ESQIDO Gel Eyeliner Review ♥

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Disclaimer: This blog post is in partnership with ESQIDO. ESQIDO sent me a free product for review. Opinions are 100% my own. Thank you to ESQIDO and thank YOU for supporting my blog!

Hello everyone! I'm happy to be sharing with you today my review of the ESQIDO gel eyeliners. I've previously tried the ESQIDO false lashes (you can check out my review here!) and really enjoyed both the lashes and the lash glue in particular, so when ESQIDO reached out to see if I'd be interested in trying one of their newly released gel eyeliners, I was happy to give it a test run!

ESQIDO's new gel eyeliner comes in both brown and black and sells for $12 per eyeliner. I'm relatively new to gel eyeliners as I'm mostly a liquid eyeliner user, but I think the main reason for this is because I find that many non-liquid eyeliners tend to pull at my eye uncomfortably! While there is a bit of pull with these gel eyeliners, they are miles better than a lot of the pencil eyeliners I've used in the past. These gel eyeliners also come with a sharpener built into the base which I absolutely love. You have no idea the number of times I have come across an eyeliner I love only to find that I can't sharpen it until I find a sharpener that actually fits it. Because of this problem alone, I'm now the not-so-proud owner of 6 sharpeners - eek 😂

I will admit, at $12 per eyeliner, ESQIDO's gel eyeliners are more expensive than drugstore eyeliners I've purchased in the past, however, I do think that the price difference is fair given the superior quality of their gel eyeliners. You might be able to buy a drugstore eyeliner for a couple of dollars, but based on some of the drugstore eyeliners I've tried, it might be unreliable, uncomfortable to put on, and might dry out faster than an ESQIDO liner. Plus, even at $12 an eyeliner, ESQIDO's prices are still much more affordable than high-end make-up products - they're kind of a happy medium between drugstore and high-end.

If you're looking for a brand that has a ton of products across the board, then ESQIDO is probably not for you - they mostly focus on false lashes and are just now introducing their gel eyeliners, however, I don't think that should deter anyone from trying out the brand! I often find that brands that choose to focus on one or a small group of products tend to have better quality products than brands who might spread themselves too thin. I thoroughly enjoyed both the lashes, lash glue, and eyeliners I've tried from ESQIDO.

I hope you enjoyed this little review! Have you tried ESQIDO products? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Tips for Clear Skin!

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For many years, I struggled with acne-prone skin and often still experience quite a bit of acne if I’m not diligent about my skincare routine! I used to think that skincare was ridiculous and that my acne was something I just had to “deal with” rather than trying to find solutions for clearing my skin. When I finally decided to get serious about skincare, it was an entire overhaul of my routine - and despite the extra time this takes, it’s well worth it for the dramatic difference I’ve seen in my skin! So without further ado, onto my top tips for clear skin! 

Double (or triple) cleanse

My current cleansing routine: a) use a makeup wipe to remove all of my makeup a couple of hours before bed b) wash my face with a very neutral cleanser and c) wipe my face with a cotton ball soaked in micellar water right before bed. This might seem a little ridiculous but I find that even after my first two cleansing steps, i often still have some makeup on my face! Some of that stuff has really good staying power - which is great when you don’t want your makeup to move, but not so great when you’re trying to get it off! Triple cleansing makes me feel at ease about not having any remaining bits of makeup and gunk on my face before going to bed. (Current faves: Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water and CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser)

Have a designated towel for your face! 

This might seem like a “no duh” tip but I ignored this tip for ages because I was lazy and I think it really bit me in the butt! Your bath towels touch all kinds of weird, gross places on your body and if you use the same towel to wipe your face, you don’t know what kinds of germs are ending up on your skin! Now, I have a collection of small towels specifically for my face that I change on a weekly basis and I think this has been a huge factor in helping to clear my skin. 

Change your pillowcase

Something I never thought about before starting my skincare routine is how gross your pillowcase gets at night! There’s probably nothing else that touches your face as much as your pillowcase so it’s important to change it regularly! I change mine about once a week and have found that to be enough to keep my skin clear! 

Clay masks for clear skin!

Although I wasn’t too keen on using masks before, I’ve noticed they make a huge difference in helping to speed up the acne healing process. Nowadays, when i do get a blemish or even feel a bit of acne starting to pop up, I hit it immediately with a clay mask. Clay masks are amazing for helping to dry out acne and pull out all of that gross stuff from your pores! Since clay masks can sometimes be a little drying, I use clay masks as more of a spot treatment rather than slathering it all over my face! (Current fave: Loreal Purify & Mattify Pure-Clay Mask)

Follow the directions on your skincare products

Along with trying different products, it’s important to actually follow the directions on how to use them! As you can probably tell by the general trend of this post, I’ve been pretty lazy in the past and haven’t followed the directions on most of my acne products. Once I actually reading the directions and actually trying to follow them, it made a world of difference! Most of the time, I was caking on way too much product!

