Review of ELF's Mineral Eyeshadow Primer

This review is for ELF's Mineral Eyeshadow Primer, a product I initially disliked but now I love! This is currently £3 on the ELF website.

For me, an eyeshadow primer is essential, I wear eyeshadow everyday and without a primer my eyelids get oily and the shadow starts disappearing after only a couple of hours. Before buying this I used Urban Decay's Primer Potion which I still love, I don't love the price though so I thought I'd give this a go!

The packaging is nowhere near as nice as the Urban Decay but that's not a problem when the product cost £3, however after only trying this a couple of times, the black case that should be attached to the white part at the top of my bottle cracked and came off :-( I do have a tendency to over-tighten things to make sure they're shut so maybe it was my fault, the white part still has the screw mechanism though so the tube is still sealed, it's just a bit more fiddly to open.

The applicator was nothing unusual and easy to use:

Packaging issues aside when I first used this primer I found it was more watery/runny than the Urban Decay one but similar in colour (skin-tone-ish). When I tried it out, it took longer to dry but once it had done so my eyeshadow went on fine and definitely didn't crease as fast as without a primer but would not last the whole day like they would with UDPP.

As it wasn't working great for me I decided this would be a back up and left it aside for a few months. Eventually my Primer Potion ran out and because I didn't have time to go out and get a new one straight away, I went and opened this up, and to my amazement it actually worked to keep my eyeshadow in place all day! I think it has dried up a little since when I purchased it and I think this may be the reason why it's working as well as UDPP for me now! Since then I've been using this daily and would buy it again, though I may have to let it dry up a bit first which is bizarre!

This is ELF's mineral primer version, I see they do an ordinary eyeshadow primer for only £1.50 so I think I will try this out too next time to see how it goes! This is absolutely worth the money even if the handle does crack off.

Thanks for looking :-)

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Review of Sleek's Dip-it Eyeliner

This is a review of a product I do not like and would not repurchase, it is Sleek's "Dip-it eyeliner" and the one I own is in black. This is currently listed at £3.49 on Superdrug's website.

The packaging looks quite nice and you get 4ml of product which is good as my preferred eyeliner (The Body shop's Liquid Eyeliner) is more expensive and only contains 2.5ml of product.

The tip is a stiff pointed type which tapers to a very thin end if you like this (I apply thick eyeliner daily so I don't mind fatter nibs :-P).

When initially applied I find this quite runny and wet (like a liquid I guess haha) and it takes longer than my Body Shop one to dry which is a bad point. When it (eventually) dries, it does so with a matte finish which is a must for me! The colour is quite intense which is good, however I find the thin tip and watery consistency quite fiddly and often have to go over to achieve the shape I want and when doing so I find this starts lifting off in areas and going patchy (again I don't have this issue with the Body Shop one).

The main problem I have with this eyeliner though is that it actually stings my eyelids when I'm applying it and almost feels a little tight on my skin when it dries! The only other time I've experienced this is when using cheap no-brand glitter eyeliners, so I was quite shocked when I first tried this as I love many other Sleek products and have never found them disappointing. I really don't have sensitive eyes/skin generally so I'm not sure what it is about this product but it's definitely not for me (why I don't just chuck it out is anyone's guess).

To sum up, even if this eyeliner didn't irritate my eyelids, I would not repurchase or recommend due to it's consistency and excessive drying time, I'm pretty sure a better liquid liner could be found at a similar price. (I do however love Sleek's gel liner in black!)

Thanks for reading! :-)

xxxxx

Review of Boots expert instant matte

Hmm I've completely forgotten how to use this site, but will try my best with some reviews of things I do/don't like, hopefully in order to help people considering purchasing them!

This review is for Boots "expert instant matte" which I obviously purchased in Boots but can't recall the price, when I bought it there was an offer on the Boots expert range but it costs under £4 I'm pretty sure of that, some of this range is currently on an "any two for £4" offer and this may have been the same offer when I got it!

This is a cute little 15ml bottle and to use you basically shake the bottle and dab the liquid onto your face in the desired area. The product itself is very very watery in consistency, it looks like water with white powdery particles floating in it, so I find it easiest to cup my hand an tip a little bit in, then use a make-up sponge to dab it onto my face.

Once on the face it doesn't look powdery or dry my skin out (although my skin is very oily). It also doesn't completely mattify my skin however, but definitely improves it and just leaves more of a natural shine to my skin rather than a greasy look! I apply this before foundation and it tends to help my skin for a good few hours however if you wanted to keep the more matte look later in the day you would probably need to reapply (the tiny bottle is a great size for a make-up bag though!). I use this on my T-zone and cheeks, not much is needed so I think this shall last me some time which is good. I switch between liquid and mineral foundations and have no problem applying either after using the instant matte.

All in all I would buy this again, it's cheap, it's not a miracle cure for shininess but it does make an improvement and is easy enough to carry around to reapply if desired.

Thanks for reading :-)

xxxxx