My Obsession: ELF Beauty School Everyday Eye Manual Review and S...

My Obsession: ELF Beauty School Everyday Eye Manual Review and S...: "When I saw this palette for the first time in Walgreens, I knew I was gonna get it. I tried to look for swatches online but could not find a..."

ELF Beauty School Everyday Eye Manual Review and Swatches

When I saw this palette for the first time in Walgreens, I knew I was gonna get it. I tried to look for swatches online but could not find any. So I decided to be one of the first people who bought this just to experiment and test out the quality.

The photo below was taken without flash.

With flash

The swatches (no primer) are shown below. As you can tell, some colors are so faint that you can barely see them. The pigmentation of those shadows are BAD. The texture is very hard. It's like you have to scrape the surface of the shadows to get the colors. If you have the NAKED palette dupe (ELF beauty book in previous collection) you'll notice that they share almost some texture, which I hate. Some shimmery shadows are soft in texture though. Some darker ones like the dark burgundy and blue are quite pigmented but chalky. They may cause some fall-out. Overall, I will only give 2/5 for this palette. ELF encyclopedias are much better. Ever since then, they never really come out with better eye shadows for their beauty books anymore. It'll always be hits and misses when it comes to ELF. If it's 50% off, I would say go ahead and get it. It's not a bad idea to add something to your collection. If you wanna use this for daily basis and there's no discount, don't get it because you'll be really pissed off like I am. Grrr...

Silver and Black Smokey Eyes

This look is more dramatic in person. To be honest, I have never worn this look and step out from my house. I am always the "neutral" girl.

Nikki Minaj Inspired: Pink and Purple Eyeshadows look

UGH... All the colors go missing because of my pathetic Asian semi-double lid. How I wish I have the real double eyelids. It's so hard to apply makeup on semi-double lid because of the fold that eats away lotsa space when the eyes are open. BTW, this is a look inspired by Nikki Minaj in one of her music videos. She's all about crazy makeup (not as crazy as Lady Gaga but still definitely not kinda makeup you wanna wear and leave the house during the day time.)

As usual, my face is kinda washed out due to flash. The lipstick is supposed to be a barbie pink lipstick. Since the lips and eyes are so "strong" in colors, the blush on the cheeks are very light and natural.

Stuffs that I used on this look.

A Revlon bronzer that I got just recently and not particular fond of. It's the Revlon Colorstay mineral finishing powder in Suntan Matte. I was expecting it to be more pigmented. It seems like the product has dried out and hardened. I have to literally rub my brush to get the color out.

ELF Flirtatious Lipstick Review

 Got my new "Flirtatious" ELF $1 lipstick from mail today. I didn't have big expectation to this because ELF lipstick colors always fail me due to its inaccurate swatches online. Flirtatious is a crazy hot pink color. This photo is so washed out that it looks rather natural here. It's actually not this light and almost neon-like.

Very simple eye look. For some weird reason, the shadow on the left eye is not well-blended, no matter how hard I tried. Weird..I put on ELF primer, Maybelline dream mousse shadow then colors from ELF 100 palette. Colors actually show up pretty well even though the eye shadows in ELF 100 palette are pretty sheer on their own.

Sorry for showing the big nose. Focus on the lips! I applied the ELF Dazzling Diamonds lip gloss on top. Look how shiny my lips are. I am kinda disappointed that the photo does not capture the craziness of the lip color though. Will I ever wear this and go outside? maybe! hahaha

Below is how it looks like. You get a lot of product for a dollar! The texture is very creamy, unlike the previous batch of $1 lipsticks. It's also less opaque but it's buildable. I kinda doubt the staying power though. I'll would give this lipstick 4/5, one point off for the staying power. Overall, it is definitely a good lipstick.

Milani 3D Glitzy Glamour Gloss VS ELF Glitter Gloss Review

From left to right :Milani 3D Glitzy Glamour Gloss in Designer Label and Starshine (these two are actually exact dupes of MAC lip glasses which I don't remember the names). Elf Glitter Gloss in Dazzling Diamond.

They are so pretty with fine glitters in the bottle. When applied, they look very shiny and smooth on the lips. They don't accentuate fine lines or crack on the lips. They feel sticky to touch but non-sticky on the lips. ELF glitter gloss does have chunkier glitters in it but the chunkiness does not show on the lips. The glitters are multi-color, which makes it even more special than the Milani ones. All of them feel pretty similar in texture when swatched.

$8 for Milani or $3 for ELF? I would say go for the ELF one but I am not sure if other colors of ELF are as good as the Dazzling Diamond. I have seen them on Target and thought to myself that the glitters are too big. I bought one just to try it out and found myself falling in love with the ELF one. Give it a try! It's only $3, not to mention you may even get it for $1.50 only when there's 50% sales going on.

