Best Elf Products: Vegan & Cruelty Free

I personally love Elf products, they’re such a great brand. This isn’t a sponsored post or anything like it; this is purely my opinion as I really own and genuinely use a lot of Elf products. I love natural make-up and Elf ticks all the boxes for me.

I’ve compiled my list below of the best elf products that I’ve used. In case you didn’t know Elf is vegan, cruelty free and affordable brand. Elf products have been available in the UK for a long time. Although I’m currently not buying any new makeup for sustainability reasons I do still have my favourite Elf products in my collection.

When I first went vegan and found out just how many of the drugstore brands in the UK weren’t even cruelty free let alone animal free ingredients I was shocked! 

L’Oréal even now have advertisements that say they are cruelty free since 1989 which is laughable since they still sell their products in China!

Elf was one of the first brands that I stocked up on when I switched out my makeup and skincare and even now most of the products I use on a daily basis are Elf. 

History behind e.l.f

Elf or e.l.f (which is the correct logo for the brand) was founded in 2004 by Joseph Shamah and Scott Vincent Borba. They are a 100% vegan and cruelty free American brand. When they originally created the brand in California all of their products had a very small price point with most items costing between $1-$3. 

Now they are still very affordable and are available worldwide. 

Elf stands for eyes, lips and face and they pride themselves with being diverse in the market as they state they are for every eye, lip and face. 

Elf products are also free from phthalates, parabens, nonylphenol ethoxylates, triclosan, triclocarbon, hydroquinone and sulfates which are all potential irritants. 

They are also a brand this is 100% vegan and cruelty free which is quite handy if you’re newly vegan and unsure about ingredients in products.

Best Elf Products

Now I’ll get to my compilation of the best Elf products 2021 and a full face of Elf at the end.

Best Elf Products For Your Face

Skincare and primers

In the skincare section I love the Happy hydration cream from Elf as mentioned in my current skincare routine (£12 on their UK website), I heard about this from a recommendation of one of my favourite YouTubers James Welsh, for his channel click here. 

This elf product is lovely and moisturising but not too heavy which I like, even for my dry skin if I use a lot of different serums etc in my routine I don’t always want an intense moisturiser and this just gives my skin exactly what it needs without it feeling greasy. 

Next my favourite primers from Elf are the poreless putty primer which took the internet by storm a few years ago and the luminous putty primer. I tend to use the pore perfecting primer around my nose and chin; where I have visible pores and the luminous putty on my cheeks because it has a nice golden glow.  I would definitely use these for makeup free days to give the skin I nice finish too. 

Foundation

I wasn’t a fan of the Elf foundation, I didn’t much like the finish it gave and it was a bit too heavily perfumed for me. However I have heard great things about their camo concealer. I only use concealer under my brows really so I haven’t bought it as I feel it would be a waste of money for me. 

Contour 

I have the ELF cream contour palette (only £7.50 on their website) which I don’t use every day but when I want to look contoured, I’ll use this under foundation for a nice natural look. Now I’m into my 30’s I much prefer the finish of cream products like contour and blush. 

Blush

My favourite blush is the monochromatic blush in dazzling peach (£4.50 on their website), I apply with my fingers as I feel this works the best and I pair this with the ‘Apricot glow’ baked highlighter (£2.50 currently on their website). 

Powder

I don’t always use powder, it depends on the foundation I’ve used and if it’s summer but I really like the Halo Glow setting powder just for my T-Zone (£8 on their website). It’s very light and doesn’t look cakey. It’s loose powder too so will probably last me for years. 

Highlighter

As mentioned before I use the baked highlighter once the foundation has set or I’ve powdered. I don’t always use highlighter because I actually use a lot of glowy dewy products like the luminous putty primer so don’t always feel it’s necessary but it is a lovely natural looking highlighter. 

Best Elf Products For Your Eyes

Eyebrows

For my brows I love that they do an ‘Auburn’ brow pencil (£3 on their website). It’s so difficult to find ‘Auburn’ brow products at all; I love the shade of this pencil and the handy spoolly on the other side. As my hair has a lot of red tones in it due to the henna I use; the colour warm brown I’ve found doesn’t quite give the brows the colour I want but this pencil is perfect. 

Elf also have a great clear wax pencil for brows (£3 on their website) if I need my brows to stay put all day. 

