E.L.F. Makeup - Before and After Review

Hello again! After my last post, lovely reader Laura asked about the coverage and color accuracy of the E.L.F. mineral products. My reply became very long-winded, so I thought I'd bite the bullet and turn it into a real makeup review. 

Before we begin, let me tell you: I am no makeup guru. Left to its own devices and deprived of its daily dose of zinc and malic/mandelic acid serum, it's sensitive, prone to cystic acne, and pretty darn oily. Add to that the fact that I refuse to spend much on my makeup, and just I can't have too much stuff on my face. I also lack the patience required to apply said stuff in anything resembling a professional - or even practiced - manner. There won't be a super-drastic change.

With that out of the way, behold: my large-scale, bangs-free, nekkid face! This photo is complete with pock marks and dark spots from where I have recently been picking at my pores (I do this when I am stressed out, and job hunting has recently left me pretty stressed). Keep in mind that the pock marks are actually indentations in my skin, and they can never fully be erased by makeup. Also note how my face is naturally a different color than my neck and shoulders - it's not that I'm too dumb to match my makeup to my skin, I swear!

 Next, we have the concealer-application shot. I use the warm shade, and I'd say the promo shot on the E.L.F. site is accurate (though I know some monitors may project the colors differently).

 

Aaaand, here I am with the concealer blended in. The spots on my nose and chin are less prominent. :)

 

Here we have a real-life shot of the the Mineral Foundation in the warm shade (for medium skin with neutral undertones, which I chose because I definitely don't have warm undertones). Clicking back and forth between these pictures, I'd say that the foundation is the teensiest smidge darker than the promo shot, and I don't know what's up with that gray-beige smudge that's supposed to show you how the product looks when blended...

Here is my face post-foundation.  Check out how asymmetrical my eyes are - this is why I wear bangs. :)

Next up: the All Over Color Stick in Lilac Petal (left) and Pink Lemonade (right) as well as the Mineral Blush in Rose (below). The color sticks go on much more silvery than the promo shots, and the blush is more pink than its peachy promo pic would let on. I left the blush out of my previous review, because I prefer the look of my 99 Cents Only store blush, but this stuff is good, too.

Here, I've applied blush, Lilac Petal to my cheeks, and Pink Lemonade to my eyelids, using the color stick as a highlighter. I usually only do this for special occasions. I tried to get a shot that showed how the shimmer in the color sticks. I've also applied LipSense lip color in Roseberry (not $1 or particularly cheap, but I bought some for my wedding, and I like how it looks under the color sticks).

And finally, here's the full effect with the Pink Lemonade Color Stick over my lip color. Pock marks are still visible, but the acne spots are covered.

Before and after. 

The shots above are all done with flash; for an idea of how this all looks in natural light (and to allow me a moment to indulge my inner bridezilla), check out a couple of photos from our kooky wedding photo session, shot by my super-talented father. :)

I am out of my Mineral Booster in Sheer, so I could not apply any above, but I did use a light dusting of that over everything for the pictures below. I Photoshopped these myself, and I did not feel the need to retouch my face - hooray for makeup! It was cheap and saved me retouching fees!