E.L.F. Aqua Beauty Molten Liquid Eyeshadow - Are they worth the money? Cruelty Free, Cream Eyeshadow, Affordable

So a wee while ago I finally placed an E.L.F. order from the UK site (and mistakenly thought it was coming from inside the UK) and had to patiently wait for the two brushes and two of these eyeshadows to show up. 

**Side note - I'm not going to do a separate review of the brushes, but I got Pointed Powder and Flawless Face Brushes and they are top notch. I love them both. They are maybe a tiny bit smaller than I expected, they're both maybe comparable to the Real Techniques blush brush, but well worth the £7.50 they each cost **

So E.L.F. or Eyes Lips Face are a U.S. based makeup brand, completely cruelty free, and very affordable.  Right now they are available direct from their website (UK or USA), through Superdrug and through some other bigger online retailers. I'm not sure if they're coming into Superdrug stores or not but I hope they do so I can go and swatch and play with things. They only announced they were coming to Superdrug within the past week or so, so if I'd been patient I could have just ordered from their and gained points too. Once they arrived and I'd had about a week to play with them, I decided I really liked them and when I was placing a LuxPlus order decided to pick up the other two colours they had available.

Top to Bottom:  Liquid Gold, Molten Bronze, Rose Gold and Brushed Copper

According to ELF's website "Wash this hydrating liquid eyeshadow over lids for a vibrant, metallic look (and an irresistible cooling effect). The formula is infused with Purified Water and Vitamin E to help hydrate". They retail for £5 each and are available in six shades, I have four of them.

So what do I think about them...

Packaging

They come in these tubes that I keep likening to lip gloss or liquid lipstick, but, in actual fact, are exactly the same as cream concealers. They are plastic but they have a nice amount of weight to them and don't feel cheap at all. I also really like the blue caps, I think they signify the Aqua Beauty range or something.

Application

So these come with a doe-foot wand, exactly the same as cream concealer, and that's what I use to apply them, although I guess you could wipe it on your finger and then apply with your finger tips or a brush. I actually like using the doe-foot, and I didn't think I would. It makes application really quick, which is great as I'm so lazy with makeup in the morning, but its not super precise, especially in the crease area. So if you want to do some super sharp cut crease look, I would recommend dabbing a brush onto the wand and using that instead. 

Top to Bottom:  Liquid Gold, Molten Bronze, Rose Gold and Brushed Copper

How do they wear?

The first time I tried them, not very well. Every time since then they've been amazing though.  

So the first time I wore these I wasn't really sure what I was doing as I hadn't ever used a product like this before, so I wouldn't take my one bad day to mean these are bad. I didn't prime my eyelid, applied a tiny bit of a soft, matte brown coloured powder shadow in my crease, wapped a bit of these on my eyelid and went about my day. That day was really hot and I was incredibly busy, squinting at computer screens and then trying to avoid the sun, and by the end of it my eyelids were a mess. It was creased by about 3pm and I was gutted, luckily I have hooded lids so the bunching up could only really have been seen if I closed my eyes.

Top to Bottom:  Liquid Gold, Molten Bronze, Rose Gold and Brushed Copper

Day two I decided to try again. This time I primed my whole lid with the original Urban Decay primer potion, put in my crease colour and applied the shadow. I then let it set for 10-20 seconds before very gently blending a tiny bit of my crease colour just along the edge of the shadow, to set it fully. 

It did not budge all day. No creasing or fading and it looked amazing. Like I'd put in ten times the effort I had. I've tried this way of applying with the Bronze, Copper and Rose Gold, and it worked really well with all of them. The only reason I've not tried it with the Yellow Gold colour is I'm not sure if I'd like it on me or not. I'm quite cool toned and I'm not sure how it would look. Its also not nearly as opaque as the others and I don't know how many coats it would need to make it really pop.

I also know that Rose Gold and Brushed Copper look sheer in those swatches but they were done with only one coat and they do layer really nicely. Two layers of rose gold on the lid and then some really black winged liner looks amazing. I've tried liners from both ends of the spectrum over them too, Collection and Illamasqua and both applied fine and lasted amazingly, although the Illamasqua Precision Ink liner looked far better over the top (precise liquid verses clunky felt tip though).

Final thoughts

So overall I would give these a 8 out of 10, with there best points being their longevity, how easy they are to apply and the value for money. Probably the worst points are that the lighter colours are a little sheer, and that there's not a great color selection (the four "molten metals", a dark grey and a lilac). I would love to see a dark bottle green and navy blue in the same formulas as the bronze one, that would be so nice.

