Review: E.L.F Studio Single Eyeshadows

Sorry ladies. I've been lazy. I haven't been buying makeup lately because I'm on a makeup ban. But I got myself hooked on buying clothes instead. Left me quite broke. :P

An E.L.F haul/review that I've been forgetting to post.

Oh my god, I sneaked a peek at E.L.F website and they have new items again. :( I want the lip stains. >.< Here's the Single Eyeshadows I bought from the E.L.F Studio line. These come in small packagings. I bought them all except maybe 3 colours.

From bottom left (in clockwise direction):

Coffee Bean, Wild Wheat, Butter Cream, Pebble, Amethyst, Mystic Moss, Charcoal

The colours in the picture above are not true. Refer to the website. It's almost true for all colours except Mystic Moss (which just looks like charcoal grey in the pan).

These eyeshadows are relatively pigmented. Not the best pigmentation but good enough to be used. I tested everything with an eyeshadow primer (L'oreal De-Crease).

Butter Cream: A rather unique shade. It's almost a gold but seems like a creamy yellow shade. Shimmery.
Wild Wheat: A soft brown. Almost like Milo (a chocolate drink). Doesn't really appear on me but great as a all over lid colour.
Coffee Bean: A dark brown with shimmers in it. My favourite. Gorgeous brown as a crease colour.
Pebble: A dark taupe shade with maybe some plums in it. A queer shade. It's too dark of a taupe and too weird for me. :(
Amethyst: Not really a purple. Maybe a plum. Definitely not what it looks like in pictures. It made my eyes look bruised (it might work better if I use a better eyeshadow primer since L'oreal De-crease doesn't really bring out the colours in Amethyst).
Mystic Moss: Supposedly a mossy green but it looks like grey in the pan. Very close to Charcoal except it has some hints of green. I supposed I like it since it's more unique compared to Charcoal.
Charcoal: A dark charcoal grey. Sheer and needs piling. Wouldn't give you that super intense dark grey you would want it to be.

All the eyeshadows have at least a little bit of shimmers in it except for Pebble, which seems matte. I think they are fairly decent eyeshadows. Not fabulous but for the price I paid, I wouldn't mind buying.

Overall, I think they are worth trying out if you like earth toned, more muted eyeshadows. Don't expect vibrant eyeshadows because they really are not. They are really on the dull/muted side but at least they have shimmers. Suitable for work. I would recommend just picking up a few shades to try if you are keen.

I love Coffee Bean a lot. It's my favourite brown. :)

Review: L'Oreal De-Crease Eye Shadow Base

I have been using L'Oreal De-Crease Eye Shadow Base for quite a long while. It's my first eyeshadow primer.

L'Oreal De-Crease Eye Shadow Base comes with a doe-foot wand applicator. It comes in only one shade which is said to be suitable for all skin tones. It retails for about US$8.48 (price taken from drugstore.com).

This primer looks similiar to L'oreal True Match Concealer, which I also own (in picture below).



L'oreal True Match Concealer has a liquid consistency while L'oreal De-crease has a slightly thicker consistency. The colour of L'oreal De-crease primer is a light beige shade. When applied, it blends out into a light beige colour over your eyelids making your eyes appear more awake since all the darkness on the lids is concealed. I like to just use this alone on the eyelids when I'm running out of time. I don't think it would work as well for darker skintones as the light beige appears really obvious on the lids so wouldn't really advise darker skintone ladies to just use this primer alone.

I'm really not a fan of this primer. It works really well for me initially and I totally adore how it makes me look so awake when used alone. However, gradually I realised the consistency of it just isn't perfect. There are times when it goes on smoothly and blends to a smooth finish. On unlucky days, it blends out to a blotchy finish, the kind of finish you get when you keep rubbing your concealer and it starts to flake. The primer dries fast and just doesn't blend to an even finish so you get patches of super obvious light beige here and there on the lids.

I hated it. But then of course, being me, I would give it another try again and again. So this review is written after I tried it for maybe 100+ times and still, it's the same. -gives face-

In terms of function, this works all right. It's just.....average. It works in making your eyeshadows appear on your eyelids. However, the colour doesn't intensify. You don't get your shadows as bright as they look in the pans. It lasted a couple of hours for me but I wouldn't recommend it for long wearing or heavy eye makeup.

(I think I'm losing touch with blogging. Just can't seem to find the right words or passion to blog. Or maybe I just hate this product. -lol-)

I'm still using it though. It actually works well for me with brands like Silky Girl (also known as Wet N Wild) eyeshadows, which have pretty and vibrant colours but for some reason, they don't appear all that pigmented for me. Else I'll just use it in the following way:

Primer -> Cream base (thin layer) -> Eyeshadow

You have to use the cream base after a primer else it will just crease like crazy. This works the best for all eyeshadows. At least for me so how the primer works doesn't really matter to me anymore.

I would advise you to save your money and invest in a better eye primer like Urban Decay Primer Potion or Two Faced Shadow Insurance (both retailing for about US$22) if your requirements in a primer is to make the eyeshadows pop, minimize creasing and make it last all day. L'oreal De-crease is really average to me and would be only a good alternative for short durations.

An even cheaper alternative worth considering is E.L.F Mineral Eye Primer (US$3). :)

New Haul: Daiso

Look what I found in Daiso (a Japanese store that sells products for $2)!


An Anna Sui inspired earring stand. So cute! How could I resist it. There's a little butterfly and maybe dragonfly engraving at the bottom of the stand.



I have no idea though whether Anna Sui really sells or produces this item. But it's so adorable. It's quite small though, a little bigger than the size of your hand. But I thought it would be good enough to store a few earrings I always wear and air them (after sterilizing) before I keep them. :)




A blurred picture of how it looks like with earrings on.



Found this acrylic holder too. Am so glad I found it again. I used to buy all the acrylic cups and holders Daiso used to carry because they are pretty good for storing all my lip products and concealers and stuff. But the whole range disappeared. :( I had one of these and needed another. I definitely recommend you to get this holder if you have a lot of lippies and pencil liners/bases/concealers. :) So much easier to find and carry about.






And I finally found these! The bottle on the right is a sponge/brush cleanser. Read reviews that it works and have been wanting to try. I finally found it. :)

The tool on the left is used to prevent mascara from getting onto your eyelids during application. Can't wait to try the both of them. :)