Mini E.L.F. Haul and DIY Travel Eye Shadow Palette

       Before I begin my post, I wanted to give you guys an update on the blog. Recently I've found that trying to stay on top of writing, editing and sharing blog posts has been very difficult. I like to spend as much time with my family during the holidays as possible and between that, a full-time job and various other priorities, it doesn't leave much time for quality posts. I don't want to abandon my readers but I also think you deserve to read something good, not something I threw together and typed up at the last minute. I was trying to maintain a schedule of two to three posts per week, but as you may have noticed, that hasn't happened. Until things quiet down, I may only be able to post once a week, or every other week. Even though I have so many ideas and things I want to share with you, I want to make sure I am being respectful of the time you give me when you read my posts. I'm still learning how this whole thing works and trying to find my style which is why I feel for now it is more important to practice producing meaningful material that you will appreciate than how many posts I can throw together every week. Thanks you guys!!!



     A while back, E.L.F. had a free shipping promo that I couldn't wait to take advantage of. I had been wanting to pick up a few things that weren't available locally but I can't bear paying $7 in shipping for $15 dollars of products. While I could have easily spent more, for the sake of my bank account, I refrained. Here are a few favorites I picked up plus some new ones AND l'm going to show you a cute and easy DIY eye shadow palette! So read on!!

I ended up only purchasing a total of 7 items, which isn't much, but I'm very satisfied with my decision. Sometimes if you buy tooooo many things, you don't get to appreciate them individually. 

The first thing I wanted to make sure to get was one of the new Mineral Powder blushes, They've been getting really great reviews. I need to be a bit more adventurous in my shade choices so I picked a color I thought looked nice but wouldn't normally have chosen. Wanderlust appeared to be a darker more purple-y red on the website but when I got it home and wore it, it was definitely more of a red-red. It is really pigmented so you have to use a light hand and blend well. It blends easily which is is a great plus and has a natural finish on the skin. 

     Trying to get good color match on my computer and camera was a little tricky. The swatch above I would say is fairly close but it shows up on my face softer than in the pan or my arm. 

     I also purchased two backups of my favorite E.L.F. lipstick. I love the color on this. It is a great pale nude and while it is too close to my skin to wear as an opaque lipstick, I blend it with my lip balm recipe to make a tinted balm. It softens the darkness of my lips while being incredibly moisturizing. No one carries this lipstick in store that I've been able to find so I wanted to make sure I had some extras. 

Above is one swatch of the Essential Lipstick in Nostalgic. Such a pretty peachy nude!!

      I also wanted to try out E.L.F.'s new Crease Brush from their Studio Line. I'm obsessed with crease brushes. Ever since I bought a Mary Kay Brush set over a decade ago, they've been one of my favorite eye shadow brushes. When I found out E.L.F. was releasing one for only $3 I had to try it. The bristles aren't too dense but soft and full enough to give you a nice wash of color. It picks up a light amount of product which is good if you're trying to layer and blend darker colors. It's not as good as other more premium brushes, but it's worth a try in a pinch!!

     One of the last items I purchased was a concealer that's been getting rave reviews on their site. I have it in "Fair" and really like it but was looking for a more yellow based color to reduce some of the redness in my skin and camouflage some of my dark circles. E.L.F.'s Studio line HD Lifting Concealer in "Brightening" is a yellow to neutral tinted concealer. It's not heavy or greasy and I don't notice any creasing when I wear it. It works well over many different foundations but I sometimes have to layer it a bit in certain areas. Here's one swipe on my hand to show how light it actually is and then blended out on the left side of the image below that.

You can see that it definitely reduced some of the redness and smaller veins on my hand while some of the larger blue veins still show a little. This is definitely a good highlighting concealer even for fair skin but as far as the yellow goes, I find that the itCosmetics Bye Bye Undereye Concealer works better for concealing redness and dark circles. 

      The final item on my list was this cute refillable custom eye shadow compact. This is intended to be used with E.L.F's own single shadows but it's incredibly easy to convert it to a mini palette you can use with any eye shadow. All you have to do is pop out the little tray with a flat head screwdriver and dot a little glue under the metal tray at the bottom. I used hot glue but any glue designed for non-porous surfaces will do the trick. 

Some of my shadows came in aluminum cases and wouldn't stick to the tray. I used some stick-on magnetic sheets cut into tiny pieces to adhere to the back of the eye shadows. Voila!!!  You're very own travel DIY palette. Here I was able to fit 5 round pan shadows but after playing around with some others I was able to find some great combinations of sizes and shades to toss in my bag. The best part is these palettes come with a mirror, are super small and easy to convert and only cost $1. You can even re-cover the outside with cute paper or sticker to give it a truly unique look. How fun!!  I'm definitely using these for travel and touch ups on the go. 

Have you tried any of E.L.F.'s products? What are your favorites?










***Disclaimer: All items mentioned in this or future posts have been purchased by me, at my own expense unless otherwise noted. I am not affiliated with or sponsored by any company or brand so you can be assured my opinions are mine alone. My opinions are based on my own experience and independent research.