In today’s Shadow Saturday installment we are having a closer look at three of the mini ELF Bite Size eyeshadow palettes. These caused all the rage in the beauty community when they were first launched. Of course, it took a while for these mini palettes to make their way to my country, but since I love the Earth & Ocean palette so much, I knew I had to try these. Let’s review the ELF bite size eyeshadow palettes in Truffles, Hot Jalapeño and Acai You.
Review: ELF Bite Size Eyeshadow Palette Truffles, Hot Jalapeõ & Acai You
I decided to pick up three of the palettes: a neutral one and two colorful ones. That way I had hoped to cover as much ground as I could and really sample the offering of the entire line. In total I have access to 8 different palettes from the regular line and then they also just released the two bite size palettes from the mint collection over here. These 4-pan palettes retails for €4 from Douglas. The mint palettes are a touch more expensive at €5.
What do these eyeshadow palettes have to offer?
The ELF Bite Size palettes come in a variation of color stories and I picked up three. Truffles is a 4 pan palette that leans more neutral to cool toned and it features 2 mattes, 1 metallic and the deepest shade is a matte with some sparkle running through. However, that sparkle disappears when you apply the shadow to the eye. So I treat it like a matte. Hot Jalapeño is the green toned palette with a pop of yellow. This features 2 mattes and two shimmers. Acai You is the blue palette that features 2 mattes, 1 metallic and a satin shade. In short, each of these palettes, while they come with the same number of shades, feature different textures in different quantities. This may be good to know when you look into these yourself. Let’s have a look at each of the palettes before we go into the looks.
ELF Bite Size eyeshadow palette in Truffles
Truffles is the neutral palette I picked up and the one that of the neutral shades, spoke to me the most. The other neutral options, Pumpkin Pie and Cream and Sugar were both more warm toned or they didn’t feature the kind of shades that I would use. For instance, Cream and Sugar has 2 shimmers and 2 mattes, but the shimmers are the mid tones and the mattes are a cream shade and a dark brown. I was missing a good transition in that palette. So not only did this have the shades I wanted, it also has the undertone I wanted. This would have to be my favorite palette of the three. The one shimmer in this palette is stunning and simply worth the price point of the palette as a whole. The mattes were easy to blend and I loved how easy this was to use for throwing together a foolproof quick and easy daily makeup look.
ELF Bite Size eyeshadow palette in Hot Jalapeño
The one I was most excited for was Hot Jalapeño. This green toned palette just spoke to me. Sadly, while very pretty, once I tried this, I felt it wasn’t that unique. There was nothing wrong with the quality in this one, but I felt the mattes to be a touch dry and the yellow shimmer I was hoping to get, just turned out to be a yellow toned gold. I was hoping it could work as a bright pop in the center of the lid, but in the end I found the shimmering gold and green to be too similar once applied to the eye to really have them play together well. This is one of those palettes that looks unique when you look at it and swatch it, but once on the eye it just looks like any old palette I already owned. In fact, I think the green look I pulled out of the Earth & Ocean was very similar to this one.
ELF Bite Size eyeshadow palette in Acai You
Acai You was probably the biggest disappointment of the three. I had only been hearing rare reviews of these palettes, but Acai You is one where I felt the quality wasn’t the same as in the other two. I could still work with it quite well but I had to work much harder for this to show up as vibrant as it does in these swatches. The mattes felt powdery, the satin shade barely shows up and the metallic had trouble sticking down. It also ended up pulling a brighter blue than I had expected and I got more of a 70s baby blue eyeshadow look with this than I had hoped. If you are looking into these ELF palettes, just know they are not all created equal as the quality between the palettes is a bit inconsistent.
A look with every palette
So if we are reviewing three palettes in one go, I of course need to also show you looks with each one. In each of these looks I have used all four shades to create the look. As you can see, these palettes are great for creating basic looks and if you are someone who easily gets overwhelmed with what a palette has to offer, then these palettes offer good, fun and well-curated color stories that you can have fun with at an affordable price point. Let’s get to the looks.
Truffles is the palette I end up finding myself reaching for the most. Since these are very small, they are easy to chuck into a bag and use on the go and this shade selection is perfect for that. I wore this to work a few times and it’s just a pretty look. I do feel that the crease shade and the shimmer on the lid are a bit too big of a contrast as the crease shade is too warm toned to really blend well with the shimmer. However, in the overall look I don’t find that too much of a stark contrast.
I had very high hopes for the look I could create with Hot Jalapeño, but in the end this fell a bit flat for me. Mainly because the third shade pulled much deeper on me so when I put it in my crease it made the look quite dark and muddy looking. The shimmers didn’t have the effect I’d hoped and also again made for a murky look that I hadn’t expected. In the pan and in the swatches these shades all look quite vibrant and distinct. However, once applied, they just blend together into a murky green mess. They were easy to work with though, but I was a bit disappointed with how this look turned out.
The final palette I tried was the blue toned Acai You. Sadly this was a powdery mess. I found it difficult to work with and I really had to work hard to make that bright blue in the crease pop this much. You can also see a little bit of a gap where the crease shade and the lid shade meet in the inner corner: it’s just as if these shades didn’t want to blend. The satin shade on the lower lash line, while pretty barely showed up and I had to layer it up 5 times to get this level of intensity. This was therefore my least favorite palette of the three.
My final thoughts
The ELF Bite Size eyeshadow palettes looked so promising at first, but in the end I found myself feeling a little let down by them. Maybe it’s because these got so much hype, but I thought it was odd that I hadn’t heard anyone mentioning the fact that these do not all perform as well. Even at the affordable price point of €4, I end up finding myself not reaching for these or thinking about them. I have tried the Catrice 5 in a Box palettes, which retail for €3.99 and those are not only 5-pan instead of 4, but also consistent in quality throughout the line. Granted those do not come in colorful shades, but it was the two colorful palettes I was most disappointed by.
Would I recommend the ELF Bite Size eyeshadow palettes?
In the end I have to say I would not recommend these. While some people have said these are good for the price point, I have tried other shadows at the same price point that I think are better. Unfortunately, the Catrice 5 in a Box palettes have so far not been released worldwide and can therefore be harder to get depending on your location. Of the three I tried, I would only recommend Truffles as that one was the most consistent in its performance. These are handy, but not the musthave I have heard to many other reviewers make them out to be.