ELF Disney Villains Makeup Look Books 2013

Hey guys! As some of you may know, for the past couple of years ELF has released limited edition Disney Villain themed makeup look books during the fall/Halloween season. I was a little late finding out about them last year and ended up not getting any. This year, however, I was ahead of the game and was prepared. On the website it said that the palettes were a Walgreens exclusive, so I called the closest one to me (an hour away) and found out that they were having a one-day special on Saturday 10-5-13 (yesterday) from 10am-5pm. I was walking in the door at 10am and was the first person to purchase any of them at my Walgreens, lol. They only had 4 sets of the books, 4 cubes of the limited edition nail polish, and 4 sets of makeup bags that were also in the Disney Villain themes. The only thing I was interested in were the look books, and that is all I ended up purchasing. The price of each book was $9.99, and they were on sale for 25% off. I was so excited to go and get these!

I'm going to tell you a little about the books before I get to the swatching. To my understanding there were only 3 books released last year - Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), Evil Queen (Snow White), and Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmations). The 2013 collection includes those plus one more, Ursula (The Little Mermaid). Each all-in-one book includes step by step instructions for both day and night looks so you "can be both beautifully and wonderfully wicked for any occasion."

Each book includes:
1 eyelid primer
6 eyeshadow colors
1 brightening eyeliner
1 liquid eyeliner
1 mascara
1 lip color
1 eyeshadow brush

The eyeshadows in these palettes are kind of hit and miss. There are some matte shades, but mostly shimmery ones. Out of all the palettes there are some neutrals as well as some purples,blues and greens. The same pencil eyeliner, liquid eyeliner, mascara, primer, and eyeshadow brush is in each palette. I do not really like the pencil liner, it is dry and would pull on your eyelid, and it is not a vivid black. The liquid eyeliner has a very skinny brush applicator, and it is a very wet formula. I think it will be fine to use, you will just have to watch the application to keep it neat. I have not tried the mascara yet, but it does not appear to be a mascara that I will particularly enjoy just by looking. It has a short brush without a whole lot of bristles, similar to a Great Lash wand. While some people love that type of wand, it is not what works best for me. All of the lip colors are actually pretty nice. Really pigmented and slightly sticky, so I think they will have decent staying power. ELF has always had what I have thought to be excellent eyeshadow primers. While I've not tried this one yet, I am sure it will be great. I use their $1 primer or their mineral primer almost daily. The eyeshadow brush that is included in the palettes is the $1 Professional Eyeshadow Brush. I have used this brush for years and I think it is great. Very nice to have 4 more to add to my collection!

The first book we will look at is the Maleficent one. The six colors are: Flora (peachy champagne highlight), Fauna (taupy grey), Spell (shimmery dark green), Deep Sleep (silver), Thorns (dark brown), and Raven Black (black). All the colors are shimmery except for the Raven black. While it's not completely matte, it has very scant, tiny dots of shimmer in it. The lip color is a very pinky red. Very opaque, very pretty.

The colors with the most pigment are Spell and Deep Sleep, by far the best ones in this palette. Fauna, Thorns, and Raven Black are decent. Flora barely shows up when swatched on bare skin, the least pigmented in this one.

The next book is the Evil Queen. The six eyeshadow colors are: Huntsman (nude champagne), Jealousy (shimmery mid-tone brown), Majesty (grey taupe), Witch (matte grey), Vanity (matte brown), and Dark Magic (dark plum purple). There are 2 matte shades in this palette (Witch and Vanity), the others are shimmery. The lip color is a very pretty opaque raspberry.

This palette is MUCH more pigmented than the Maleficent one, and is probably my favorite out of the bunch. The colors are just beautiful and I can see some great looks with this palette!

Next we have the Ursula book. The eyeshadows are: Coral (light pinky brown), Sea Witch (bright purple lilac), Shell (green), Kiss the Girl (golden brown), Triton (dark purple), and Bewitched (navy). Sea Witch, Triton, and Bewitched are all matte. Coral, Shell, and Kiss the Girl are shimmery. The lip color is a beautiful pink, my favorite of all the lip colors.

Coral, Shell, and Kiss the Girl are by far the best colors in this palette, and they are quite beautiful. Sea Witch and Bewitched barely show up when swatched, and Triton has quite possibly the worst blendability (is that even a word??) that I have EVER seen in a shadow. I had to swatch it about 6 times for this pic, and rubbed hard as I could to try to get it to blend into an even strip. Terrible.

And lastly we have the Cruella De Vil book, which has more neutral shades than the rest. The shadows in this palette are overall a very good quality. There are: Maniac (light peachy nude), Puppy Love (golden brown), Fur (dark brown shimmer), Cruelty (light golden brown), Eccentric (rust brown) and Stolen (matte dark brown). The lip color is a gorgeous opaque coral.

All of the colors in this palette are good quality with good pigmentation except for Stolen, it swatches very pale and very patchy. One of the better palettes in this collection.

Overall, I think these palettes are adorably cute and I am glad that I purchased them. You get 4 really great eyeshadow brushes, 4 tubes of what I expect to be really great eyeshadow primer, 4 beautiful (small) lip colors that are incredibly pigmented in excellent shades, as well as 4 tubes of what I think will be very black, usable liquid eyeliners. As far as the eyeshadows go, I think you could divide these (as a whole collection) in thirds. 1/3 of the colors are great, 1/3 are decent/ and 1/3 are terrible. In my opinion, the more standout shades were all shimmery and the ones that I liked the least were of the matte variety, which is terribly disappointing because I tend to like matte shadows much more than shimmery ones. While I don't think there are any WOW colors in any of these palettes, I think there are several shades that would make very pretty eye looks that just about anyone could enjoy. As far as if I would recommend these palettes to anyone, I think if you could get these for the $9.99 price you wouldn't be disappointed. Especially if you could still find them 25% off. But as far as going on eBay or Amazon and dishing out astronomical prices simply because these are limited edition, save your money. If you only picked up one or two of these, I would definitely recommend going with the Evil Queen or Cruella De Vil books. Unless you just wanted the complete collection, I would skip the Maleficent and Ursula books first.

That's it guys! Hope you enjoyed. Any questions leave them below and I will try to answer them best I can. Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy post, but hopefully it helped a few of you out there. Have a great day and stop by again soon!