During my wonderful marathon shopping excursion I made a special trip to my local Kohl's store. I went for two reasons... One I had a $10 gift card to use before it expired and two I really wanted to use that giftcard to buy some of the new Elle makeup.
If you've read my previous haul post then you know by now that I did not in fact buy any Elle cosmetics. I have a very good reason... They most certainly did not impress! Maybe I'm just overly picky or didn't give them a fighting chance but I just know that the initial launch left MUCH to be desired.
Lets start out with price
In the Kohl's ad they have a price range listed of $10-$16. I went in there fully expecting to find a varying degree of prices for each particular product in the line. That's not at all what I saw. EVERYTHING with the exception of the large makeup bag ($24) was $16!!!! The blushes were $16. The single eyeshadows were $16. The lipsticks were $16. The lip LINERS were $16. Even every single makeup brush was $16!!!! Okay, I'm sorry but if I'm going to pay that much for something then I want it to be from an already well established cosmetics brand that has reviews, reputation, and rock solid formulation! I was a little flabbergasted that I could go and buy a MAC lipstick for less than one of these! And call me cheap...but I don't think I would ever pay $16 for a lip LINER unless I just had a load of disposable income and it was something I would use all the time. I also dont really agree with having everything be the same price like that. I just feel like different makeup products warrant different prices. A foundation (which they dont carry btw) I expect to pay more for than an eyeliner. I expect to pay more for lipstick than a lip liner, and I expect to pay more for a blush than I do for an eyeshadow single. I glanced over at the Vera Wang collection and it had varying prices for items so I dont really understand why the ELLE line couldn't.
Selection
As far as products go they have most of the bases covered. They sell blush, lipstick, eyeshadow, eyeliner, lip liner, and mascara. The only thing the really lack is foundation and powders. The shade selection of those items, however, is very limited. I understand that they JUST launched but I remember when FLIRT! first launched in Kohl's and they had WAY more variety! They had about 8 or 10 blushes (which was pretty decent), 14 or so lipsticks (all of which were VERY similar in color and finish), a handful of lip liners (again all in similar shades), 3 eyeliner colors (black, navy, brown), 1 or 2 mascara formulas, and about 15 to 20 eyeshadows (almost entirely neutrals). Again, if you're going to charge me a ridiculous amount for a lipstick or eyeshadow then at least give me a large selection to choose from!
Textures, Finishes, and Consistencies
I swatched every lipstick and blush they had and nearly all of the eyeshadows. The lipsticks did have a nice creamy consistency and the color pay off was good but it just wasn't anything mind blowing. I feel like you can get comparable ones for a lot less money. They had pretty much all cream shades with maybe 2 frosty colors and none that were completely matte. The opposite can be said for the blushes though! Every blush swatched matte and had no sheen to it at all. The color pay off was hit or miss depending on the shade and because of the matte-ness I can see where they could appear chalky on someone with very dry skin. The eyeshadows had an alright texture to them. They weren't too hard or soft and they had some varying finishes but most were shimmery. Again the color selection was pretty limited and pigmentation was only so-so. Plus they didnt have a whole lot of "Color" to really play with. The nicest shade was a seafoam bluegreen.
Non Makeup Items
As I said before they did have a few makeup brushes and makeup bags. The bags were varying size and shape and had 3 different patterns to choose from. My favorite was the largest one which was $24 because it had several sections to work with. The lift top bags were pretty nice too and even included brush holders in the lid with a protective flap which you dont see too often. The bags were nice but I just felt like again, for the price, you could find something better or even spend a little more and have something far superior. The brushes I didnt actually take out and feel but the selection was pretty limited. They had just the basics, powder brush, crease brush, blending brush, liner brush, etc. Once more, I felt like you could definetely get better quality and selection for the money!
Overview
I really wanted to be wowed by these products but it just wasn't there. Again I just keep going back to the price issue. I guess the lipstick is what really tripped me up and was the icing on the cake for me since I went in to buy either a lipstick or blush. I'm not a MAC snob by any means considering I just recently went there for the first time, but I just feel like it's silly to spend $16 for a lipstick when I can goto the MAC counter at Macy's and spend $2 less and have a HUGE selection of finishes and colors to choose from and get a product that's reputation precedes it. I wouldn't waste my money on this personally, but that's just me. Maybe if I get a few more of those free giftcards I might get something from ELLE but honestly I think I would rather use it on clothes, jewelry, or home decor than waste it on that. Hopefully they readjust their prices to have a little bit of range and they expand the line to include more shades and finishes.
I hope that you all were able to find this review useful and learned something from it. I'm sorry that I didn't have any pictures to add to this post but I wasn't about to buy something for the sake of taking its picture and they were doing prom makeovers at the end of the aisle so taking pics in store just was not happening! Maybe one of you will find something worthwhile to love about this line and can share with me so that maybe I can give it a second chance!
Thanks for reading!
Natalie
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