Monday, September 16, 2013

Beauty Review: e.l.f. Beauty Book -- Natural Eyes

e.l.f Beauty Book
What's a great way to start the fall season? New makeup, of course! If you are looking for an affordable and educational option when it comes to creating a great natural eye, you may want to pick up one of e.l.f.'s Beauty Books. These eye makeup sets include everything you need to get that natural eye look. The book comes with eyeliner, eyelid primer, six shades of eyeshadow and an applicator. 

Inside Beauty Book
What I found even better than the products itself is the instructions on the inside of the book cover. My mother stopped wearing makeup long before I appeared as a bough on the family tree, so there was no formal makeup education for me. By the time I got into high school, asking for help from friends seemed embarrassing, and some who found out I had no makeup knowledge looked at me strangely. So, up until last week, I thought eyeshadow was a couple of swipes with a single color and off I go. Now with the Beauty Book, I know that a great look is achieved by blending multiple shades in specific areas of the lid. The instructions where easy to follow and the first time I applied the makeup completely, I noticed a stark difference between what I was doing and what this book could help me achieve.

Tools and accessories.
Full disclosure: I don't do eyeliner. I try because I love the look, but I always end up with it way above where it should be applied. The finished photos are lacking this detail, but the other products are utilized in the looks. Also, the beauty book in natural online from e.l.f.'s website differs slightly than the one I purchased online from Target. I probably purchased a previous version of this particular product. The major difference is in the photos and illustrations on the instruction page inside the cover of the book itself—it's seems to have all of the same colors, products and tools included. It also had the exact same price of only $5.00.

The only down side of the Beauty Book is that blending is required to get it looking good. Well, blending requires a blending brush, which is not included in the book itself. The brand does sell affordable blending brushes, but if I had known that this was a necessity, I might have picked one up. Instead, I made do with another brush I had in my makeup bag.

Overall, the makeup works well and is not expensive, which is what I look for in just about everything I buy. I would definitely recommend this for any teen or young adult that hasn't yet learned the best way to apply shadow and wants to do it correctly the first time. 

Below are the examples of how the makeup can be combined to create a number of different looks. The first picture provides a look at all six colors that are in the set. The second picture is a natural eye done with all three of the lighter shades. The third photo shows a combination of the three darker shades. 




I have also bought e.l.f's smoky eye Beauty Book, which I will review soon.