Is it just me or is there a thing happening lately with face palettes? I am seeing them everywhere, especially contour kits like the ones from Anastasia and Kat Von D. Now, the thing about these palettes, is that
A. they are expensive.
B. I only want to buy them if I am going to use every color.
Having fair skin, I won’t use every color in those contour kits. I have to use a very light contour color, or I will look like I smeared orange mud on my cheeks.
Anyway, back to the point of this post. I have recently been trying out some ELF products, and have discovered that they are a great brand. I’ll admit it, when I go to Target, I tend to walk on by the ELF section. It’s never stocked properly, and yeah, the packaging looks kinda cheap. But I’m no makeup snob, if it’s a good product, I’ll use it!
So I placed a massive order from ELF, got the free shipping, got the goody bag, the whole deal. Now, if you aren’t familiar with the brand, they are known for their very affordable prices – I didn’t see anything over $10.
My favorite things from the order are these Studio Face Palettes. I ordered the Contour, Blush, and Illuminating kits. I skipped out on the Foundation and Bronzer kits, because like I said, I am fair skinned and those probably won’t work for me. All of these kits with 4 different colors retail for $6. Yes, it’s a great deal.
Let’s do the Contour Kit first.
The packaging on these are all the same, sleek black compacts with big mirrors. So far, so good. Now this contour kit is all matte, except for the first shade (top left) which is supposed to be the highlight shade. It is shimmery, but no glitter. It’s a nice champagne gold shade. The second color is your yellow toned color, great for brightening up your under-eye area. Then, you have your two contour colors, a warm toned brown and a cool toned brown. The colors are also not too dark, so I will be able to use all of them.
Ok, onto blush.
All of the colors in this palette are matte, except for the bottom right color (last swatch). These are pretty pigmented, I was surprised at how well they swatched. ELF did a great job of choosing colors for this palette, first color is a baby doll pink, second color is a peachy- pink, and then on the bottom you have a cool deeper pink, and then a warmer toned, shimmery pink. These are all gorgeous colors, especially that last color (bottom right).
Lastly, the Illuminating palette.
I was most excited for this one. All of the colors here have a sheen to them to give you a nice glow to the skin. No glitter, just a fine shimmer. The first shade is a yellow champagne toned color, verrrry similar to the first one in the Contour Kit. The second one is a pinker-champagne tone. The third one (bottom left) is a light gold, and then the last one (bottom right) is a warmer, deeper gold color. These are beautiful, and they remind me a lot of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders.
I just want to say that no, these colors are not opaque with one swipe. You have to build these colors up. I haven’t found them to be chalky, and they are extremely soft and finely milled – you just don’t have to be careful to get too much on your brush (if you catch my drift). I personally, think that is a good thing. With any cheek product, you don’t want an extremely pigmented stripe of color on your cheek. These are very natural and pretty. They blend really well, too.
At $6 a pop, they can’t be beat! I’d say try these out if you are looking for some new face powders and not wanting to spend a lot.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
The Hustlin’ Homemaker 