Beauty on a Budget: e.l.f. Lip Primer & Plumper

A duo that tries to be too much, and fails at being anything useful

By Lauren Kelly, Graphics Manager

Sometimes you find inspiration for beauty articles in strange places. For me, I found it in a slow line at Old Navy. In the vast e.l.f. section, I spotted the “Lip Primer & Plumper,” a two-ended wand that promises to help you “achieve long lasting lip colour and voluptuous-looking lips,” according to the back of the box. For six dollars, that seemed like one hell of a deal. I’m here to tell you: Do your research before you impulsively buy cheap and cool-looking products to write articles about (or whatever else you do with makeup, I guess).

I like to focus these reviews on great products, but if I can help you all learn from my mistakes and check reviews before impulse buying, that’s good too.

We’ll start with the plumper side. I’ll be honest and say my experience with plumpers is limited to Too Faced’s Lip Injection plumper, which I haven’t used all that much. e.l.f.’s is applied like a regular lipstick and goes on clear. It smells strongly of cinnamon, and I definitely noticed my lips tingle like they do with the Lip Injection, although less so (Lip Injection’s “tingling” is painful!). Unfortunately, I didn’t notice much in the way of plumping, so I wouldn’t recommend the product for that aspect. Additionally, some reviewers online had allergic reactions to this, so I would be cautious and read the ingredients if you still want to try it.

Next, the primer. It’s in the colour “Natural,” and goes on a very thick and opaque beige. This completely neutralizes your natural lip colour, so if you need that, there you go. However, the nude pigment mixes in with lipsticks, lightening them and changing their colour completely. The vivid red I tested it with became a muted pink—definitely not ideal. I haven’t noticed much in the way of extra longevity, which is the whole point of a lip primer, so this particular primer is a miss for me. I would only recommend buying it if you need to completely mask your natural lip colour, or you want to tone down bright lipsticks.

If you still want to try this product, you can buy it at Old Navy or London Drugs.