Fail: elf Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

I guess the old adage still stands: you get what you pay for. When you spend $2.00 on an eyeliner pen, don't expect the world. I have a deep love/hate relationship with elf products. Some of their items have been awesome and a great value, and others I wish I hadn't wasted my time or money. This particular item falls into the latter category. 

I had high hopes for the Waterproof Eyeliner Pen. Some great reviews on YouTube put the idea of it into my head, and it gets about 4 out of 5 stars on the elf website. It's billed as a waterproof and smudge-free liner, which is important when much of the time I am looking through a camera and my eyeliner smears all over the place. I chose the shade Midnight because it looked more navy than black, and I have more than enough black eyeliners. And a felt tipped eyeliner pen seemed perfect for me, a person who is terrible at applying eyeliner and has had pretty good luck with the liquid pen type in the past. So I took a shot and ordered it, along with a haul of other things (and thanks to retailmenot.com, free shipping!).

I was so excited to rip open the package and try it, but the second I took a look at the tip, I knew this was a no-go. The tip looked so dry! The little fibers sticking out of the point didn't have an ounce of liquid on them. When I tried to swatch it on my hand, the tip was indeed dry, barely eking out a bit of color. Plus the pen was so stiff it almost scratched my skin! Thank goodness I didn't go right for the eyelid. Hoping that the liquid might just have been blocked from the tip during shipping, I recapped it to put it tip down to get the juices flowing. The back of the package states "Best stored tip down for ultimate color saturation," but the cap end is rounded and will not stand up on its own! Why suggest storing it tip down, but then make the packaging incapable of standing tip down by itself? So two strikes so far.

Notice the curvature of the cap, that's not going to stand up!

I left it alone for a while, propped tip down between two bottles of lotion, and hoped that when I reopened the cap that the tip would look a bit more saturated. But alas, this was not the case. I decided to play with the eyeliner anyway, and attempted to gently swipe it across my lid. OUCH. The tip was outrageously stiff and it actually hurt! One pleasant surprise was that it left a much more pigmented line than I had anticipated. Until, that is, I went to repeat the process on my other eye and it was a faded, pale line. I had to draw over the line about three times to match the darkness of the first side (and thus three more times of painful swiping). Strikes three and four. In a ballgame, this guy would have been benched already.

My one last hope for this product was the waterproof, smudge-resistant, long-lasting power promised by elf. I let the eyeliner dry, and waited about twenty minutes before testing it out, more than enough time for it to set in my opinion. I went to the mirror and slightly touched my finger to my lid, and... smudgy mess! The tiniest touch took my nice thin line to an ashy, thick line that honestly looked like a big bruise. Smudge-free, I think not. Deep down I knew that if it was this easy to smudge, it was impossible for it to be waterproof, but I didn't want to leave any stone unturned. I put a bit of water on my fingertip and touched my unsmudged eye, and as I thought, the second the water hit my skin the eyeliner ran like it was being chased. Strikes five and six, this guy shouldn't even be playing the game.

So this is going straight into the fail bin. If I had spent more than a couple bucks on it, I'd be making a much bigger stink with elf customer service. But as I said, you get what you pay for. Skip this one, ladies!

Latest Ulta Haul!

I made one of my many pilgrimages to Ulta this past week. Although a normal event for me, I was looking forward to this trip more than normal. Not only did I have a pretty rough week at work and needed some beauty retail therapy, but the busiest season of the year at my job is about to come up and this was going to be my last opportunity to leisurely browse through my favorite store for a long while. I even named it "Ulta Day," and my coworkers wished me a Happy Holiday, that's how serious I was and how bad I needed it. I gave myself a budget of about $30, and hoped that I could get some great stuff within that price point.

My original intent was to buy the LORAC Back to Bronze Collection. This set was gorgeous, with a ton of goodies for only $36. I've been wanting to try LORAC cosmetics for a while now, and I thought this would be the perfect introduction. The kit included the famous Cobra mascara, Alter Ego lipstick in Girl Next Door (so pretty), TANtalizer Baked Bronzer, a dual ended liner & shadow, and Liquid Lustre Gloss in Peach Lustre, all with a cute little makeup bag. I really was convinced that this was the set for me. But somehow, as I always tend to do, I talked myself out of it. I'm definitely regretting it now as I describe it.

After about an hour of wandering the store and picking up basically everything, here is my haul that I ended up with:

Starting from the left, the Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Herb & Rosewater. This is a product that was given to me as part of a gift for my high school graduation #### years ago. I never really used it, but was looking for a moisturizing spray that could be sprayed over makeup and dug this out of my stash. I absolutely love this product. Not only does it smell fantastic, but it sets makeup, helps keep my skin hydrated, and best of all- it's affordable at $7 a bottle. I bought another bottle to keep in my work equipment since the summer months are going to be brutal and this will help my skin immensely.

Next is the Tweezerman Smooth Finish Facial Hair Remover. As I constantly have to combat annoying facial hairs that pop up, I was really interested in this product. Apparently spring-based hair removal products are nothing new, but I've never seen such a thing and decided to give it a try (anything beats awful depilatory creams!). Plus, this came with a free mini-tweezer, another thing that has since gone in with my equipment for the upcoming busy season. Full review to come!

And last but not least, there was a sale on NYX items, and I had NYX on the brain after watching this video by emilynoel83 about her favorite NYX products. She is awesome, and her videos are addicting to watch. In this video, she talks briefly about the Dewy Finish Makeup Setting Spray and how it doesn't make her look too powdery. Honestly, that's all I had to hear, because her makeup is always gorgeous! So luckily, Ulta had one bottle left and I grabbed it! Since NYX face cosmetics were on sale for buy one get one half off, I had to find something else. My first instinct was lip color, especially since emilynoel83 speaks  highly of them, but I have so many lip glosses already that I really had to force my hand away from the display. Then I noticed the NYX Illuminator, and I am a sucker for highlighters. My pallor lacks the inner glow that every girl wants, so I am in a constant search for a highlighter that will make my pale skin look less lifeless. I bought it in the shade Enigmatic, which is a pretty pink shade that from first glance is pretty sparkly. I swatched it in the store and it gave a beautiful, natural looking pale pink shimmer to my skin. NYX is usually hit or miss for me, with more misses than hits, but I have high hopes. I'm going to try them for a little while before I do a full review.

By the end of Ulta Day, I had spent about $40, which was over my budget but close enough that I was satisfied, plus I got some great stuff. Hopefully this haul tides me over until I have some free time to head back! Have you used any of these products? Have you gotten anything good at Ulta or anywhere else lately? I love comments, tell me about it!