E.L.F Cosmetics Haul & First Impressions

Hiiiiiiiiii!!!
I'm so glad I finally have something I can blog about after nearly a week of feeling rough, not doing my hair or makeup and basically just about managing to get out of bed! (man flu waaaah!!)

I've always wanted to try E.L.F cosmetics so I was really excited to hear they had a brilliant promotion on. My best friend, Monika, filled me in that there was a 50% of discount code along with free shipping if you spent over £30. So that means only £15 out of my purse. There wasn't that much that I wanted to try so what I did was place an order with my sister. In the end I think I spent just under £12 and got 6 items. Exciiiiiting! Delivery took a lot longer then I expected. My friend had only waited a day and a half for hers but I imagine that may have had a lot to do with a high volume of orders during the promotion. It was in the warehouse from Thursday till tuesday, but once shipped on tuesday it came today (Thursday).

So the first thing I got was liquid eyeliner (£1.95) I heard good things about this from a youtube video. Annoyingly I can't remember which or whos. The applicator is long and by the picture I thought it was a brush (which is what I'm used to) but its actually a long felt applicator. Hoping I can get on with it. It dries nice and matte which is a plus for me. I find shiny liquid eyeliner looks quite cheap. You want your make up to feel like a bargain but not look like a bargain! lol. I have tried it on my hand and so far, it doesn't seem to be moving or smudging. 

The next thing I bought which I was keen to use is their cream eyeliners (£3.95). I got two of these in black and coffee. These both came with little angled brush applicators. At first, trying them on my skin, I was unimpressed with the colour pay off and felt they weren't pigmented

enough. I was using the applicator it came with though now having tried it with my own eye liner brush I'm much more happier with it! the colour is actually a lot better then I first thought and again dries very fast and matte. So its a plus for the product but not so much the applicator but thats absoloutly fine with me. My beastie Monika uses her cream liner, in coffee, for her eyebrows and they stay on all day and night without any brow gel.

I also bought an all over cover stick (£1.95) in the shade spice. Now my idea with this was that I wanted a dark shade so I could use it for a creamy contour as my skin is quite dry right now. The less powder products I use the better. But this colour is just so so wrong for that. I wanted to buy it in the shade toffee but it was out off stock so i went for the second darkest shade which was this. I've never actually met someone the colour as this lol. In the packaging its a light caramel looking colour but on my skin tone it comes out as a pastel orange? The product its self is creamy and blends well. It doesn't feel heavy on my skin at all either. The smell bothers me though... it smells like Terrys chocolate orange. Don't get me wrong,  I like the chocolate but I dont want to smell it on my face all day. Im sure the right colour though and if you don't mind the smell it would be a great product. I'm interested in knowing if all the shades have the same smell, so if you've tried it then do please let me know!

OK so next thing I have is the high definition powder (£6.95). Don't let the colour scare you. Its in the shade corrective yellow. I believe the idea behind it is to counter act any redness on your face. When I take photos with my friends I notice my face is much more redder then theirs. Hopefully this will help! This was also again a recommendation from Monika. She uses this as her skin is oily and feels her make up slips and becomes shiny and patchy through out the day. She loves this powder and no longer has the problems she had before using it so I'm hoping it works for mine too.

The last thing I bought is the studio conditioning lip balm (£3.95). I looove this! The shade I got is bombshell brown. Its a balm so don't expect a massive colour payment but it is definetly enough. Exactly what I was after. It makes my lips feel great, look healthy and with a lovely hint of colour. It feels really nice on my lips and smells wonderful too, like cocoa butter. I've mentioned before that I had badly dry lips and they've been getting a lot better lately with the help of a lip scrub and large amounts of carmex over night. I'm Glad I now have something I can wear during the day that will continue to condition my lips. It also has an SPF 15 which is great no the sun is making an appearance. I plan on definetely buying more of these in different shades. 

Anyway, these are my first impressions of what I've bought and I'm also excited to hear my sisters views on her purchases. 

Thanks for reading and please let me know your views and recommendations for this brand. I'd love to hear from you! Mwah!!

Lime Crime Velvetine Vs MUA Velvet Lip Laquer

These are my views of the mua/lime crime 'dupe'
So I've been desperate to type this up but wanted to give both products a fair chance.  I used one for one day and one for another. This is my personal take on this so called 'dupe'. I'm talking about lime crimes velvetine and MUAs velvet lip lacquer. So both items came in glass packaging, with a soft sponge applicator, in side cardboard bottles. They also both claim to give a matte 'velvet' effect on the lips. Even the name is similar. But for me, this is were the similarities end!
Let me just quickly say each product was a different colour, though both brands make a version of both shades. the lime crime shade I used was suede-berry and the MUA funk.

Let's start with the lime crime. this retails at £12.50 on cocktail cosmetics. Firstly as always with lime crime, the packaging was very cute! They never fail in this department. It also smells great, in a yummy kind of way!  The texture of the lip gloss is veeeery.... wet? this sounds weird I know but it literally felt like water going on my lips. When applying it you have to be really careful because any mistakes or messy application stains fast, so fixing it is a pain. I find scraping the wand a little first helps with this. This way it's not to full of product thats kind of not simple to control with such a wet texture. Though it does dry very fast to a lovely matte finish. Now I have really dry lips so it does draw attention to any dry spots I had but that's expected with all matte lip products. I found I avoided a lot of that by using a lip scrub before hand. I had it on all day and yes it did start to fade of in places, like where your lips touch, but it took a good few hours to do that! I ate, i drank and It basically lasted all day for me. I love this lip stain and it's effect and I just wish I had softer fuller lips to do it justice!

lime crime suede-berry

Sorry for the bad lighting. Was having to much fun at the park, i forgot to take a decent picture!

OK now onto the MUA. I saw it in my local superdrug and got really excited! At a fraction of the cost, only £3, and far more easily accessible. I bought one and youtubed a few clips on it on the way home. I'd not heard if it before then! People seemed to really like it and even called it lime crimes dupe. This made me even more excited to try it! Though, sadly, this was not the case for me.

It smells like, well, paint... It goes on thick like, well, paint, and it flakes of like (yep you guessed it!) Paint!! I tried to use it for the day to give them a fair comparison but only half an hour later I looked in the mirror and found that, where my lips touch, it had already been flaking of a quarter way down my bottom lip. I was really aware of it on my lips too the whole time like I wanted to pick at it! But I resisted because we was out and about for my daughters birthday. The second we was back in the car I rubbed my lips and flaked it all off. It was driving me crazy and by that point looked terrible. I'm so upset because I really did love the way it looked at first and wanted it so badly to be great. But the truth is, yes it is hugely cheaper and yes so easy to get. But frankly, so is paint...

MUA Funk

less then five minutes after application

I now know that I have to definitely buy the lime crime in the similar shade Because I really did love the colour. 

With this one i couldn't get a better picture as it had come off before i even had a chance!

Have you tried the mua and had a same or different experience? I'd love to hear your views.