Review | e.l.f. Custom Compact

Building a custom palette seems to be an expensive investment for a makeup lover. A MAC quad will cost you $48 and a custom Urban Decay quad will end up costing you $72! What if I told you that you can build your own palette for $5? Everything from the palette to the eyeshadows will end up costing only $5. Now that I have your attention let me tell you about the e.l.f. Custom Compact.

The bottom row of swatches is without a primer and the top row has primer. 

I stumbled upon the e.l.f. Custom Compact one day at Target and was immediately intrigued by it. $5 for a quad is super affordable even for the drugstore. Everything from the palette to the eyeshadows are just $1 which is fantastic, but sadly the eyeshadow selection isn't the best. With only 10 shades to choose from your options will be limited, especially when comparing it to other brands who let you build a custom palette. All options are shimmery so if you're into matte eyeshadows you won't find one matte shadow to put in your palette.

As for the eyeshadows themselves they are nicely pigmented and feel soft. They also don't have too much fall out which is great. My favorite shades are definitely Peach Fizz (copper) and Moondust (taupe). I find that both shades are very pigmented with or without a primer, have a very soft texture, and blend out easily. These two shades I would also go as far as compare them to more expensive eyeshadows such as the L'Oréal Infallible eyeshadows because of their nice texture and color payoff.

The icy pink shade (Pink Ice) is by far the most disappointing color because of how chalky it is, this is a color that I wouldn't recommend at all if you have a deeper skin tone. Another thing I didn't like about the eyeshadows are the names because I found some of the names to be deceiving like the eyeshadow Taupe which is more of an olive green. Other than that these are pretty great eyeshadows, especially for the price. I would highly recommend you check out the Custom Compact next time you're at Target or Walmart since I believe it's worth more than the $5 that you'll be paying. Also if you're looking for an empty palette to hold MAC singles the e.l.f. one is nice, sturdy, and comes with a nice sized mirror.

Have you built your own e.l.f. palette? If so let me know below, and if you haven't let me know if the idea of a $5 custom palette sounds interesting to you.