Saturday, July 17, 2010

E.L.F. Beauty Book Swatches

Fortune Cookie Fortune of the Day: "May life throw you a pleasant curve."

So I went into my local Target the other day shopping for kitty litter and milk. Of course, I also planned to peruse the E.L.F. cosmetics section for one or two small items. ;-) Happy surprise!!!!!! Target has a new E.L.F. endcap display full of fun tools, brushes, and cosmetics, in addition to their regular E.L.F. display. Upon seeing this, I was so excited, I immediately whipped out my phone and took a picture to send to my friend, and fellow E.L.F. addict, Heather. No, I was not the least bit embarrassed to stand there taking pictures of the E.L.F. display, although the red-shirted employees were giving me strange looks indeed. I just couldn't contain myself when I saw that the Beauty Books were there! I've been dying to try the Sparkle Eye Edition Beauty Encyclopedia, but the Eye Brights Beauty Book is the next best thing...and here it was in my shopping cart (along with its little friend, the Neutral Eye Beauty Book)! The Beauty Book contains the same 12 eyeshadow colors and Eye Brightening Eyeliner as the Eye Edition Beauty Encyclopedia, minus the two cream shadows, but with the addition of a mirror. All of this for the bargain price of $5!!! http://www.target.com/s/ref=sr_related_4/189-1362516-6935434?ie=UTF8&keywords=elf%20cosmetics

First of all, let me say that the colors of both the Neutral and Eye Brights palettes are gorgeous...which you might have guessed already, since I'm so excited about them. However, the Eye Brights palette contains 10 Urban Decay dupes! Betcha' didn't know that!!! The Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland palette, released earlier this year, is in high demand for both Urban Decay devotees, as well as fans of Alice in Wonderland, and has sold out completely from the Urban Decay website. You can still find these palettes on ebay for around $200. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310225589185&rvr_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=WKF%3F&GUID=e0f645101290a0aad3773d27ffa975f9&itemid=310225589185&ff4=263602_263622

Seven of the shades in the Alice in Wonderland palette are duplicated almost exactly in the E.L.F. Eye Brights Beauty Book...for $5! Looking at it another way, many of the Alice in Wonderland shades are just renamed shades from Urban Decay's Ammo Shadow Box, and ALL 10 shades in the Ammo Shadow Box are duplicated in the Eye Brights Beauty Book. The Ammo Shadow Box retails for $36, and contains much smaller pans of shadow than the E.L.F. Beauty Books offer. http://www.urbandecay.com/products/EyeshadowAmmo.cfm

Judging by the apple-printed price labels, I believe that Target is only offering the Beauty Books, as well as the rest of the items on the new display, for a limited time (i.e. "Back to School"). So get out there as soon as you can to take advantage of the new selection. Of course, you may order the Beauty Encyclopedias from http://www.eyeslipsface.com anytime, but if you just can't wait for shipping, and you don't mind losing the two cream shadows from the Beauty Encyclopedia editions...get out to Target today for the Beauty Books!

Here are the swatches from both palettes (I used the E.L.F. Eyelid Primer [or in this case, "Forearm Primer" ;-) ] from the $1 line under each swatch):

First, the Neutral Eyes Beauty Book:

The colors in the palette


Top Row (the line on the far right is the eyeliner swatch in "Coffee.")


Second Row


Third Row

And now, the Eye Brights Beauty Book:

The palette


A closer view of the colors

First Row with eyeliner swatch in "Black" on far right.
Urban Decay eyeshadow dupes from left to right (Ammo Shadow Box name listed first/Alice in Wonderland Palette name listed second): 1. Polyester Bride/White Rabbit , 2. Sin/Drink Me Eat Me, 3. Grifter/Curiouser, 4. Chopper/Chessur.


Second Row
UD dupes from L to R: 1. Maui Wowie/Wonderland, 2. Mildew (Ammo Shadow Box only),
3. Shattered (Ammo Shadow Box only), 4. Smog (Ammo Shadow Box only).


Third Row
The light silver and purple shades are not Urban Decay dupes, as far as I know. The last two are dupes of Last Call/Queen and Oil Slick/Jabberwock.

So there you have it! Beautiful colors, beautiful price! Thank you, as always, for stopping by my blog! It means so much to me!



5 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting, very interesting :)

    http://missmellieh.blogspot.com/

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  2. Hi! Can you please tell me which shades in the neutral beauty book have glittery sparkles (like that black shade in the other book)? I like shimmer, but I find lots of the elf shadows have glitter and you can never tell which ones until you have them in your hands! Thanks so much!

    Also, you are positive the shadows in these books you got are the exact same as the ones in the beauty encyclopedias?

    ~Anna

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  3. Hi Anna,

    None of the Neutral Beauty Book shadows are as sparkly as the black shadow from the Eye Brights Book. In the Neutral Beauty Book, there is shimmer to each shadow from the top row and the last one in the top row has a tiny bit of fine, iridescent glitter to it, but it is very subtle. The first three colors of the second row are shimmery. On the third row, the second and third colors from the left have a shimmer and the third from the left also has a bit of that iridescent glitter to it, but again, very subtle. All of the colors from the Neutral Book are extremely wearable!

    And yes, I have one of the Beauty Encyclopedias, and the e/s colors are exactly the same! The Neutral Eyes Beauty Book is the same as the Basic Eye Beauty Encyclopedia. The Smoky Eyes Beauty Book is the same as the Everyday Eye Beauty Encyclopedia.(Of course, you don't get the cream shadows though...)

    Hope that helps!
    Melinda

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  4. I thought I was the only person that saw that the sparkle/eye bright book contained urban decay dupes! I have swatches on my blog too.. but your swatch are better. I'll have to swatch by row instead, that's much better :)

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  5. blogwalking... i haven't used elf before but I think these swatches are great!

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