Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Some sparkly shit from e.l.f. (Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! and Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer)

I bought both of these products mainly because I didn't really understand what they were supposed to be. Even after googling them, they remained mysterious to me. They were cheap and I was curious, so whatever. I got them.

e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! and e.l.f. Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer
e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! and e.l.f. Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer
To explain my journey of discovery with e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! and e.l.f. Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer in more visual terms, before I tried them, I was like this:


 And then after I tried them, I was like this:


And also this:


So that about sums it up, I think. But I'll show you some photos anyway.

e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! is clearly meant to appeal to people who don't want to pay $30 for Nars Blush (highlighter) in Albatross. But I have to assume that this e.l.f. wannabe dupe is in fact not at all like the Nars version, or I don't know why anyone would ever buy Albatross. This e.l.f. shit is basically useless. It's a not-particularly-fine, crumbly, yellowish-white, vaguely shimmery powder with some sparkles in it. It does not work as a highlighter. You can barely see it, except for the chunks of sparkle. It's possible that it would show up better on darker skin than mine, but I don't think you'd want it to, because it's not fine and smooth enough to create pretty highlights. You'll just look like you have some patchy, sparkly crap on your face. And it doesn't fucking last. I don't know what its problem is, but it pretty much just falls off your skin 5 seconds later. Garbage.

Here are swatches, which make it look much nicer than it really is (heavy swatch on the left and blended out on the right):

Swatches of e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! (natural light)
Swatches of e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! (natural light)
Swatches of e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! (with flash)
Swatches of e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! (with flash)
I remember taking another photo of my arm where I'd swatched it about 3 minutes later to show that the stuff had almost completely disappeared, but I seem to have deleted it. Probably I was going through my photos and thought, "Why is there a picture of my bare arm skin in here? Trash."

As for e.l.f. Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer, well, let's first dispense with the notion that it has any tone correcting properties, unless the thing you want to correct is that your face isn't glittery enough. It's really just a very translucent powder with a lot of sparkle in it. There doesn't seem to be any difference at all between the four colors that appear in the pan. It you brush it on your face, it looks hideous. Or at least on mine it does. It seems to have a magical ability to deposit one piece of glitter in each pore, which is really a spectacular look, I must say.

Check it out! Every pore on my cheek and nose is individually highlighted. Just what I've always wanted.


I really don't know what purpose this product could serve. The shimmer is too sparse to use it as an eyeshadow or highlighter. All over the face, you get the wonderful results pictured above. Maybe if you are into body glitter? Like you want to brush this on your décolletage when you go out at night or for a holiday party or something. Do people do that? I've seen products marketed that way, but I don't know anyone who uses them. Or maybe your face is as smooth as baby's skin, but you would like some random specks of glitter scattered all over it for some reason.

I didn't waste too much money on these, at least, and now I know. And now you know. But I could have got a nice coffee or something instead.

I am curious, though: does anyone out there have either of these? Do you have an actual use for them? Am I missing something here? I'm still like this:

13 comments:

  1. The reviews of things you don't like are always an entertaining read - especially with reaction gifs!

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    1. My blog was originally on Tumblr, and I miss the gifs!

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  2. I also love the neg reviews.You should turn this site into ihatethischeapshit.com.

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    1. I think I would get too cranky if I were complaining all the time, and I'd have to purposely seek out crap! Plus I do like a lot of cheap shit . . . but I promise not to hold back when I don't.

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  3. sorry you bought useless shit, but this was hilarious as fuck. if it makes you feel any better, i bought two of those new Almay shadow softies. worthless.

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    1. Oh, I read some bad reviews of those! How do they get away with putting out products that don't work at all? Rage!

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  4. Well, you've made my day. I almost want you to buy and test more "useless, cheap shits"...

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    1. Oh, I'm sure I will, if only by accident. Don't worry. I make poor choices all the time!

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  5. I bought their other tone correcting powder that isn't shimmer and it did dick fuck all. I just gave it away today actually to my nanny's thirteen year old daughter who loves ELF makeup and isn't gonna understand for fuck what it is. But yeah it was useless on me. It didn't correct shit just made me look powdery which I do not like at all! ELF has some really good products but at times you come across those certain ones that make you realize why it only cost $2.99!!!

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    1. I actually don't hate the other tone correcting powder I have, but it definitely doesn't do much tone correcting, and I can see how it could look powdery on anyone who is not as pasty as I am. I'm planning to post about it sometime fairly soon.

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  6. I too bought e.l.f's tone correcting powder (the non-sparkly one) and it didn't do jack for me either. I figured it was me being inept so I played around with it and nope, it's just shit. It made my skin look chalky, old as all hell and accentuated every pore on my face. I saw this and got momentarily excited because I'm a product whore with a short term memory but your review reminded me why I avoid e.l.f for the most part. Just shell out the dough for Guerlain's Meteorites. Expensive as hell but one container will last a lifetime and it doesn't make you look like you fell asleep on an arts and craft table.

    I'll probably get shit for this but e.l.f is on par with MAC to me. Mostly overhyped crap loaded with glitter that claim to brighten, correct or highlight. Nuts to that. I don't want to look like a stripper.

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    1. You know, I've only ever had one MAC product: a lipgloss that I got as a gift from someone. Oh, and a lipstick from BeyondTheRack that I think might have been fake. And yet, despite reading countless blog posts and reviews of MAC products, I've never really been tempted to buy any others. If I'm going to spend that much money, there are brands that are much more appealing.

      This is really helpful, because I would have given that e.l.f. Tone Correcting Powder, but maybe you have to be like me and have skin that it literally the color of chalk for it to work. It actually looks pretty great on me (the cool one). I will keep this in mind when I post about it in the near future.

      And I've been tempted by the Meteorites, but I am afraid of the violet scent.

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  7. Save the money you spend on makeup and use the cash instead on some classes that will improve your English skills.

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