Bargain Beauty: Eye Lips Face (ELF)

I love to save money on makeup (because I buy so much of it), so I'm always looking for good quality makeup at great prices. Well, now I must look no further than Eye Lips Face.

Eyes Lips Face makes quality makeup that mostly costs just one dollar. Aside from the regular $1 line, their excellent mineral line is mostly $3 to $5, with a few large $8 items, I think. And the studio line (which I have yet to try but can't wait to do so) is also $3 to $5. They also have a few insanely amazing $1 makeup brushes (I have yet to try them all but I love the Total Face Brush and the Eyeliner Brush).

How can ELF makeup be so cheap, you may ask? Well, they don't really advertise, and their packaging is cheap as heck. This is the only area in which I've run into problems - sometimes their packaging breaks or isn't quite right, but that's very rare and doesn't prevent me from using the makeup (for example, the clear caps on the eyeliner pencils are often too lose to stay on properly).

Here are my three current favorite products:

• Brightening Eye Color: They are quads of well-pigmented shadows. I currently own Drama, which consists of a black, two greys, and a white (great for a smokey eye), Luxe, which is a dark brown, coppery lighter brown, gold, and pinkish maroon, and Blue Moon, which is a dark and a light blue grey, a medium brown shimmer, and a creamy off-white shimmer. I absolutely LOVE these shadows and recommend them to everyone. There are so many more that I still have to buy (and at $1, I don't feel guilty about collecting them all!).
• Brightening Eye Liner: I love this liner. If you are used to very expensive liner, you may not like this, but for one dollar, how can you go wrong? I have Black, Navy, Coffee, Ash, and Gilded. All for just one dollar each! As for the quality of the liner, I really do like it. It's a pencil liner. It glides on smoothly and doesn't scratch you as long as you keep it sharpened. It's a very nice liner. Not as much staying power as liquid liner, but that can be expected with most pencil liners.
• Mineral Eyeshadow: From the mineral line (these shadows are just three dollars!). They are highly pigmented, loose shadows. I have Seductive (a very dark, very saturated black), Wild (dark brown with shimmer), and Partier (matte greyish navy). They leave a little bit of fallout, like any loose shadow, but I don't mind. Just do your eyes before the rest of your makeup (duh :P). Really excellent shadows, and a little bit goes a long way. Can't wait to buy some of the newer colors.

I can't wait to buy more of ELF's amazing makeup! I own quite a few more of there products, but I don't want to start rambling. I plan on doing some tutorials with some of their makeup very soon, which will include pictures of the products (sorry for the lack of pictures in this post!).

So, my dears, have you stumbled upon any great beauty bargains? Or have you found Eyes Lips Face and love it as much as I do?

Makeup Review: CoverGirl Eye Enhancers 4-Kit (Tropical Fusion)

So I bought this quad recently, and I have to say I was impressed CoverGirl's eye shadows. They are very well-pigmented, and, as you can see, they have some very pretty colors. This quad is called Tropical Fusion. It contains a lovely blue, a turquoise-teal-green kinda color, a vibrant orange, and a lime green-yellow. Here are some swatches:

No base or primer was used. The top row is applied wet and the bottom dry. They all show up pretty well except for the yellow-green, which is not quite so pigmented. What I really like is that they look slightly metallic when applied wet (you may not be able to see it in that picture though, sorry).

Now I want more of these! Some of my favorites (which I may be getting soon) are Firecracker, Blazing Blues, and Dazzling Metallics (you can see them here).

I might do a rainbow-themed makeup tutorial with these in the future. What do you think? Do you have any favorite drugstore brands like CoverGirl? If so, tell me! I need to start spending less money on makeup.

Makeup Review - L'Oréal HiP (Riotous and Platinum)

Hi there! I recently purchased some HiP (High-intensity Pigments) shadows from L'Oréal Paris. I got Riotous and Platinum.

Riotous is a lime green and a lovely khaki green. Platinum is a fabulous, very metallic silver (even though it looks kinda white here) and a black with tiny silver sparkles. Here are some swatches...

The top row is applied wet and the bottom row is dry. Riotous is on the left and Platinum on the right.

Note: The silver is very reflective whether it is wet or dry, but in this picture the light hit the wet row and not the dry row quite so much.

The pigments are very nice. I've only used the shadows a few times so far, but as far as first impressions go...

• The silver really has to be used sparingly, except in very special occasions. I tried it all over the lid and it was a bit much! I simply couldn't pull it off with the outfit I was wearing. Maybe at a different occasion, if I were wearing a little black dress or my silver ruffle-y dress, but not for a casual party.
• The black seems as if it would be very nice for a smokey eye with a slightly different touch (because of the teeny tiny silver sparkles).
• The khaki goes very well with brown shadow, and surprisingly, it looks great with shimmery peach shadow!
• The silver looks great on the top inner corners of eyes - it really opens them up!

I might do a tutorial with one of these shadow duos soon. What do you think?

Movie Review: District 9

I saw District 9 last week, and I LOVED it. I even cried a little at a few parts, and you know I don't cry. If you're thinking that this movie isn't for you because you don't like science fiction, you're WRONG. This is not your typical sci-fi movie!

District 9 is a very intense movie. I'm not going to give anything away because it's best to see this movie without knowing what's going to happen, but I will say that there is some character development for the aliens, which I didn't expect. District 9 is a thrilling movie with themes pertaining to prejudice and Apartheid.

There are some pretty gross parts, but you're just gonna have to get over it. You really shouldn't miss this movie! And the best part: it's an in independent film, so Hollywood didn't mess it up (if it had, Christian Bale probably would have been the lead).