Eye primer 

I fairly recently bought an Shadow lock eye primer from Elf too, after watching a lot of Robert Welsh YouTube videos he convinced me a primer is the best base for eyeshadow! I have no complaints since using this one, I don’t seem to get any creasing or patchiness from the eyeshadow and it’s so cheap at £3!

Eyeshadow brushes 

Elf have some great brushes with amazing reviews so I decided to try the Smoky Eye Brush Kit (£14.50 on their website) and I have to say it definitely is such a good brush set. The brushes are so soft and easy to use, even for a novice like me! 

Eyeshadows

I currently have two Elf eyeshadow palettes which I love, firstly Mad for matte, summer breeze palette (£10 on their website) which is an amazing every day palette. Admittedly I prefer mattes in general and the red/brown shades in this just compliment my skin and eyes really well but they also have lots of other versions in their mad for matte range: ‘Holy smokes’ and ‘Nude mood’. I’m not the most skilled when it comes to eyeshadow but this formula is very easy to work with, the darker shades aren’t quite as pigmented but still a great palette for every day. 

The other palette I have is the 18 Hit Wonders palette (£14 on their website) which is a medium sized palette with lots of bright colours. The pigmentation is really good on most shades apart from the yellow and orange but I have still created a beautiful sunset look with this palette and had a lot of fun playing with the colours. I have my eye on the opposites attract palette and will probably get this at some stage. 

I’ve also reviewed three other vegan & cruelty free eyeshadow palettes on my YouTube channel if you were looking for recommendations of other eyeshadows to try.

Eye Extras 

I also recently bought a liquid glitter eyeshadow in ‘Flirty bird’, (£5 on their website) which is brilliant to add a bit of glam to your eyeshadow look. 

I tend to use a pencil eyeliner for every day along the lash line as I have quite hooded eyes and I struggle to make liquid eyeliners work on my eyes. However, I do have a black liquid liner from Elf which I use occasionally (£3 on their website). It’s very rich in colour and lasts really well when I do use it. 

I have previously used the Elf mascara and have loved it but I only use the Elf mascara primer (£2.25 on their website) at the moment before my Essence mascara. I just really like how this combination gives my lashes a real false lash effect. 

Best Elf Products For Your Lips

Lip gloss 

My staple go-to Elf product is their plumping lip gloss in shade ‘Praline’ (£6 on their website) and probably aside from the primers; is the other thing that I reach for on a daily basis. It tingles a little but not in an uncomfortable way and I love that it has just a little bit of sheer colour to coat the lips. See above picture and video below.

I’ve also lately been loving their Gotta go lip tint in ‘Perfect Peach’ ( currently £3.75 on their website). It’s great for a splash of colour and it feels just like a lip balm. 

Lipsticks 

I also have a few of their moisturising lipsticks and the colours are beautiful, ‘Velvet rope’ is a lovely bright red shade with a hint of orange, ‘Wine Tour’ is a deep black cherry shade, ‘Crazy cranberry’ is a pink toned dark red and ‘Orange dream’ is an orangey red (surprisingly!). I couldn’t find the other shades I have so not sure if some are discontinued but the ‘Orange dream‘ is only £2.25 currently.

In the picture below I’m wearing Wine tour.

I just don’t tend to wear lipstick daily because I find if you snack a lot you have to reapply throughout the day and that’s just not practical for me! 

Here’s my full face of Elf products apart from the mascara as I don’t have one, apart from mascara primer of course), I’m very pleased with the look. It’s even made me realise that the foundation is quite nice; I just prefer serum foundations on myself. 

I used the darkest brown from the Mad for matte palette for the outer corner, blended into the crease a little. 

Then I used the 18 hit wonder palette for the ‘Peachy’ shade which I put in the inner corner of the eye. Then I blended the orange shade ‘Summer’ into it and on the middle of the lid and covered the whole lid in the shimmery orange ‘Penny’. 

Finally I put a little of the glitter topper ‘Flirty bird’ right in the middle as I wanted a tiny bit of glitter but not too much.

Do you use any Elf products? Are there any of the best elf products that I’ve missed. Let me know in the comments, on Instagram or Facebook. If you’d like to hear my dulcet tones, check out my YouTube channel.