Elf mineral make up review

I've been wanting to try some mineral foundation for ages - not sure why, it just seemed like a nice Idea! I like a semi sheer foundation, I've never been a fan of the thick stuff that feels like a mask, but I have quite good skin generally speaking so I don't need thick makeup. I've used all kinds of foundation over the years but unfortunately for my bank balance I've landed on Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Éclat Illuminating Foundation. This is a particularly expensive item because as I get older I've found that my skin colour changes throughout the year much more than it used to, and my face is at least one shade darker during the summer months so I have two foundations that I use, with the option of mixing them throughout the year.

 I've seen lots of bloggers wearing e.l.f makeup, and when I realised they sold mineral foundation for £5 per pot, and were offering £10 off a £20+ spend (amazing!) I thought I'd try some. To give you an idea about my skin tone I wear YSL Beige Rose 40 in the winter and Beige Rose 50 in the summer. I'm not exactly olive skined, but I'm also not as pale skined as I was a few years ago & am now able to tan slightly (which just didn't happen until a couple of years ago!) so I'm sort of a hint of olive with a pink overtone.

This lot (plus the brush) was what I went for. I have to say that I was a bit surprised by the colours of the foundations. They are far less pink as well as darker in real life than they look on the site. It's so important to have a reliable colour chart of your buying this sort of thing online so I was a bit annoyed! Anyway, I compared them to my YSL's before opening them and they weren't a million miles off so I tested them out. Additionally the 'sheer' booster powder is so pink that I figured it might balance out the yellowness of the foundations! I chose the eye brightener deliberately because it's quite yellow, and my under eye circles are normally dark with a bluish / purple tone so I was hoping that would balance them out!

Here is my face! I have to say that my camera (as it turns out!) is not really up to daylight close ups. My skin is a bit more blotchy and ruddy than this, particularly with the winds we've had recently! Anyway, it's the best I have so lets get to it! I had just showered, moisturised (blue Nivia forever!) and I've got a bit of Garnier tinted caffeine eye roll on under my eyes. Ready to go!

I used a kabui brush to apply the foundation, this one is from MUA (£5)

This is the beige foundation (£5) and it's a little bit darker than my skin but not too disturbing. As much as I appreciate bieng able to pay just a fiver for a small pot of foundation (to try), the size does make this a bit fiddly to use. The brush is bigger than the lid so it goes everywhere, and takes quite a long time to apply because you have to keep going back. I think this would be much easier to use if it were the size of the booster!

Foundation done (eventually!) and it's quite a nice sheer coverage. I think to get thick coverage you'd either have to have quite greasy skin or use tons of this! 

My stupid camera decided to change it's white balance slightly in this shot (argh!) but I then added the eye brightener (£3.50) under my eyes all over my eye bags. It's hard to see but this actually worked rather well, I think it might be my favourite item in this order! As you can see it's a bit darker and more yellow than my normal skin tone, so on goes the Mineral booser....

This is the last of the e.l.f products I tried. The pinkness of the mineral booster certainly equalled out the yellow of the foundation a bit. The idea of this powder is to 'absorb oil and minimises the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines and pores for a beautiful even finish' which it sort of does. I have to say that I'm always a bit freaked out by very matte skin though, so for me this over all look was just tooooo powdery and needed a touch of sheen!

MUA undress your skin highlighter to the rescue! I love this stuff, but it may be too frosted for some peoples liking!

Ahhh that's better! I like to be a bit shiny - not glittery, just a subtle sheen!

I finished my make up with my normal favorites and this is the final look. 

Gosh bronzing shimmer powder (002 pink) on my cheeks (I normally use this all over my face and MUA 1D 'oh my blush' on the apple of my cheeks fyi).

My everyday mascara nowadays is Gosh growth mascara. Not because I like the texture or brush (I don't, I much prefer Max Factor masterpiece mascara!) but because it actually works and has improved my eyelashes loads since I got it! L'Oreal superliner (the original) which in my humble opinion is the easiest liquid liner to use and can do both thin & fat lines. Then a nice sheer slick of lip colour in the form of my beloved NYC appleicious glossy lip balm in 'big apple red'. I have so much love for the appleicious balms, I've got 5 of them!

The final apperance is nice I think, but in all honesty there is no way that this foundation is going to replace my YSL liquid one. It's a bit a pain in the bum to use and I know i'd make such a mess using all this powder first thing in the morning! I also think that my skin is too dry for powder foundation to really work well on. I just feel like I'm wearing so much more make up than usual, but have ended up with the same effect as normal, albeit a little drier! I think this would be much better for ladies with greasy skin. Having said all that I think it will come into it's own when I have posh functions and need a more matte, polished look & have time to take a while applying thick layers. I also think it'll be good in summer when I don't want to slather my face with liquids. I wear less make up in the summer months so a thin layer of this on a hot day with just a bit of mascara will be great I think, plus lets just say it, this will cope better with my sweaty face than a liquid foundation I think!. The booster powder will be handy when I need to tone down shine or to even out the yellowness of the foundations. I think the product I'll use most will be the eye brigthener, which for everyday use I'd just put a thin layer of right on top of my under eye concealer (flips between Garnier caffeine roll on and YSL touche eclat fyi!) and leave it at that, because as you can see from the picture above, too much powder tends to emphasise the plump bags I always have under my plump eyes!

Plump Parsnip out!