E.L.F haul | Fairy's Tales

Today I am: 26 weeks 

Hi everyone, bit of a different post today. I had a bit of a splurge on elf (eyes lips face) makeup. I bought a brush belt from them years ago and still receive emails from them about their offers and such and so I took advantage of 50% off all their makeup! As you can see I got quite the box full and including P&P it came to under £20!

I've not used their makeup before but there were a few things I was desperately after and would have bought from other brands, but with 50% off I thought I might as well give their products a try. 

This is my haul: Mineral Infused Face Primer - £6.95, Blush Pink Passion - £3.95, Daily Brush Cleaner - £3.95, Studio Makeup Mist & Set - £3.95, Studio Matte Lip Colour Rich Red - £3.95, Baked a Eyeshadow Palette Texas - £10.00 (all those prices are the full price - as I say I got 50%)

The main thing I was after was a primer, brush cleanser for spot cleaning and a makeup setting spray. 

I must say I am incredibly impressed with the brush cleaner, it comes in a 60ml bottle, so not the biggest one on the market but it really does the job. I have gotten sooo lazy when it comes to cleaning my brushes, I never used to spot clean them but would always deep clean with fairy liquid but water bills are expensive and I feel that if I can spot clean them daily then a deep clean isn't needed as often. It is anti-bacterial too so not only is it getting the residue of products off the brush it is helping to keep the nasty bugs that live on your brushes at bay. It also smells really lovely.

The primer I'm still not 100% convinced on yet! I have dry skin but for some reason no matter what I do makeup slides off my face. A lot of people with dehydrated skin or dry skin find that their makeup sinks into the skin throughout the day, mine just wipes clean off with the slightest touch! It's annoying for me, and it's annoying for the fiancée because he will undoubtedly get some form of transfer of my face onto his, or his clothes! Also because I'm so pale it looks like he's forgot to rub in his moisturiser, it's pure white on him! I don't feel that the primer necessarily helps the foundation stay on my skin and it feels a little slimy when first applied, but if left to sink into your skin before putting your makeup on it does leave your skin with a nice soft feel. The down side is if you don't give it time to soak into your face it makes the foundation application really streaky...we'll have to wait this one out a little longer to see my full verdict.

The makeup setting mist...oh dear, well first things first it stinks, I don't know quite what it smells of. Apparently it has Aloe, Green Tea, Cucumber and vitamins A,C & E in it. I think maybe it's the green tea that makes it so potent; or it could be my pregnant sense of smell. It also tastes really vile so, when applying hold your breath and avoid the lip area! I made this mistake the first time I sprayed it, it went on my lips and so I got a good old taste of it which lingered for quite some time. Like the primer, I'm not 100% convinced that this is helping my makeup last any longer, so I will give it a little bit more time. It is nice and refreshing though and I think you could use it through out the day if you're one of those people whose complexion gets a bit dull as the hours go by.

The most disappointing product of the lot is the eyeshadow palette. When I opened it I was in awe 

The colours look incredible, especially the top 3 on the right, lovely lilac pink and 2 rose gold shades, and when swatched they looked really promising

But to get any colour pay off you have to use your fingers, they are hopeless if you try and use a brush. As you can probably see the amount of dust all over the palette in the first picture, that is purely from just trying to get any amount of product onto a brush. Because they looked so pigmented at first I used a MAC 217 to apply the light champagne base colour but there was nothing happening. I've used them with and without a primer underneath and I've used a MAC 239 to try and pack the colour on, and still to no avail. Dipping your finger in and patting it onto the eye is the only way to get the lighter shades to show up and with the darker crease shaded you have to do the same to get the impact of colour and then blend with a 217 or 224 to buff the edges and create a nicer shape. I am so gutted about this, I'm just glad I didn't splurge a whole £10 on it! I much prefer my old trusty MUA palette (which unfortunately is hitting pan - hence this purchase)

All is not lost however the pink blush is really nice, although it is more matte than what I was expecting. On the website it looked as if it was going to have a shimmer through it, but it is a nice colour, if a little powdery, and transfers nicely onto the cheeks. I use my Real Techniques "blush brush" to apply 

But the piece de résistance is the Matte Lip Colour in Rich Red! Holy moly, this is gorgeous! As with most red lip colours it comes out on my lips as a slightly fuchsia-esque colour (I have highly pigmented lips and each lip colour looks different on different skin tones, for others it may be more of a true red) but this is so gorgeous. It comes in a wind up pencil, akin to those Revlon lip crayons (I forget their name) however it is on the smaller side, which for a shade this bright is probably an advantage as you can get right into the corners and draw a really lovely Cupid's bow, however with the more neutral shades I feel it might be a bit of a faff as it would probably take much longer than necessary to apply. It gives a semi-matte finish to start with and then dulls down into a true matte shade. You can see it freshly applied in this photo.

I must admit I did apply a lipgloss over the top which was a bit of a mistake as it started to bleed after an hour or two. That and I couldn't really test the lasting power properly because the gloss made it slip so it came off when I was eating and drinking. I will definitely update you on this lip product though because I absolutely love it!

You can purchase these products from www.eyeslipsface.co.uk. All these products were bought with my own money, I am not being paid or sponsored to review these products 

Thanks for reading, hope it wasn't too long and boring.

Until next week! 

Fai x