I would happily recommend these to anyone looking for a gorgeous, easy to apply, eyeshadow that packs a punch.

xoxo Scruffy

50 Days, 50 Lipsticks - Days 21 - 30 - Makeup Monsters, Bare Minerals, Tarte, Collection, Too Faced, NYX and Revolution

OK, going to be honest and say I wasn't sure I would even make it this far however I am so glad I have. Also, in the spirit of being honest, I'm not entirely sure the order I wore these in. I've made a point of collecting my thoughts and also keeping them together so I know what I wore, but I didn't keep track of when. I do know that the Lip Lingerie was day 26, day 20 was a Saturday and I wore it the following Saturday when I went out (didn't do anything on the Sunday so no lipstick required).

(If you've not been following this, or you want a recap, and explication and Days 1 - 10 here, and Days 11 - 20 here),

Day 21: Tarteist Lip Paint in TBT

I don't like this. I don't care if it suites me, I don't care if I got compliments, I don't care if I bought it in the States. I don't like it.

So I got this in the Sephora in Times Square in New York last year. I got it and Hangry (at least I think that was what it was called) and the other one was actually worse. The formula of this is incredibly mousse-like but it also sticks to itself and not your lips. You swipe and it all ends up in one corner of your mouth, so you swipe again and it all slips to the other. I found I had to kind of dab this on with the doe foot to make it stay. Such a pain. 

It didn't set completely (which I didn't hate) but it started to feeling powdery as the day wore on, which was gross, and then it wore off patchily. Yuck and no. Very disappointed. 

It's going in the bin.

Day 22: Collection Field Day Lipstick in 2 Tulip

I got this lipstick for around 50p online in from a clearance website and hadn't worn it before trying it here, so I really didn't expect much at all from it. However I was actually quite pleasantly surprised. 

The colour isn't really me, its a bright pink, and the only pinks I usually wear are either dusky rose type ones or bright but deep magenta type colours. This was a little more orangey-ish but not a coral kind of colour. I don't hate it, I'm just not sure I'll wear it all that often. Formula wise its matte-ish. It's definitely not a standard creamy sating finish but its also not a true matte. Demi-matte, that's the term I'm looking for. It doesn't feel the best though and it did go slightly chunky.

I'm going to put it in the "test it again" pile. I was going to keep it but the more I look at it, the less likely I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of it.

Day 23: Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Dazzler

So I googled this and I'm not actually sure if its part of their standard line of lipglosses or one they made specifically for Christmas Gift Sets. It is available on Amazon and eBay though they're are images online. 

I've made my feeling about lipgloss very clear on more than one occasion. I do not like it. However when I wore this I just needed something quick to bang onto my lips and get out the door and it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

Did I like it? No. Did I hate it as much as I thought I would? Also no. It isn't completely horrible. It smells really nice and I enjoyed the tingly mint feeling on my lips. It also really wasn't that sticky. It's still a lipgloss so it is still sticky, it's just not the worst. I'm going to add this to the one more chance pile too, as it might not be the worst idea to have one sheer and slightly sparkly lipgloss in my collection, but I don't want to keep it if I won't use it. 

Day 24: Revolution Iconic Pro Lipstick in Liberty (Matte)

This lipstick is like a slightly more blue toned version of the NYX Full Throttle Lipstick I wore on day 16. And that kind of purple suits me even less than the slightly more pinky one.

It wore pretty well for cheap lipstick but the formula sadly wasn't as good as Propaganda's (day 17). I know I'm not going to wear this again so I'm just going to get rid of it.

Day 25: NYX Extra Creamy Lipstick in Snow White

This lipstick lived in my work make-up for so long and it only every got used when I was going out after work and wanted to re-vamp my face. That meant it had never really got a good wear test.

I love the colour. It's a really nice dark vampy red, but a slightly brown red and I don't really own anything else like it. Also these lipsticks are like £4 so they're are the cheapest of the cheap and there's like a squillion colours. NYX lipsticks are a really good, affordable option.

Sadly when I wore this for more than a couple of hours, I just really didn't like the way it felt, but that's just me. The lipstick feels like it dries down and kind of locks in place, Which I guess is maybe what you're looking for in a dark, creamy, bullet lipstick. I will say, we're half this now and my lips are probably like "What are you doing to us you crazy witch??" So, this is going to go in the one more chance pile. I'm thinking once I'm done this I might give it a couple of weeks before I go through that and retry all the ones in that pile, after treating my lips to all the sugar scrubs and a full tube of lipbalm.

I feel like this 10 days has been pretty brutal so far, out of the first five there's none that are definitely getting kept.

