E.L.F. Smudge Pots: A Review

        Hello all!  It's been a minute since I've been on here. The only culprit of that is my career change, and I unfortunately had to put my first passion (which is the blog you are reading right now) on the back-burner for just a couple weeks. Well, now that I'm all settled in at the new workplace, I would like to announce that updates on here are hopefully now on the regular!

       Alright, now that housekeeping is out of the way, I wanted to share my thoughts (or an in-depth review, rather) on these muy fabuloso products from e.l.f. If you aren't familiar with these spectacularly splendid Smudge Pots, allow me to introduce you. They are a somewhat new product to the e.l.f. Essentials line, and are at a perfect price point at only $2 a piece (I just checked, and they have raised the price on these to $3, which is a bit of a rip-off since it is their Essentials  line, which is their bulk of exclusively $1-$2 products, and these are not in their Studio or Mineral  line, so...coupon codes and sales, darlings! They're your best friends! *wink wink*), and....get ready for it...these little suckers give their MAC counterpart a run for their money.

       e.l.f. was definitely on their A-game  with these. I've been a long-time user of MAC Paint Pots, too, and I wanted to wait a bit to do a review on these anyway, because I wanted to test to see if they are as long lasting in their containers as they are when on the eyes. It's a tough test for some products to pass. And I'm glad to say that I have not been singing any blues of these drying out in their jars to a crispy mess like the Maybelline Color Tattoos.

And now, the shades I selected!

• Brownie Points: a slightly reddened deep chocolate brown
• Back To Basics: a true gold, very brightening on the eyes, not brassy or orange in the slightest(reminds me a bit of UD's Half Baked eyeshadow)

Availability:

Currently, the only place these are available for purchase is on the e.l.f. website: eyeslipsface.com. I'm sure that availability will extend to retail stores in the near future, since these are still relatively new products.

Packaging:

The packaging on these is a plastic (but quite sturdy) jar and lid, and not that "so very elegante" weighty glass jar that the Color Tattoos and MAC Paint Pots have. So ladies and gents, when you're unscrewing the lid to use these, the sound will be tacky and cheap. When you screw the lid back on, the sound will still be tacky and cheap. That's just how the cookie crumbles if you want to save a few dollars while retaining the same high quality. The lid might even squeak a bit! Like seven-inch nails on a chalkboard. Nah, just kidding about that, it's not that bad. 😜

That sound you get when you detach and reattach the lid of a MAC Paint Pot though, is so solid, though, like marbles rolling across a glass table, with the angels overhead singing their heavenly song. Ahem, yeah, I'd better get that from my packaging if I'm going to spend the better part of $20 on a cream eyeshadow!  Seriously, who thinks of crap like this when buying makeup?

.17 oz of product is what you get with these, which I found was surprising when I first opened my box, because the containers for these appeared to be quite a bit smaller than the others (Color Tattoos and Paint Pots - ok, I'll try not to mention them again). But we all know that other companies like to make their products look bigger and badder, thus wasting materials with unnecessarily bulky packaging. So, ELF, I must say, you did a very good job with not going that route.

Quality:

The two shades that I selected provide medium opacity, and they set very nicely and evenly, as the formula on these is more of a gel/cream hybrid. So when they do dry down, they don't really, you get my drift? None of that powdery finish with these when they set. Other cream shadow bases can make my already-dry eyelids appear crepe-y and wrinkly (even when the eyelid area is hydrated and prepped) and the formula on some cream shadows can skip and apply patchily and unevenly, and just...gross, am I right? Well, as long as I have had these, I have not run into any of those problems.

Wear-Time

With these, I have only experienced minimal creasing after 8 hours of wear, and the 10-hour mark is when I see a bit more, and I can tell the base is finally starting to break down underneath the powder products. Just to note: I haven't worn either of these on their own to see how they perform solo. I have always applied some sort of powder eyeshadow on top - various brands, of course.

I have found that these work especially well with my Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette, for some reason. I suppose it is because the formula of the shadows in that palette (and other Too Faced shadows I've tried in the past) are on the drier side, which I actually don't mind at all. The powders in that palette just aren't as creamy as other powder shadows, and these really help the colors in that palette look more alive and less muddy and dry, and provide a less powdery finish than other bases I've tried with the same palette.

Overall

     I think the main aspect that e.l.f. needs to work on with their Smudge Pots is the development of more  shades! Perfect price (even if it was raised to $3 seemingly out of nowhere) and the quality is definitely  there. I would like to see some mattes thrown into the mix, since all of their offerings at the moment have some degree of shimmer, and, well, we always want what isn't there already right? (That's one thing I took out of my psych classes in college.) But I think these little cream shadows have been very well-received among makeup-loving fanatics since their release a few months ago, and for good reason. 😄

What do you think of these ELF Smudge Pots? Have you tried them? What different colors would you like to see in this line in the future? A batch of dupes for MAC Paint Pot shades? More fun and artistic shades, or some ethereal duochromes? Let me know in the comments below! Hope this review was helpful! Let me know, by all means, what I can improve on with my posts as well! Thanks guys and gals! Have a wonderful day!

💋 xoxo-Cailee