Elf Cream Eyeshadow in Eggplant

Like so many other low end drugstore brands (Milani, NYX, etc), ELF has been fancifying itself of late. This means that newer products are not in the same price range as their previous offerings, but it also means that that quality is far, far better. If you've ever had any experience with those rubbishy $1 cream eyeshadow duos they have, you'll know what I mean.

I was only vaguely aware of the newer cream eyeshadows and didn't have much interest in them, as I'd pretty much written ELF off as a brand I wasn't going to dally with anymore. They do have some good products, but they are so hit and miss that you have to sift through a lot of duds to find that occasional gem. However, when I was hauling in the recent Crush Cosmetics sale, I happened across them and figured why not just go totally random and try some things I'd never tried before? I wanted the bronze coloured one but it was sold out, so I got Eggplant instead.

The packaging is quite bulky - as you can see it takes up a good piece of real estate on my chunky paw. I imagine these would be a bit of a pain in the butt for storage and travel if you had a collection of them, and since the product itself doesn't take up much space inside, the packaging seems unnecessarily over the top. The container is plastic, but it's quite solid and has a nice, hefty feel. I don't feel like the lid is all that tight and secure though, so I do wonder how long these will last without drying out.

It takes a bit of work to smooth this out - not much, but if you just do a quick swipe it's a bit uneven, and you have to come back and smooth it over. For the price, that's not a deal breaker for me. It's quite opaque and the colour I chose is lovely - it reminds me a lot of NARS Ondine, and in fact I intend to try layering that over the ELF sometime this week and see how they look together.

Swatch in natural (overcast) light.
 

Swatch under Tungsten light.

I tried out this eyeshadow yesterday when it was 35 degrees here in Adelaide (I stayed inside but don't have air con), and it lasted all day without creasing. I have oily eyelids, so I was mightily impressed with that, I can tell you. I had such low expectations of this, and I was amazed when I went to take my face off after dinner and the shadow was all still there!

In short, for a drugstore cream eyeshadow, this is a performer. The only downside is the bulky (and possibly not completely air tight) packaging and the fact that the shade range doesn't seem all that great, though that might just be what's available to us Aussies. You can get ELF from Crush Cosmetics (currently 25% off at $7.50AUD) or the Australian ELF website ($9.99AUD). The cream eyeshadows don't seem to be available from the other Aussie-accessible source, Nonpareil.  Bummer.

Yesterday I spent the day wearing a lot of weird, random products on my face because I was testing out various things and I knew I wasn't going anywhere for most of the day. There was a bit of a Baby Jane thing going on - I'm pretty sure I freaked Noodles' BFF's mum out a bit when she came to pick up her kid in the late afternoon. Anyway, one of the first things I applied was this eyeshadow, because I wanted to get it on early and see how long it lasted. The first thing that struck me is how nice it is for green eyes. Observe:

And no, there will be no subsequent Baby Jane pictures.

Tell me if you have any of these and what you think of them. I want more, but I am trying to resist, as my inventory is freaking me out a bit. Luckily there aren't any other super exciting colours available that I would be itching to get my hands on!