I decided to give my new Ultimate Look - Smoky kit from e.l.f. a try this week. I'm not usually a fan of greys and blacks on my eyes because they never seem to look right on me, however this set was such a bargain that I thought I'd give it a go. I tried my best to use products only by e.l.f. on my eyes in this post rather than turn to my staple items.
This is what the set looks like:
As you can see you get quite a few items in this box including mascara, pencil eyeliner, an eyeshadow brush, three eyeshadows, false eyelashes with glue, a pencil sharpener and sponge applicators. I've said many times in my posts that I hate sponge applicators so these immediately went in the bin. Plus, the fact you get an eyeshadow brush in the set anyway makes these applicators pointless in my eyes.
You can buy this set for £5.00 off the e.l.f. website here.
There are instructions on the back of the box to create the smoky eye which is useful if you are a beginner:
I followed these instructions so as I could accurately review this product, rather than create my own look. As I said before I binned the sponge applicators so I used the brush throughout instead, whereas they suggest to use the brush just to blend.
This is what the eyeshadows look like:
I personally feel that the eyeshadows are not very pigmented and required a lot of building up. That being said the overall look they created was nice and soft. I applied the lightest colour to the inner corner of my eyes and the medium colour across the middle of the eyelid and blended. After this I applied the darkest colour in a 'V' shape at the corner of my eye and slightly in to the crease and blended thoroughly.
Next I wanted to line my eyes before applying the lashes, so as they were not at easy to detect. I found the pencil liner very hard and it didn't really work for my upper lid so I used this on the inner rim of my eyes and instead used the e.l.f. liquid liner I also bought as part of my haul. I would normally use my Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner when applying false lashes but as I'm reviewing e.l.f. products I gave this a shot instead:
As far as the application of this eyeliner went it really was great. The applicator is very fine so allowed me to create a perfect black line across my lids easily. However, as you'll see from the pictures at the end of my post it did not really work well with the false eyelashes. As soon as the glue on the lashes touched the eyeliner it began to smudge and I found myself continually going over the line to get the eyelashes to blend with my natural ones. I'd probably recommend this eyeliner for day wear as it was easy to apply. I refrained from turning to my Bobbi Brown gel liner to make the look perfect as I wanted to give you an honest view of these products, therefore you can see in the full face pictures later that the liner and eyelashes are very messy. The eyelashes themselves I found hard to work with as when I tried to bend and shape them to fit my eyes before applying them they didn't hold the shape at all. This meant when I placed them on my eyes they became very fiddly and I had to work harder to get them to stick. Also, no matter how much glue I used the ends still came away from the eyes which is not good if you want them to last all night. That being said the whole set cost me £5 and you are getting a complete kit to do your eyes.
This eyeliner cost £1.50 and can be bought off the e.l.f. website here. It may not have been perfect for false eyelashes but for day to day use this is an absolute bargain!
The mascara was pretty good as I had no clumps on my lashes but I'd probably use it in the daytime as opposed to night as it is creates more of a natural look than my YSL mascara which I would use of an evening for longer, darker lashes. The wand of the mascara itself allowed for precise application so I had no smudges around my eyes which is great.
I did my eyes before the rest of my make up in case there was any fall out from the product. This was a good decision as there was a little bit of fall out and by doing my face make up afterwards it stopped me ruining it as I removed the fall out.
I went through my usual combination of MAC Studio Sculpt foundation, MAC bronzer, MAC Soft and Gentle to highlight, MAC blusher in Warm Soul and MAC Select Moisturecover concealer for the rest of my face.
After this I used the new eyebrow stencils I purchased from e.l.f. which come packaged like this:
I used the soft arch stencil and just placed it over my eyebrows, took my eyebrow brush from Crown Brush and used my Illamasqua Eyebrow Cake to fill in the stencil. I do have a bit of a 'Scousebrow' look going on with this look but that's because obviously my hair is very light due to highlights but my eyebrows naturally are quite dark. If I applied a lighter eyebrow colour it would look a bit ridiculous, so unless I dye my hair brown in the near future I just have to embrace the 'Scousebrow'. These stencils are really simple to use, you just need to make sure your hands are steady while you fill them in! I'm really glad I purchased these and will be using them a lot more in future. Underneath my eyebrows I used MAC pigment in Vanilla to highlight the brow bone.
The stencils cost £1.50 and can be bought from the e.l.f. website here. I personally think this is a complete bargain and would recommend this to everyone. It really makes shaping your eyebrows much easier to do!
The stencils cost £1.50 and can be bought from the e.l.f. website here. I personally think this is a complete bargain and would recommend this to everyone. It really makes shaping your eyebrows much easier to do!
This is the finished look:
As you can see the eyelashes and liner are not perfect and I'm showing you them like this so as not to give you a false idea of the look. I realise the make up is not perfect but that's the idea of me showing you these pictures, to show you my result using e.l.f. products alone. I used Illamasqua lipstick in Sonnet with their gloss in Artifice over the top on my lips.
Overall I would recommend this product as it is on sale for £5.00. The eyeshadows although not extremely pigmented do create a nice soft smoky eye and the brush that comes with the set is not bad too. The set is great value if you take in to consideration that you are getting three eyeshadows, an eyeshadow brush, an eyeliner pencil, a set of eyelashes with glue, a pencil sharpener and a mascara as these products would definitely amoutn to over £5.00 if bought individually! Some products I will most likely use again, for example the mascara, the eyeshadow and the sharpener. I would use the eyeshadow brush again but I already have a few a love and a Real Techniques one in the post. Although the brush did the job well, I did not love it as much as my others, but if you do not own a brush then this would be a really good starting point.
As I have said in other posts I tend to stick to earthy colours with my eyeshadow which is why I bought this set as an affordable way to experiment with greys and blacks. If you're unsure of trying grey and black eyeshadow then this could be a perfect starting point for you, or if you want to try a smoky look at a really affordable price.
Have you tried any e.l.f. products you love? Would you give this a try for £5.00?
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