Test out a bunch of different products!

I’ve tried about a million and a half different types of cleansing, toning, exfoliating, acne fighting products and after months of trial and error finally have my favorite products (you can check them out below!). This process, however, took ages! Lots of testing out samples, lots of trial and error to figure out what did and didn’t work on my skin! As helpful as it can be to read reviews and see what other people are using, it’s always best to test it out yourself since what works for someone else’s skin type may not work for your skin type. 

Some Current Favorites: Avenue Retrinal Intensive Cream, Glo Skin Beauty Renew Serum, CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, Farmacy Sleep Tight Firming Balm, Advanced Clinical Coconut Repair Oil, Farmacy Honey Savior Repair Salve

More Favorites! First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads, First Aid Beauty 5-in-1 Bouncy Mask, Juice Beauty Green Apple Sensitive Peel, O.R.G. Skincare Mineral Peel Face Exfoliator, Freeman Polishing Charcoal and Black Sugar

I hope these skincare tips are helpful! What are your favorite skincare products? I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

elf cosmetics haul & review ♥

I have been a long-time fan of elf cosmetics and feel that they really have gotten better and better over time! I remember back in the day when elf was just a makeup website with a few $1 products here and there. While their products are for the most part still very affordable, I feel that they've continued to improve the quality of their products - making me a loyal fan! For this haul, I got several classic elf products that I use on a regular basis as well as some of their new palettes that I've been dying to try!

Old Favorites:

Eyebrow Kit

I've already tried this eyebrow kit before and it has really worked for my eyebrows! In the past, I've used different powders and pencils but none have worked as well as these two eyebrow products do together. This kit includes both a darker cream on one side and a light brown powder on the other. The cream is great for shaping and the powder is perfect for filling in all the awkward gaps that are in my naturally sparse brows.

Powder Brush 

Of all the make-up brushes I own, this is my all-time favorite! While it's labeled as a powder brush, I've been using it most to blend out products like foundation, concealer, and blush. With its flat top, it does a fantastic job of blending out these products and eliminating any harsh lines. I would highly recommend this brush if you're looking for something that can do double duty by both applying products and blending them out! 

Concealer Palette 

I love this concealer palette because it's very easy to apply and the cream formula goes on smoothly! I like that the palette provides different shades of concealer because the tone of my skin can be inconsistent. Being able to mix and match my concealer allows me to get better coverage out of the product.

Blemish Control Face Primer 

The only thing I don't love about the elf primers is that the packaging can be very deceiving. I've taken apart the bottle before and there's a much smaller bottle inside that holds the actual primer product - making you think that there is more product in the bottle than there actually is.  Product wise, however, I love the smooth, water-like, feel of the elf primers and use them regularly as a base for the rest of my make-up!

New (For Me) Products:

Blending Brush 

I'm always looking for new brushes to help blend out products and make things look as natural as possible. This blending brush does do a great job of blending out harsh lines, however, I wish it was a fuller brush and not quite so narrow as this makes blending things out a longer process. Since this brush is so narrow though, I think it will also be good for applying contouring color onto my cheeks. 

Angled Eyeliner Brush 

I received a couple of gel eyeliner pots for Christmas this year so I thought it was time I bought a brush that was actually designed for gel eyeliner. I've tried to use little concealer or eyebrow brushes to apply gel eyeliner but they really don't do the job well. Unfortunately, I haven't been all that successful with this eyeliner brush either. It dries out very quickly and becomes stiff and hard to use.

Powder Contour/Cream Contour/Bronzer Palette

Full disclosure - I already own and the love blush palette from elf so I was incredibly excited to try out the rest of their face palettes! I like to contour with both cream and powder to help with the staying power of the contour so I decided to purchase both formats of the palette. The dark contour shades on both of these palettes are matte which I love because it helps make the contour look more natural than sparkly bronzers. The silvery illuminating powder is good for reflecting light at the tops of the cheeks but is a little bit too bright on its own so I've been combining it with a little bit of matte blush to tone it down.

At the time that I purchased this haul, elf was running a promotion where they gave away a bronzer palette with each purchase so I got that one for free! The more palettes the merrier! The bronzer palette itself is pretty similar to the medium contour shades on the contour palette but it does include one sparkly bronzer that gives off a little bit more glow.

One thing I love about these palettes is that all of the squares in the palettes pop out so that you can mix and match whatever products you want to take with you or whichever ones are most convenient for you to use together! I plan on mixing both a light and dark contour shade with a couple of blush squares so that I can easily take a palette to the gym!

I'm very happy with my latest elf haul and truly love their makeup just as much as I did when they first came onto the scene.  As a girl on a budget, I love being able to get a great quality product out of a relatively low cost and elf has always helped me do just that.

What are your favorite budget friendly make-up products? Let me know on Instagram or Twitter! I'm always on the lookout for more great deals!