m happy enough with the colors, the blending and the texture of the powders (similar to Urban Decay).

I made an E.L.F. run last week because I needed a pick-me-up after going to the dentist, so I got…

A $3 No Budge Retractable Eyeliner in Black: Long-wearing and decently pigmented (although not as pigmented as the Maybelline twist-up, so I have to use two or three layers). It’s stiff, but it’s good enough for tightlining.
A $2 pack of Line & Define Tape: This stuff is juuuust sticky enough. You can even cut them in half to make a pack last longer.
A $4 Solid Brush & Sponge Cleanser: Pretty great.

An entire haul for less than $10!? How is that even possible!?

What are your E.L.F. faves?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!!!

Drugstore Needs and Nopes, Vol. 3

June 2nd, 2017 by Karen 16 Comments

1. Yes To Liquid Hand Soap ($3.99 each)

I’m the weirdo who washes her hands about, oh, let’s see… 20 times a day? I’m so not kidding, either. And I’m REALLY picky about my hand soaps, but I thoroughly plan to love the dickens out of this bottle of Yes to Liquid Hand Soap because it doesn’t dry out my skin, even when I wash my hands hella times.

Also, the Marula Oil Mango var-eh-TAY smells like marvelous mangoes, but here’s the thing: it doesn’t smell fake, which is important if you wash your hands as much as I do, because, as you know, it’s nice to have a yummy fragrance waft up into yo’ nose.

It removes dirt, oils and all manner of baby goo, and it easily rinses off and doesn’t leave behind an annoying residue.

VERDICT: Need!

Yes To Liquid Hand Soap ingredients
Water (Aqua), Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Coco-Sulfate, Glycerin, Sclerocarya Birrea (Marula) Seed Oil, Mangivera Indica (Mango) Fruit Extract, Glyceryl Caprylate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Sodium Chloride, Glyceryl Undecylenate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance (Parfum), Benzyl Benzoate, Hexyl Cinnamal Linalool

2. E.L.F. Cosmetics Illuminating Palette ($6)

elf illuminating palette — E.L.F. Cosmetics Illuminating Palette ($6)

The four-pan E.L.F. Cosmetics Illuminating Palette is darned-near perfect for the price. The finely milled powders look really expensive and natural.

The highlighters are on the neutral- and cool-toned sides, which is a cool surprise (haha, bad pun) because of how many highlighter palettes skew warm.

The shimmer in these shades is also low-key — which again makes them seem higher end than they are.

Heck, I’d go so far as to call these drugstore Hourglass Ambient powders.

VERDICT: Need!

E.L.F. Cosmetics Illuminating Palette ingredients
Talc, Mica, Magnesium Stearate, Dimethicone, Silica, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Boron Nitride, Tridecyl Trimellitate, Tocopheryl Acetate (Ve), Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Manganese Violet (CI 77742)

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A Pink Eyeshadow Makeup Tutorial

May 24th, 2016 by Jen Clark 10 Comments

How I rock pink eyeshadow — Loving the pink eye shadow look!

Not long ago, Anna, Adia and I collaborated on how we rock pink eyeshadow, and many of you wanted to know how I got my look! I loved it too, so I thought I would do a quick tutorial. It’s actually super easy.

If you saw the other post, you’ll know that I mostly used the e.l.f Blush Palette in Light.

Are you ready? Here we go!

To start, blend the lightest pink blush in the palette into and slightly above your crease using a fluffy blending brush.

Bright pink eyeshadow tutorial — Top left shade in the e.l.f Blush Palette

Next, once you have that blended out really well, using a blending brush that’s a little more dense, place the bottom left shade from the palette all over your lid, and blend it into the crease.

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How I Rock Pink Eyeshadow (A Collaboration With Adia and Anna)

May 5th, 2016 by Jen Clark 34 Comments

Pink eyeshadow?! This was a first for me, and I have to say, I. AM. OBSESSED! I’ve used lots of rose tones on my eyes before, but never anything bright pink. I decided I was going to use a bright pink just as a transition shade, but then I got carried away experimenting, as I always do. Sometimes it’s so fun to just take your time, and do something fun with your makeup that you wouldn’t normally do, and I’m so happy with how it came out.

I got together with Anna and Adia for this look and we decided on pink. I was like, “Wait…I don’t own a pink eye shadow…but I own lots of blushes!” I use bronzer as eye shadow all the time, so why wouldn’t blush work the same way?

I grabbed my favorite, the Elf Blush Palette in Light and used it for the majority of this look, and I’ve gotta tell you, if you don’t have this palette already, get your booty to Target and buy it. It’s only $6 and has 4 incredibly soft, pigmented, blend-able blushes. The colors are just perfect as blushes, and now, as eye shadows too! It even made a special appearance in my Top 10 Under $10 post over on Jen Leigh Beauty!

Pink eye shadow look — A pink eye shadow look using the e.l.f Blush Palette in Light

I do have one important tip when using bright pink eye shadow that might help before you give it a try, because with pink shadow, if it’s used incorrectly, you can end up looking a little diseased and zombie-like.

When the pink is right up next to the whites of your eyes, your eyes will look sore, so the solution to this is to put something between your eyeballs and the pink. In this case, I put a brown eyeliner on my water line and plenty of mascara. Problem solved!

See how the brown on the water line breaks up the pink?

Here’s what’s on the rest of my face!

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Get 96 Excellent Eyeshadows (Conveniently Laid Out) for 10 Cents Each With the New ELF Eyes Lips Face 96-Piece Geometric Eyeshadow Palette

December 2nd, 2013 by Karen 11 Comments

How many elves does it take to ~~screw in a lightbulb?~~ make one heck of a gnarly holiday eye palette? Answer: just one, if that elf is e.l.f, and the palette’s their 96-Piece Geometric Eyeshadow Palette (regularly $20, but it’s on sale for $10 now at eyeslipsface.com).

This budget-friendly behemoth isn’t one of those streamlined holiday palettes with just a small handful of select, everyday shades.

Hello! — there are at least five varieties of green up in that one corner (Kermit the Frog would be pleased).

Yeah…there’s definitely a lot going on here.

It’s downright daunting, particularly if you get overwhelmed easily (like moi). I mean, the thought of 96 powder eyeshadows all in one case intimidated me at first, but then I took a closer look at the way the colors are all laid out and started seeing a method to the madness…

The triangular pans aren’t just randomly strewn about. They’re arranged in such a way as to make it easy to find coordinating colors (usually a big struggle for me with these blockbuster palettes) — browns with golds in the upper left, greens with peaches and yellows in the upper right, cool-toned purples and pinks in the lower left, and cool-toned grays and blues in the lower right.

So the palette isn’t just mathematically interesting. It’s also wise. 🙂

I looked at this palette’s smaller nephew, the 18-Piece Geometric, a couple weeks back and thought it, too, was a great value — quality, long-lasting eyeshadows rich in pigment — and the shadows in this larger 96-pan package perform just as well. Same formula, same pigment. I think they’re way up there in terms of drugstore makeup quality.

My only semi-major gripe with the 18-piece version was the diminutive pans (too small for most brushes), but this larger one addresses that with bigger pans, meaning more room to run my brushes across the shadows, making it that much easier to pick up product.

There are so many budget-friendly holiday palettes out there now, but this is one of the best ones I’ve tried. You should be able to track it down in drugstores for $20, but if you don’t mind shopping online, it’s available now for $10 at eyeslipsface.com.

Oh, and for the rest of Cyber Monday, they’re also offering 50% off everything on the site (and free shipping on all orders over $35, no coupon code needed).