Review: e.l.f. Beautifully Bare Collection

As summer approaches, the no-makeup makeup look that dominated Fashion Week this season is bigger than ever. Ironically, there are tons of products that help you achieve this look while still evening skin tone and defining your features. e.l.f. just released their brand new Beautifully Bare collection, consisting of five products that are sure to give you that natural glow with very little effort, and lightweight application.

The new e.l.f. Beautifully Bare Foundation Serum ($8) is the first foundation from the brand that I’ve tried. It’s important to me that my face makeup not only makes my skin look great, but also protects it. That’s why I’m really glad that they included SPF 25 sunscreen in this foundation. The consistency is extremely liquidy— it will run off the back of your hand pretty quickly if you’re not careful. I find applying with the brand’s own Stipple Brush to be the most effective. Once you blend it into your skin, it has a silky finish that is smooth and even. The coverage is light to medium, which is nice for every day casual wear. It lasts about five hours before I start to see dark spots peeking through the makeup. It currently comes in three shades; I use Light/Medium which blends into my skin tone rather well. Overall, I like this foundation for light days where I just want to even things out and get moving.

There are two new mascaras in this collection. The Beautifully Bare Lash Tint Mascara ($4) has a very small, skinny brush with short bristles. It reminds me very much of the It Cosmetics Tightline (I will probably compare the two in a dupe post soon). The small brush lets you get extremely close to your lash line and essentially tightline while applying a thin coat of mascara to your lashes. This would be great for those with lighter lashes who want to darken them without adding much length or volume, or if you just want a little definition to look more polished for light makeup days.

The Beautifully Bare Defining Mascara ($4) is a great go-to, and I consider it a hybrid between a comb and brush wand. The bristles are hard, yet flexible and dense. It does a great job at separating your lashes and the formula adds reasonable length.

Perhaps my favorites to come out of this collection are the Beautifully Bare Blushes ($4). These thin cream blushes are rather sheer but buildable, and give a very natural sheen of color to the cheeks. There are currently two shades, Rose Royalty (left swatch) and Peach Perfection (right swatch). They dry with a powder finish which still offers a healthy glow to the face and forgoes having to set them with extra product. They blend very easily and last as long as the foundation does when applied on top.

Lastly we have the new Beautifully Bare Blending Brush ($6), which can be used with liquids, powders or creams. It is wide and fluffy with flexible bristles that are shaped flat by the pinched barrel. I find this to make the brush more suitable for blush or bronzer than foundations. It’s soft, and short which makes it easy to throw in a clutch or for traveling with.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve enjoyed using these products for my every day light makeup look, accompanied by the e.l.f. Studio Eyebrow Kit and the Studio Matte Lip Color in Praline. They create the absolute perfect no-makeup makeup look for me, and will be often reached for this season.

Check out the e.l.f. Beautifully Bare collection ASAP on their website, it’s selling out quickly!