e.l.f. Duplicates versus High-end Products By Logan Scott

e.l.f. Duplicates versus High-end Product

Name Brand versus Off-brand makeup, how well it applies (similar formulas), durability, and cost, In the past few years in the makeup community, the brand e.l.f. has been going viral for making affordable “dupes” of high-end makeup brands. Such as Charlotte Tillbury, MILK, SuperGoop, and Clinique. E.l.f. has now made a name for itself for having similar products at a lower price, but are they actually similar? With more and more research, I notice that the main people seen talking about e.l.f. are paid sponsorships; this got me thinking about the actual quality of the products that are advertised to “last long” and be “amazing quality”. I decided to take it into my own hands and test how well the e.l.f.

products perform compared to the name-brand/ high-end products.

This test is purely based on how well and similar the product's formulas are, for example how they feel on the skin, how thick or thin the serum is, and how similar they look once applied. The next test will be based on durability, how long the product is able to last on the skin versus the other product, and how well it stays on the skin/how it looks at the end of the day, the e.l.f. product versus the high-end products. Then, at the end, I will go over price ranges, and whether investing in the cheaper affordable brand a.k.a. E.l.f. versus investing in the high-end brand is worth your money. By no way, shape or form is this experiment to degrade or hate on any of the following brands that I will be covering. It is simply research on a brand who claims that they are a more affordable option.

Now, the first product that I will be reviewing is, e.l.f. Halo Glow versus Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter, Flawless filter from Charlotte Tillberry originally was released in March 2018, this product claims that it gives the old school, Hollywood glow. Hence the name Flawless Filter, which is a shortened version of its original name Hollywood Flawless Filter. This product is a shimmery skin tint made to be lightweight, but also last all day. The brand e.l.f. decided to duplicate this formula back in 2023, claiming to give the skin a “dewy” look; at the time this dewy look, was very popular, so this form of advertising attracted a lot of people to try it out.

Avid Charlotte Tillberry users that tried out this e.l.f. product, realize that it was eerily similar to Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter, giving the same look, feel, texture, it lasted the same amount of time, and not to mention the price was cheaper. This definitely attracted more people to try it out due to the cheap price point, with the original Charlotte Tilbury flawless filter costing $49.99 Versus the e.l.f. Halo Glow which costs $15.99. Both of those prices being vastly different from one another attracted more people to try the elf halo glow product.

Now moving onto the formula, Well, I tested the e.l.f. and Charlotte Tilbury formulas. I noticed that the e.l.f. formula was more thick, and had more of an opaque color on my skin versus Charlotte Tillberry, which was more translucent/sheer on my skin. The e.l.f. formula felt more thick and velvety on my skin versus the Charlotte Tilbury formula, which felt more liquidy/dewy. They both left a similar sheen and feel on my skin after both products dried, with the Charlotte Tilbury formula, looking more sparkly on the skin versus the e.l.f. formula, which looked more like moisturized skin.

Now the durability of both the products lasted a long time on my skin, I noticed that the Charlotte Tilbury started to fall into more of my crease/wrinkle lines on my face throughout the day versus the elf product which just stayed in place and didn't budge on my skin. This made me very upset for the simple fact of Charlotte Tilbury being a high-end brand, but it fell into my crease lines on my face while the cheaper brand product stayed in place all day, and didn't budge on the skin.

I'm moving onto The infamous and most popular e.l.f. duplicate. The e.l.f. power grip primer versus the MILK Hydro grip primer. Both of these products are makeup primer's, which go on before your foundation and the rest of your products. This product is meant to be sticky and to grip and hold onto your make up, hence the names. MILK makeup brand Came out with the Hydro grip primer in March 2019 versus e.l.f. that came out with the power grip primer in February 2023. The price difference between these products are The MILK Hydro grip primer costing $38.99, Versus the e.l.f. power grip primer, which costs $11.00. Both of these products for sporting a light blue tone and a water base, the product, once applied, both of these primers feel sticky on the skin. This is supposed to emphasize that your make up will grip onto the primer and stay a long time.

