Many years ago when I was just wee lil makeup artist (HA! I was never wee or little...) I was either snobby or naive depending on your perspective of me. I was a die hard devoted M.A.C. fan (still am, don't get me wrong) and my great friend Tammie purchased some makeup online from a company called E.L.F. and I mercilessly mocked her for buying makeup that cost ONE.DOLLAR. Recently I've heard some great reviews of the products so I purchased some last weekend with the intent of trying them out during my vacation weekend in Leavenworth, WA. That did not happen! (read: too much beer, booze and general debauchery) So yesterday while at work I tried out their blush/bronzer duo, and their eyshadow primer. First off, they smell so clean when you open the package! Like lemony, citrusy goodness. I particularly liked the color payoff of the bronzer, sometimes it's easy to overdo the bronzer and frequently they are too sparkly. This one is a great shade and it lasted for about 7 hours before I felt like I needed to touch it up (and I only did because I was going to Happy Hour with some friends). The blush is a really light and sheer peachy pink shade that is obviously very complimentary to this bronzer. Some have said this is a great dupe for the NARS Orgasm/Luna duo which is very, very close however I will say Orgasm is quite a bit more sparkly than the E.L.F. blush. For three dollars you CANNOT, SHOULD NOT pass this up. (more later on the primer, still testing it)I wholeheartedly believe that the 'drugstore' cosmetic companies have significantly stepped their game up over the recent years. Packaging and product have improved greatly from years ago when your older sister/brother/cousin/drag queen was using them.
Rant ahead: while I cannot simply single out E.L.F. cosmetics, as a woman of (some) color but more specifically as a makeup artist, it's so irritating and frustrating that companies don't make bronzers for deeper skin tones. (Exclusion: Iman's line but the ENTIRE line is specific to people of color)Usually we resort to some very deep eyeshadow colors to do contouring/bronzing and it's HIGH time these companies get it together and recognize that men and women of color have the same needs and desires when it comes to makeup. Even typically racially cognizant M.A.C. only goes so dark in the bronzer arena./end rant
That's all makeuppies, hope you found that useful or helpful and if not feel free to tell me why!
**ETA**
I want to point out the products I purchased for this review were from Target. I also ordered some E.L.F. products via their website on 7-29-11. It is now 8-18-11 and I still have not received those products. So, in the future I will likely purchase from Target or if I'm especially excited about something, pay for expedited shipping of some sort. 20 days for a handful of makeup seems preposterous.
