Review of e.l.f. Eye Color Applicators, 12 Count (Pack of 12)

Customer Ratings:

I am one of those women who prefers to use a sponge-tip applicator to apply eye shadow rather than a brush. Over the past several months, I have begun to invest in higher-end eye shadows, which generally do NOT come with applicators. As a result, I was hoping that this pack of 12 e.l.f. applicators would be just the thing I was looking for...and it was...until I tried to use one.

These applicators come on a nice long, sturdy handle--shorter than a long-handled makeup brush but two or three times longer than the average sponge applicator that comes with an eye shadow. The sponge tips are small and slightly pointed, which I figured would be great for better accuracy, detail work in the crease, etc.

Unfortunately, the very first time I swiped one of these applicators into a silky smooth high-end eye shadow and onto my eyelid, the first thing I noticed was an unpleasant scraping on my delicate eyelid skin. To my fingers, the sponge feels finer/smoother than some inexpensive drugstore applicators, but to my eyelid, they did not.

One culprit, beyond the actual sponge surface of the applicator, may be that, unlike most inexpensive drugstore applicators, these e.l.f. applicators have a larger core inside the sponge. The hard-plastic-feeling core is almost as wide and tall as the sponge tip, so perhaps this is what I was feeling poking me and not the sponge tip itself. Hard to say.

The bottom line is that, while I had high hopes for these applicators, I doubt that I will be using them much. I've only used 1 so far out of a pack of 12.

UPDATE 8/13/13: I tried another 1 or 2 of these applicators and did not have the roughness problem, so it appears that it was just my luck that the first one or two out of the package that I used had rough edges. The ones I used since I wrote the review didn't do a GREAT job of transferring the shadow from the palette to my eye, but they weren't as bad as the last applicators I reviewed, which were soft but I had a heck of a time getting any color onto my eyelids using them. I have upgraded my rating from 2 to 3 stars.

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