Once I tested both of these products, I had noticed that the e.l.f. power grip primer stayed longer and was stickier on the skin once applied versus the MILK Hydro grip primer which once applied was still sticky but less so and it was more of a watery consistency. First off with the e.l.f. power grip primer once applied it had a dark blue tint on the skin, and was almost the consistency of slime, applying it to the skin felt very sticky. It gripped my fingers, and my fingers were gripping to my face due to the thick consistency of the product. The product only got stickier as it dried down on my face and it made my makeup smooth. Once I applied it and my make up lasted 8+ hours with a minimal settling in my creases and most of my make up stayed on with it falling off minimally. Next is the MILK Hydro grip primer, which has a very light blue color once applied to the skin and is clear once fully rubbed in it's more of a water base consistency. It's not very thick, but it's still sticky, but not as grippy and intimidating as the elf power grip primer. The MILK Hydro grip primer got stickier as it continued to dry on my skin and it made my make up apply smoothly but I noticed my make up only lasted six hours not as long as the e.l.f. Powergrip primer. Also my make-up had settled into my crease lines a bit more for example my smile lines around my mouth and my crows feet around my eyes.

The last and final product duplicate that I will be reviewing is e.l.f. Camo concealer versus the tarte Shapetape concealer. Both of these products are under-eye products, meant to be the same color as your skin tone or an even lighter shade. It's meant to cover up dark circles, and any other places for "imperfections” on the face. You can use concealer for covering pimples, freckles, moles, but their main use is for brightening up the under eye, and highlighting the high points of your face, so nose, chin, and forehead. Both of these products claim to give full coverage, and that they won't move/smudge on the face, and the last claim is that they last all day.

So these claims have come from TikTok videos, and beauty influencers on the Internet, stating that e.l.f. duplicated the formula of the Tarte concealer but the packaging looks entirely different. So the price For the Tarte shapetape concealer is $32.00 versus the elf camo concealer, which is $8.00, With this price range between the two concealers, and the claims that the cheaper one had the exact same formula as the more expensive one, really peaked a lot of people's interests when it came to choosing a concealer to buy.

So I tested out both of these products and the results were varying. So first off, let's start with the Tarte, shape, tape concealer. When I first applied the product it was creamy and very smooth, almost velvety, but I soon found out that it dries very quickly. Which made it stubborn to blend into my skin if it had sat on my skin for a while, that was the only difficult part that I found about the concealer, when I was able to blend in on time with my skin it was full coverage and it blended into my pores, and it didn't go into my under eye wrinkles, most concealers do.. This concealer lasted me eight hours, and after the eight hours I didn't see any differences in when I first applied it versus after the long wear. Now, for the elf camo concealer, when I first applied it, it was a little bit more watery than the other concealer but it was still smooth just not as creamy this one I noticed stayed wetter longer on the face, so when I went to blend it into my skin I didn't have any trouble doing that even if I left it for a long period of time on my skin before blending iThis concealer slightly settled into the creases under my eyes, but it was subtle. It wasn't a huge concern like other concealers. This product lasted me seven hours until I saw it slightly smudging. At the end of the seven hours it looked like it had fallen more into the creases in my face, and it looked less full coverage.

Now from my personal opinion, for the first two products that I had mentioned in this article, the e.l.f .halo glow and the e.l.f. PowerGrip primer, they perform just as well as the high-end brand that it was compared to. In my personal opinion, I would rather spend my money on the cheaper products in this case e.l.f. versus the high-end products. At that point you're paying for more of the name than the actual quality of the product. But for the tarte shapetape concealer versus the e.l.f. concealer. I would much rather spend my money on the Tarte concealer than the e.l.f. even though the price difference between the two is vastly different than the rest of the products compared in this article. The Tarte concealer applied well, and it lasted way longer, even though it was slightly stubborn to apply once applied wrong (user error). But once I figured out how to work with it, it performed phenomenally better than the e.l.f. concealer. Which I'm not saying the e.l.f. concealer did badly, it did what it was supposed to do. It was full coverage and it lasted quite a while, but it smeared into my under eye wrinkles, and throughout the day it became more and more sheer.

So, for my personal opinion, e.l.f. is a great trustable and reliable brand and all of their products do what they say they're going to do but it's all dependent on someone's skin type, texture, how long they're planning on wearing the make up/what they're wearing to make up for. For example, an activity like working out or going to a wedding. Also the high-end brands are reliable, and most of them are considered “high end” because they've been around for years and have made a name for themselves. So I would say find products that work for your skin and for your own budget because it varies for everyone and everyone is different.