Quick Review: ELF Studio Golden Bronzer

Here's a review of ELF Studio Golden Bronzer.

I was looking for an affordable matte or satin finish bronzer, so I hit on the web and started to search for affordable bronzers with good reviews. Most of my searches pointed to NYC Sunny Bronzer; unfortunately, NYC products aren't sold here in the Philippines. So the next product with good reviews was the ELF Studio Warm Bronzer. I was supposed to pick that up, but I was in the rush when I picked this up and didn't read the box. Instead of getting the "Warm", I got the "Golden" shade. We don't have return / exchange policies here, so I'm stuck with this product.

Pros:

• The picture in the box is quite accurate in representing the product
• Packaging looks sleek and professional
• Compact comes with a fairly large mirror
• Contains four different shades, so you can pick the shade that you want to use. You can also customize your preferred shade.
• Pigmented
• Blendable
• Texture is soft
• Gives a nice glow
• You get a good amount of product
• Affordable. I think it's only 228 pesos

Cons:

• The compact doesn't close securely
• Powdery
• Too shimmery to be used as an all over bronzer
• May accentuate wrinkles, pores, imperfections, and dry skin

Swatches:

You can see how powdery this product is.

(with flash)

The right most is the four shades blended together.

(without flash)

Topmost swatch is the four shades blended together.

When I first tried this, I used it as an all over bronzer. What a huge mistake!

I looked like a disco ball! I had to redo my makeup. Take note, I used this with a light hand using a my MAC 187.

I thought at that very moment, what a waste this product is; but being me, I tried different techniques to make this product work. It just didn't cut it as a bronzer.

But I found that it works amazingly well as a highlight.

It gave me a beautiful golden sheen.

I tried using this as a blush, but it didn't worked out for me since it's looks a bit weird wearing gold blush.

I also tried using the smallest amount of product I can manage and topped it on a matte blush.

It added a lovely golden glow to the blush, and made the blush a bit warmer.

Although it fails as a bronzer for me, I like it as a highlight.