Crazy rainbow eyes!

Jut to show u the makeup. Definitely not a look to wear and go outside. The colors combo is pretty insane.

Makeup on fat face!

Urban Decay Naked Palette vs ELF Beauty Neutral Eye Edition & ELF 100 palette DUPES!!

The ultimate, long sought-after, forever-out-of-stock Urban Decay Naked Palette. See how gorgeous it is. I didn't let myself get my hands on it until... Let's see why!

Because I found a dupe palette for it! The swatch on the right with intense color is of course the Naked Palette. The one on left is the dupe. Pretty close huh?

This is the dupe for the Naked Palette! The ELF beauty book in Neutral Eye Edition.

I would say they are almost 90% dupe. They look like PERFECT dupe when you compare them together though.Well, if you look at the pic above, you know that they are not. Darkhorse and Hustle dupes are not exactly dupes. What about the quality? Not similar at all! That's why I finally spent 48 bucks on it! The ELF is only 5 bucks but it requires much more efforts to get the colors. I have to literally rub my brush on the palette just to get decent color pay-off. I bought this even before I knew this is a dupe because I saw the colors are just so nice. Some colors are pigmented though, most are not. Other ELF Beauty Books are highly pigmented, except this! What the hell? Such a huge disappointment.

The ELF beauty book does not have good dupe for Darkhorse. This is such a pretty color. But guess what? I found a much better dupe from my collection, which the the ELF 100 palette. The quality of shadow is slightly better too. This is a rare color, I was happy to find a dupe for this.

Another better dupe for Hustle is on the ELF 100 palette too. How cool is that!

Just to show you how the 100 palette looks like. hehehe. The quality of the 100 palette is not consistent though. Some have better color pay-off than the others. They work fine with a primer. I am not "wow-ed" by it. But the Naked Palette, I can't say enough good things about it. The pigmentation is just awesome.

Look using Naked Palette.

Whole face.

So what do you think? 48 bucks or 5 bucks?

Playing with colors!

Thanks to the awesome camera with macro lens and flash light, finally I got the fine quality of my makeup pic. 

Smiling with closed mouth to show less fat on the cheeks. haha

Purple smokey eyes and neutral look with pop of green

I believe this is the third tube. I use this almost everyday I can't live without it! The ELF eyelid primer. Only a freaking dollar and work amazingly. I see no reason to get the Urban Decay Primer Potion, which costs 19 bucks if this works so well for me! My eye shadows last more than 12 hours. No creasing or fading whatsoever. Pretty darn awesome for a dollar product! Oh, of course I checked the safety of the product at cosmeticsdatabase.com since it's only a dollar and I don't wanna risk my health for it. This thing is "low hazard." It contains no paraben. The oh-so-famous original UDPP contains 5 types of parabens in it. What a shame! I know many people say it might work slightly better. Well, obviously it has to be since it has more weird ingredients in it besides paraben. Who wants to pay so much to damage your health? I am not going to.

When I am lazy to put on double eyelid tape, I'll just color my whole lids with darker colors, blend with slightly lighter color under the socket and keep blending. To make my look even more dramatic, I should have  put on heavier eyeliner. After flashing, everything seems to be so mild. 

 Side view

Eyeliner is the most important element of eye makeup. You can put on eyeliner without eye shadows. But with eye shadows and no eye liners, you'll look like you just got punched in the eye (right eye). LOL. Eyeliner makes a huge different! This is makeup halfway done for my FOTD.

The look of the day. Almost completed look. I put on ELF Runway Pink. It's the most beautiful pink ever. Looks so soft on me. Perfect with smokey eyes. I might look kinda dead with this. But who cares? I want my eye makeup to stand out. I love putting green on my lower lash line, just for the pop of color.

I added ELF Studio lip balm (Seductress) on the lipstick. They are the best combination ever. Look so pretty in real life. This is my completed look. I am using the ELF powder foundation and concealer for the redness on my face. Ever since I went swimming, my face just looks horrible. 

"Killing Us Softly"

I know this is supposed to be a beauty blog but I need to share this great video to share. You NEED TO WATCH this if you're a woman. It's very eye-opening! This is just the first part. You can find the rest on Youtube.

After watching this, I am thinking to myself. Oh yeah, now I know what it is about, but can I be what I really am? Can I not play by the "rules" (beauty standard)set by the society?

