It's my country's Independence Day today and I have a veryyy long post for you girls
*This post is very pic heavy so I've reduced the size of some photos. Please click to enlarge.
There was this 60% discount thing going on so I took the very rare opportunity to grab the Elf Beauty Encyclopedia, together with the mineral lip gloss (Trophy Wife) & cream eyeliner (Midnight). At that time, the other one was sold out so I only got the Sparkle Eye Edition.
Very secure packaging. Each item was individually bubble wrapped and there was a fragile sticker. Thanks to Aini, my items arrived safe and in one piece =)
Front and back. This looks so cute, with the pronunciation for 'eye. There's a full ingredients list on the back. There are also logos for charity, recyclable and no animal testing.
Inside of the encyclopedia.. This closes with a magnet so it's not so prone to mysteriously opening in your bag and pouring out all of its contents. There's also a plastic sheet to protect it (attached to box so it won't slip out). This palette (is it considered a palette?) contains 12 eyeshadows (will now be referred to as e/s), 2 cream e/s, a brown eyeliner, an applicator and a guide to apply e/s.
I left these images bigger because they're so pretty! <3 The first thing I noticed was the super shimmery black e/s! It's so lovely... The ones I think I might like are the black, green, purple and pink/red.
The cream e/s in white and light pink. These are very very oily/creamy. Kinda like the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils or the Elf Duo Cream e/s. But I guess they will function as bases so you don't have to bring extra stuff when you travel. You can't really see the colour on your lids, just shimmer.
The applicator has a brush on one side and a sponge on the other. The brush side is pretty good, surprisingly. Too bad they don't sell the brush by itself. I have not tried the sponge side as I don't wanna dirty it lol
The eyeliner is bad =.= I couldn't see the line on top of my e/s. Maybe it'll work better alone.
Sorry about the words. I would hate it if someone used my swatch to sell stuff without giving credit to me. The colours are pretty accurate in the first photo except the red down there is more of the 2nd pic. I don't know why the 3rd photo looks so faded. Maybe it's the bathroom lighting. Swatches were done over the $1 Elf e/s primer using the brush that came with the palette.
And this is how my palette looked after swatching =( Initially, the colours were not so pigmented so I had to run my brush over it a few times. However, some of the colours were softer than the rest so when I did the same, the powder just went everywhere =.= Look at my poor red and the brown on the top right corner.
I apologize for the following photos. Please ignore my inadequate skills in applying e/s (I'm trying to learn). I didn't bother to blend the edges cos I was going to remove it anyway + I only used the provided brush so it looks like shit.
This is using the green and the light gold beside it. My eye makeup is always the same. Light colour in inner corner and darker colour at the outer 2/3. I can't do my eyes like everyone else because I have short lids (is that what you call it?) and no double eyelids =( I think my 'lid' and crease are actually the same thing, if you get what I mean. Anyway, in the 2nd photo, I added the black on the outer corner. It didn't come out as black but rather a beautiful dark olive colour. I feel as though there's something wrong with the shape though. Perhaps it would have looked better like this? (Photoshopped)
I don't know.. Give me your opinion please =( Oh ya, I didn't use any primer/base for these eye shots. I was shocked that the colours were so darn pigmented even without any primer or base! This is not normal at all.. Not for a palette so cheap at least.
So since I have 2 eyes.. I decided to wear black on the other side in an attempt to do a black smokey eye. FAIL! I look like one of those girls who use solid black eyeliner all over their lid. I thought the silver (bottom left) was going to be more pigmented but it wasn't (actually mostly just glitter). So I mixed it with a bit of black, thinking it would become dark gray and it just became.. Well, black >.< In an attempt to save it, I added the brown (2nd row right) on top of the silver+black but it didn't do any good. The black was too pigmented =( And since the black didn't turn up all that sparkly like in the palette, I topped the silver over it. So yeah.. My 'smokey eye' looks like crap but I promise I'll learn and show you better photos next time =(
That was the first attempt. The swatches were during the 2nd attempt. Since the red was so ruined, I decided to try it out on my eye. (Another failure below)
Left is my bare eye. On the right, I have the cream e/s in white on my lid. Notice how it brightens up my eye?
(I put one eye close up and another full faced so you can see it better)
This was another disaster over disaster situation. I put the top right brown on inner half and red on outer half but it just didn't match so I just covered everything in the brown then added black on outer corner lol It turned out pretty odd but just concentrate on how beautiful the e/s is, okay? >.<
I tried drawing the brown eyeliner over this but it just didn't show at all so I used the trusty Maybelline gel eyeliner instead.
Curled my lashes and added a coat of mascara. Wasn't satisfied with what I saw even after 2 coats.
Topped up with another coat of my favourite Maybelline Magnum mascara. Can you see the immense difference? I don't usually wear more than 1 coat of mascara but when the need arises.. I'll turn to Maybelline because their mascaras seem to work best for me. The e/s actually looks so much more wearable now (even though I still don't think I'll wear this out).
I know it kinda messes with your mind seeing one eye with makeup and the other without so.. Here's half of my face.
Falsies!
I didn't use the glue and it was peeling off at the inner corner so I had to Photoshop to 'stick' it back =/
Size : 1.41 oz / 37 g
Price : RM 11.20 (60% discount)
Bought from : Elf (via hubby_enny of LowYat.net)
Made in China
Pros : Pigmented, cheap!, comes with applicator, packaging recyclable, no animal testing, has cream e/s for base
Cons : No mirror
My conclusion : Totally worth it!! RM 11.20 seems such an unbelievable price for what you get. Am looking forward to getting the other encyclopedia. I hope there will be more discounts because the usual studio and mineral discounts do not involve these.
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