My Take On ELF's Beauty Eye Manuals

Hi Beautifuls!! I got these elf (Eyeslipsface.com) Eye Manuals for Christmas and I just got around to opening them up and trying them out! At first glance I really enjoy the packaging, it's a cute concept, and I immediately think this would be a great gift idea for people new to make up! 

 I think the insert of the Beauty books allowing people to write down their successful looks is a great tool for learning and becoming a better MUA. Also for remembering exactly what you used to create the look!

Each of the beauty books comes a mini elf Brightening Eyeliner pencil in "Black" as well a dual ended applicator, I took these out of the books and stored them separately (personal preference). The Beauty books also include a how to Create the look guide, so if you didn't know how to create a smokey look they teach you some basic techniques. After playing with the different "Manuals" I changed my mind about this being great starter make up and I'll tell you why at the end of the post. 

The first beauty book I played around with is the Smoky Eye Edition. I thought this book came with really fun colors, and I was super excited to try them out. Out of all the books I tried this is the one I enjoyed the most.

This palette had the most usable colors out of the 4 beauty books that I tried. They don't have names for their eyeshadow colors in these palettes and they are labeled eye 1..eye 2..eye 3.. ect. Eye 1 in this palette was VERY chalky and far too glittery for me. Eye 2 and 3 looked different in the palette, but had no real difference when swatched. The other colors produced fairly true to color swatches with minimal to no chalking.

The Second Book I played around with is the Bright Eye Edition. This was my LEAST favorite beauty book! The colors were nearly impossible to use. The most chalky of all the palettes.

 I was really hoping this palette was going to work out. I thought the colors looked like a lot of fun, until I went and tried to use them! Eye 1 I couldn't even get to show up. That's with about 15 passes of the color. Eye's 2-5 took about 8 applications of the color to get it to show up, but they are SOOO chalky that if you blow on them all the color would be gone! Eyes 6-8 took 2 swipes and they are the only real usable colors in the palette, but I can't imagine how difficult they would be to blend out. Eye 9 was just a waste of space (sorry it's true), that little mark of a swatch was after trying to get color to stick after 20+ swipes, ZERO pigmentation! Eye 10-12 is very very chalky but at least there is a slight pigmentation. 

 The Next Book I experimented with is the Natural Eye Edition. I enjoyed some of the colors in this book, but I guess I had higher hopes for it when I saw it (thinking it was gonna be a Urban Decay Naked Dupe), but the colors again, are so chalky it's hard to use them. 

All of the colors seemed to swatch fairly well with 2 passes. The only shadow I had a huge problem with is Eye 10. Very very little pigmentation, far too chalky to use for anything. The other colors had "ok" Pigmentation, but were also chalky.

The Last Beauty Book I played with is the Everyday Eye Edition. I would say that as far as eyeshadow quality this would rank #2 in the 4 I tried. A good variety of colors to play with!

 There was a big enough difference between the colors that this is the one palette you actually get 12 different usable colors to play with! Each of the colors swatched pretty nicely at 2 swipes. The only thing I didn't like about the palette was the black (Eye 12) has a lot of glitter in it, though my camera didn't pick it up, it is definitely there. But again, that is a personal preference and there is nothing wrong with the color if your into glittery shadows (: 

So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post.... I think the concept of these Beauty Eye Manuals are WONDERFUL. The tools that are included, the How To Guide, the Pages to write notes, are wonderful things for beginners. The quality of the shadows, however, make these palettes NOT SO ideal for newbies. I think they would get very frustrated and disappointed at the quality, and the chalkiness and the fact they don't blend! I know if this was the first Eye Shadow I had to play with I would toss the towel in and give up! Well, I doubt that I am too stubborn, but if you aren't, you might be more apt to get discouraged. So maybe if you are looking for cheap makeup to start hit up your local drug store when they are having a cosmetics sale and just pick up some Drugstore Makeup on clearance! There are lots of great brands to play around with and TONS of reviews out there (including here)! Hope this helped at least someone! 

Till Next Time Gorgeous,