When I stumbled upon an e.l.f. stand at Superdrug I couldn’t wait to dig in. The first products on my list to try was the Baked Highlighter in Moonlight Pearls and Poreless Primer thanks to Sharon at Back to You Beauty. I was excited by the prospect of e.l.f.’s return to the UK highstreet but that soon faded once I saw the price points. For example, their liquid liner used to retail for £1.95 now it’s £3, their eyeshadow palettes retail for up to £14.50 and their single brushes can retail for up to £14.50. When compared to Superdrug’s other ‘budget’ beauty brands such as MUR, Freedom, MUA or even Lottie London, e.l.f. might not be as affordable as you once remember.
The Baked Highlighters are available in four shades; Moonlight Pearls, Pink Diamonds, Blush Gems and Apricot Glow and retail for £5 for 5g. Yes, of course, this is way cheaper than my Becca, The Balm or Laura Geller highlighters but I couldn’t help but think of my beloved MUA Undress Your Skin in Iridescent Gold which retails at £3 for 7.5g when I picked this up. Does anyone else go from one extreme to another? Either I’m drooling over an ABH Glow Kit or I’m filling my basket full of Technic or Essence.
I cannot begin to tell you how mixed my opinions on this products are. The tester swatched beautifully in store. Moonlight Pearls is a stunning pale gold. There’s a fair amount of fallout and isn’t blinding, but it gives the skin a beautiful ‘lit from within’ glow that works well with pale skin tones. It isn’t overly shimmering and makes the skin look radiant, however, there’s something about this highlight that really bugs me…
In order to get a decent amount of pigment you actually need to scratch off the top layer. When I initially opened my highlighter to swatch it there was hardly any colour payoff at all. I was confused as this wasn’t the case of the in-store tester. Basically, the more you use this product the better it becomes. Scrapping off the top layer isn’t a difficult thing to do but for £5 this really irritated me. In my opinion, that just isn’t good enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to use this product as it’s a beautiful highlight. It’s so natural looking, long-lasting and Moonlight Pearls is the perfect shade to enhance my pale skin, but I think it’s a bit of a cheek to expect your customers to chip away at their new highlighter, even if it’s only £5. It is really pretty though…
