Review and Swatches: Elf Best Friend Eyeshadow Duos

Good morning! Today I have a review for a sort of new product by elf called the Best Friend

Eyeshadow Duo.

I picked these up at my local Target as they just put them out, but the duos have been available for online purchase since last summer. The reason I did not do this is because I don’t really like the idea of having to buy something online that is $3.00, and having to pay shipping for it.

On that note, let's go over the specs. The two duos I'm going to be reviewing today are the Peach Squad Duo, and the Tea for Two Duo.

As I mentioned before, each duo costs $3. They contain 3 g of product each. This means that each pan in the duo contains 1.5 g of product.

Peach Squad contains a warm toned gold, almost bronze, as well as a matte peach. Tea for Two is cooler-toned, and contains what appears to be a pink shimmer, as well as a cream colored matte.

Tea for Two (l), Peach Squad (r)

Tea for Two (top), Peach Squad (bottom)

After swatching and using both of these products, I do have to say that the mattes are the stronger performers. The shimmers give an almost glossy look, and are not your typical shimmer formula. They're not chunky. The shimmer in Tea for Two appears very pink in the pan, but once I swatched it with my finger, I noticed it was definitely on the warmer, slightly orange side.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the shimmer shadows. On the packaging, elf suggests that the lightest eyeshadow should be used as a base while the darker shimmer shadow should be used on the outer half of the eye lid, over the matte  shade. I tried this today,  over the Wet ‘n Wild eyeshadow primer, and I don't feel that the gold really showed up in my eye. After using that particular shimmer, I even noticed small bits of hard pan developing.

However, I will definitely be using the matte shades in the future. I am very much drawn to the peach matte, which is quite pigmented when swatched. However, blending it out in the crease is another story. While it did well on the lid, over primer, I felt it lost a alittle bit of color once it got into the crease. While it was not drastic, I think it will best be used as a more subtle transition, and a lid shade.

I also wanted to compare the matte peach in the peach Squad duo with a peach matte from the Wet ‘n Wild Not a Basic Peach palette. While I really like the peach shade in the Wet ‘n Wild palette, I have gone through a lot of it, because it takes quite a bit of building up to get any vibrancy and intensity on the eye.

elf (top), Wet 'n Wild (bottom)

While both are very similar, the elf took two swipes to build up, while the Wet 'n Wild one took three.  So, neither of them are my ideal matte peach, but I do prefer the elf one more.

So how should one use the Shadows? Primer is a must. I would use the shimmers directly on the primer. Elf even suggests to use them wet, but I'm concerned about how that might create hard pan. I feel as though you could create really pretty looks from this, especially if you're on the go.

These are only $3 so I don't feel as though I was ripped off. However I don't think I should have bought the Tea for Two Duo. It doesn't really add anything new to my collection.

All in all, I am not wowed by the Elf duos, but I do think they have the potential to be useful.

Thanks so much for reading!