ELF haul

                Mineral brushes! They feel really soft and I know they should be able to work well, judging from my experience. However, I am not kinda person who uses concealer brush since the finger will do the job. This concealer is quite fluffy. I wonder how does that gonna help to blend because usually concealer brushes are quite flat. Its nylon-like bristle, which is typical of concealer brush, disappoints me as I thought it'll be a good eye shadow brush. Nylon-like bristles are great for picking up cream product, not powder product. This also explains why flat foundation brush are usually made of nylon. 

Two mineral eye shadows in Royal and Trendy. ELF mineral eye shadows are really great. Tried some and very impressed. Not to mention that it's only 3 bucks each. Compared to BareMinerals, these are so much cheaper. Haven't tried Bare Minerals before. Heard that their foundations are more finely milled than the ELF ones. These eye shadows are fine enough for me. I can't imagine if there's any eye shadow out there more fine than these. I need to try out Bare Minerals one day. The glitters of the shadows are not annoying at all (If you don't already know, I HATE glittery eye shadows)because they don't fall all over your face when you handle them with are.

Mineral Lipsticks in Pouty Petal and Party Pink. Looking at the pictures on the website, I thought both of them are gonna be light pinks. It turned out that both of them are darker pinks. They are beautiful colors, but I know I can't pull them off once I saw them. Disappointing! :( I seriously hate ELF pictures online. THEY ARE NEVER TRUE TO COLORS! Pouty Petal is very sheer, it's like a tinted lip balm. Party pink has better pigmentation. Anyway, these two are not my favorite. I am seriously considering stop buying lippies from ELF. I feel cheated, over and over again, by the pictures they post online.

ELF $1 lipstick in Charming. It's a dark brownish red. DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THE PIC SHOWN ON ELF.COM, which is a nice mauvy nude color. People who have dark skin tone may be able to pull this off, but not me! Feel cheated, AGAIN! Damg it!

Other 1 dollar ELF lipsticks in Classy (this is a dupe for a MAC lipstick), Nostalgia, Seductive and Charming. Classy is my favorite! I can't explain how beautiful it is. It is like it is made for me! :D Nostalgia is a nude with pink undertone color. Look at it, this is what happened when I tried to put it on my lips. It broke on me! I tried to fix it by pushing it back and it became like this. The weather is too hot, the lipstick has already melted and I didn't notice when I put it on. A brand new lippie gone T.T Seductive is a dark peach color that makes me look like a clown when I put it on. Charming is obviously not charming at all if it's gonna make me look like I am in my 40s. Dark brownish reds are not for me, yet.

In flash! This is how I am fooled! I always look for swatches before I buy something. Most people take photos with flash because they have shaky hands (including me). Colors are washed out and look nicer than they really are.

 My small ELF mineral lipsticks collection. From left to right: Nymph dream, Runway Pink, Nicely Nude, Pouty Petal and Party Pink. Nymph dream and Runway Pink are both very light. ND is like a concealer for my lips. I use it to conceal my lips if I want other lipsticks to show up better. Both of them are pretty drying. Nicely Nude is not a nude. It's a peachy pink color, pretty sheer. It's an Okay color for me but it's more moisturizing than the former two. I don't care about the lippies except for Runway Pink.

In flash! Don't let it deceive you!!

EOTD

I didn't blend my eye shadows enough. It looks like there're harsh taupe color above my blue eye shadows :S

 Better view. 

New finds in Dollar Tree

Maybelline Mineral Power lipstick in Nude Shell. I love the color. It looks very natural on my Asian skin. Also, it is matte but moisturizing. Exactly like my favorite kinda lipstick. Shimmery or pearly lipsticks accentuate the cracks on my lips. Not very attractive!

Three LA Colors trios (from left to right: Sand Dune, Moon Rock and Southern Belle). The shadows are buttery soft, very pigmented, a little bit chalky. The texture reminds me of Stila and Urban Decay eye shadows. The packaging and color combo remind me of the NYX eyeshadow trio. For $1 each, you can't beat these.

Swatches! As you can see, they are indeed a little bit chalky. You gotta be light-handed when dipping the brush into these shadows ladies.

Sunset by the Lake

Just as suggested by its name, this look has red color eye shadow that represents sunset, blue represents lake,  green represents grass and brown for tree trunks. hehe..It looks kinda washed out, but I am kinda light-handed on the colors that I chose. Those are subtle colors, which makes this look wearable. 

My new palette called the NYX box of Eyeshadows. LOve love love the colors. Unfortunately, it is not as pigmented as Stila, Urban Decay or even Wet & Wild. They are great just for the enough pigmentation (since most shadows are not very shimmery anyway) and non chalkiness. As you know, shimmer eye shadows are usually more pigmented for some reason.