ELF Haul!

This is going to be very picture heavy.  I finally received my ELF order after 2 weeks of waiting - I suppose it takes longer for them to ship to Canada than the USA.  I'm pretty happy with ALMOST everything I ordered.  I ordered 3 of the beauty books (neutral, smoky and bright eye).  As you will see later, one of the shadows in the bright eye book was completely smashed and powder was EVERYWHERE in the box when I opened it.

my entire haul!

First off, this is a picture of my entire haul.  I have never owned any ELF products but I've always heard about how inexpensive they were and that the quality was decent - so I figured, why not? I must admit, I went a little crazy but overall I am VERY pleased with my purchases.  For now, I will just post what I got and a brief description of each product.  I will have swatches & reviews posted at a later date.  I don't like to give premature reviews and want to at least use each product a few times before giving a realistic review.

I got 3 (of the possible 4?) beauty books in neutral, smoky and bright eye.  I love the range of colour and that each has a variety of matte and shimmer shadows, however, the bright eye had a smashed shadow - as you can see below.  I'm disappointed because this would have been a great highlight colour.  Frankly, it's the only highlight colour for this book.

Next, I got 2 cream blushes in Heartbreak and Flirt.  This are more mousse/clay like than cream like but the colours are pretty - review on these later.

I also got 2 cream liners in teal tease and punk purple.  They have a nice consistency and the colours are bright.  Hopefully these will save me from buying more physician's formula liners or similar colours from sephora.

After watching Hollyannaree on Youtube and her ELF haul, I had to get these tinted conditioning lip balms.  Yes, I know she said she didn't like mellow melon but I decided to get them in Mellow Melon and Peaceful Pink anyways.  All I can say right now is I do like the colours and they feel great on.  Mellow melon suits my skin tone better because my lips are fairly pigmented on their own.  Peaceful pink is a little pinker and lighter than my lips so this makes me think more of a pink nude.

Next I got both the Blush/Brozer duo and a powder blush in Candid Coral.  I have been looking for a good bronzer for quite some time and I have to say that I like this bronzer.  It is more pigmented than your average drugstore bronzer and reminds me a lot of NARS Laguna - which I have been debating whether or not to buy for quite some time.  The blush in the duo is a soft pink with gold shimmer in it. It's a bit to the chalky side so it may not be my favourite but having oily skin, it blends in well if I use only a little bit.  The Candid Coral blush is a pretty coral, it isn't as pigmented as I'd like but for the price it's pretty good.  Again, to the chalky side - could be more finely milled but not bad.

I also decided to pick up 2 minty lipglosses.  I got these because 1) i love lipgloss 2) i can't resist minty things.  These do not disappoint.  They have a minty feel when they go on and then when the feeling resides they smell and taste AMAZING.  Reminds me of lipsmackers - it's like candy.  The colours I got were Houston and New York City.

I got the Elf C-shadow brush.  Overall it's fluffy, soft and dense but not stiff at all.  It's good for packing on shadow in one go but not great for precision.  Works well for blending too.  For the price it was definitely worth it. 

Last but not least,  there's the brush shampoo - I have yet to use this so I will update on my thoughts of this ASAP because I need to wash my brushes this weekend - I do this weekly.  And there is of course the HD Powder.  I own the MUFE HD powder and love it - but I am looking for a cheaper alternative because frankly I always worry about wasting or spilling the MUFE powder since it's so pricey.  Both of these powders are just silica. It comes with a face/powder puff. 

That's it for my haul!  Stayed tuned for swatches & reviews!