The best e.l.f. products, according to a beauty editor

This, in our opinion, is an underrated gem in e.l.f.’s range of lip products. It’s a richly pigmented tinted lip balm that hydrates and smoothes skin while adding a beautiful high-shine finish with a heart-shaped core that’s enriched with vitamin C. We tried the shade lovely, a light red that’s the perfect your-lips-but-better shade, scented with watermelon without being overly sweet. It’s the perfect glossy balm lipstick hybrid that rivals pricier lipsticks we’ve tried from high-end brands.

Read our full round-up of the best liquid lipsticks

Effective skincare needn’t cost a fortune and this affordable cleansing balm is tangible proof. It melts into a buttery texture when massaged into dry skin and easily melts down stubborn waterproof mascara, matte lipsticks and full coverage foundation. It’s formulated with hyaluronic acid, ceramides and peptides which help plump and hydrate skin and its basic, fuss-free skincare at its best. It’s a decent size pot too, not so large you can’t travel with it, but enough that a 10p piece is all you need to remove a full face of makeup.

We’re not the only ones who loved this cleansing balm, as it’s currently sold out everywhere. Luckily, Boots promises it will be back soon.

We pitted E.l.f.’s cleansing balm against Elemis’, find out which is best

Finding an SPF that you actually enjoy applying is no mean feat, and it’s even better when it’s budget-friendly. This has a slight peach colour that quickly absorbs into a glowy, radiant makeup base that has an SPF30 to protect skin from UV rays. It’s described as a “sun protection and make-up primer” and the texture is creamy and skin-smoothing. We found it wasn’t chalky or overly thick, and for £14, rivals the glowy base of sunscreens that cost well over £30 from luxury competitors.

Read our full round-up of the best sunscreens for the face

This multi-purpose product is one of the brand’s most popular products and the hashtag #elfhaloglowliquidfilter has over 160 million views on TikTok. We’re its latest fans, and have found it lives up to its promise of providing a glowy boost to your complexion.

Our tester has pale Caucasian skin and tried fair/light. It has a large doe foot applicator which is perfect for swiping onto the high points of cheekbones, all over the forehead or down the nose as a radiant base to layer makeup over the top. It can also be used over makeup as you would with a traditional highlighter, or mixed with your foundation. It’s a thin texture and the shades are flexible.

Read our full round-up of the best highlighters

You heard it here first – no one makes better makeup sponges than e.l.f.. This angled sponge has a unique silicone base and two flat angles sides, which make it very efficient at quickly blending bronzer onto cheekbones and nose contour, dabbing foundation evenly across your whole face and melting cream blusher onto the high points of cheeks. Always use it damp so your makeup doesn’t absorb into the sponge. It washes well, quickly too, and can be used for every step of your makeup bar mascara.

Read our full round-up of the best make-up sponges

This four-shade palette is one of many E.l.f. makeup products that are hard to beat. Costing just £4, there’s 10 different varieties, spanning everyday shades and bright pops of colour. We tested cream and sugar, which is a wearable mix of matte and shimmer shades spanning peachy nude, champagne shimmer, a copper shimmer and a dark brown. They’re pigmented, last all day and are a fantastic compact size that will see plenty of use. It’s one of the few eyeshadow palettes that you can use every single shade all the time – a rare occurrence in our experience.

Read our full round-up of the best eyeshadow palettes

E.l.f.’s putty range spans primers, bronzer and blush but it’s the latter that fast became our favourite. The pot is small, half the size of our palm, but it packs a punch, we used it nearly every day for four weeks and barely made a dent. We used the shade Turks and Caicos, a bright coral blush that was instantly brightening on our cheeks and left behind a healthy flush of colour. It’s a creamy texture that has a pore-blurring finish and is easily buildable to customise the colour payoff to your liking. It’s easy to blend, has a flattering shade range and should be in everyone’s makeup bag.

Read our full round-up of the best cream blushers

If you’re a makeup novice or simply prefer a low-maintenance routine, we’d highly recommend this cream eyeshadow stick. Simply scribble all over your eyelid and blend with your finger or fluffy blush and you’re good to go. Each of its 11 shades has a metallic finish and we love the colour copper chic which makes for a subtle smokey eye. They couldn’t be easier to use and it is totally fuss-free, perfect for travel or if you’re keen to streamline your makeup bag while playing with colour. It lasts well, with little creasing on oily lids too.

If you have oily skin and your biggest bugbear is makeup refusing to stay put, this gel-based primer is the solution. It has a tacky finish that keeps foundation firmly in place and its translucent colour works across all skin tones. Our only tip would be to leave it for a couple of minutes after it’s applied to allow it to dry down slightly. It’s a great all-round primer that works with powder, cream and liquid foundation and we definitely noticed an improvement in how long, and well, our makeup lasted.

Read our full round-up of the best primers

Another winning tool from e.l.f. is this ultimate blending brush. It’s fluffy and densely packed with synthetic fibres and works incredibly well with cream and liquid products. A true multi-tasker, we loved using it for blending in the halo glow liquid filter (£14, Boots.com), our foundation, concealer, bronzer and blusher. It washes well without moulting, picks up product and distributes it evenly onto skin and can easily be used to blend around the nose, under the eye and across cheeks. You cannot go wrong.

Read our full round-up on the best make-up brush sets