ELF is coming to the UK. Yes really. I revealed the news on my Instagram in early April and they’re launching into Superdrug stores in June but Superdrug’s website on the 3rd of May – TOMORROW! (although that could be subject to change). I have always been a massive ELF fan and I’ve featured many of their products on my blog since I began blogging four and a half years ago, and was gutted when they stopped distributing in the UK two years ago so I’ve had to purchase my ELF products via eBay until now.
It’s going to be amazing to be able to go into a physical store and swatch their products, and I know they’re going to be super popular as their products are all fantastic quality and it gives some healthy competition for the likes of Makeup Revolution and MUA. I’ve featured many ELF reviews on my blog so far which you can find by searching ‘ELF’ in the search bar in my sidebar, but for today’s post, I have the ELF Baked Highlighters.
There are three different shades within the ELF Baked Highlighters range and I have two shades; Blush Gems and Moonlight Pearls with each shade retailing for £5 on the ELF website. They’re describes as being illuminating powders which highlight the skin with a sheer wash of shimmering colour, and are infused with vitamin E, jojoba, sunflower, apricot and grape to nourish and hydrate the skin.
They can be used either wet or dry depending on the intensity you’re looking for. When I featured the ELF Baked Highlighters on Instagram I had three or four comments telling me I had to scratch the top of the highlighters which I have to admit was a little strange but I didn’t scratch them as I was waiting to photograph for them blog.
After photographing the two highlighters for my blog, I went ahead and swatched them. The domed powder felt very silky and soft just like any baked powder product, however there was practically zero product on my finger whatsoever as shown above. I swirled my finger around the entire pan seven times and this was the product which my finger picked up.
I’ve never used a poorly pigmented baked product before, as they tend to be super pigmented and soft from the very first use. I decided I needed to scratch the surface like I was told so I use my nail to very carefully scrape the surface without wasting too much product and just like magic, they performed considerably better. I’m told the reason they need to be ‘scratched’ is that the powder is too densely packed together, but you’d think ELF would rectify this as everybody has this very same issue.
Moonlight Pearls is the palest shade and is a pale gold whereas Blush Gems (sorry about the typo in the image) is a peachy bronze. Even with scratching the surface, I still don’t think they’re crazy pigmented like the Makeup Revolution Blushed Hearts or Goddess of Love Blushes/Highlighters are. I’ve seen swatches online of the ELF Baked Highlighters which are massively more pigmented and intense than mine so I don’t know if they differ product to product but this is the most intense I can get them to be when using them dry.
In reality I probably wouldn’t want them to be any more intense than this, but some images I’ve seen such as this and this makes it look like a totally different product altogether. I still think they’re pretty highlighters but the whole scratching the surface to be able to use them thing is a little annoying but I’ll still be checking everything out once they launch into Superdrug stores.
I would love to know if you’ve tried any of the ELF Baked Highlighters? Were yours super pigmented after scratching the surface?
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