Why did I decide to swatch this time around?

Day 26: NYX Lip Lingerie Liquid Lipstick in 12 Exotic

Well I know I'm keeping this.

I only own two of these Lip Lingeries, one in Embellishment (which I think is shade 2) and this one. I know it's meant to be a nudier line but I just found the other ten shades in the initial line too nude, too concealer lip-esque, and really boring.  They have just released 12 more shades in the UK and once my local NYX counter gets them I may pick up one of them as there's a darker greige kind of colour that I'm very interested in. The other eleven new ones I'm pretty meh about as well.

It's a shame though because I really like the formula of these. It's really comfortable and applies thick and almost moussey then dries down. If I could get it in a brighter red or like a deep dark magenta I would be all over it. It's probably my favourite NYX Liquid Lip formula. Worth trying if you want something nice for the office but not really fun for the weekend.

Day 27: Too Faced Melted Matte Liquid Lipstick in Lady Balls

So this lipstick is so popular in the beauty communities I'm part of, but then again so are the Tarte Lip Paints, so I don't think that's a good indicator of anything. They got this right though.

I got this in an mini pack at Christmas along with two of the Melted Lipsticks and one of the Melted Chocolate ones, and I'd tried all of them (Chihuahua and Chocolate Honey have been regular work shades for a while now) except this one. I need to be in the right place to want a red before I'll play with them, or at least I did before I started this madness.

This lipstick is so nice though. It lasted really well, not so well it didn't need touched up, but it was just a touch up after food and nothing major. Also I didn't need to wipe red lipstick off my chin. Does that happen to anyone else? Like f you eat something big you have to bite off, like a baguette, you end up with lipstick all over your chin? Let me know about that, for science.

Also, going off on a tangent here, don't ever let packaging fool you, The Lip Lingerie packaging is nearly twice the size, but that thing actually contains 0.4ml less (allegedly, the fl. oz. conversion is wrong and doesn't make a lot of sense). What I'm trying to say is don't be fooled by huge packaging, it could just be huge packaging.

Day 28: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in 27 Madrid

So I have a real love hate relationship with these creams. Some of them look great and last forever, some of them apply streaky, smudge on everything, look gross and stain your lips.

This was one of the good ones, at least this time. It applied and wore fairly well, and was the most stunning red colour. All of these lip creams seem to dissolve in water so if you drink a lot of tea like I do then it will need reapplied regularly. Overall it's not bad though, and I am going to keep it. For now at least.

Day 29: NYX Intense Butter Gloss in 03 Toasted Marshmallow

I think I bought three of these Glosses because YouTube told me they we we're good and picked the shades based on how much I liked the name. I was promised all kind of things and every time I've worn them I've just felt really let down.

There's a lot of pigment but it wears off fast and leaves me with a weird line of glossy purple round the edge of my lips, can look streaky and is sticky. Also when I was wearing this I checked it in the mirror at the start of lunch (before I ate anything) and was like  "What a mess!". I know its only a gloss but I'm way to busy to have to re-apply every 25 minutes.

I'm only keeping this so I can finally finish the review of these I've been working on, then it's going in the bin. We'll consider it gone now though, as it won't be going back into my makeup collection.

Day 30: Makeup Monsters Liquid Lipstick in Rebound

Makeup Monsters are my favourite indie brand and they make the best magenta lipstick I've every seen (I've not worn it during this challenge yet, I've been saving it in case there was a special occasion or something). This orange is equally as nice, and once I'm done with this I can see me getting a lot of use out of it.

I'm not going to do a dedicated review as I think this colour is discontinued but once the UK supplier gets re-stocked with the new shades (there's a gorgeous dusky rose one I need) I'm going to pick up some more and will include it when I review them.

If you want a wee taster though, the formula is really thin, and takes a minute or two to dry down completely, but once it does, its totally matte. It lasts a really long time, minor touch ups after lunch and dinner, and because the formula is really thin it doesn't seem to go weird and chunky if you have to touch up and accidentally go over some of the product thats still on your face.

Running total

Days: 30

Lipsticks Worn: 32

Lipsticks being binned: 6 (+ 6 maybes)

Top 3

1. (Joint) Too Faced Melted Matte in Lady Balls/ Makeup Monsters Liquid Lipstick in Rebound

3. (Joint) NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Madrid/NYX Lip Lingerie in Exotic

Bottom 3

1. Tartist Lip Paint in TBT

2. Revelution Iconic Pro Lipstick in Liberty

3. NYX Intense Butter Gloss in Toasted Marshmallow

xoxo Scruffy