Cloverbelle's Blog

ELF or Eyes Lips Face is a brand of cosmetics that I found out about a few years ago when I discovered the beauty community of fellow make-up junkies like myself on YouTube. I worked for a high end cosmetic company for years in a high end department store and for a long time I thought that more expensive make-up meant better quality make-up. It is now my belief that it is not always true. Drugstore cosmetics have come such a long way and you can find amazing quality at amazing prices. ELF definitely falls into that category. It is unbelievably inexpensive for the quality that you get. You may purchase ELF cosmetics at eyeslipsface.com or target.com I thought I’d compile a list of my top 5 personal favorites from ELF for those of you that might not be familiar with their products or might want to try some great cosmetics at rock bottom prices. So here they are:

1. ELF essential line healthy glow bronzing powder in Luminance-cost $1.00 USD~This makes a great powder highlight for cheekbones and high planes of the face. It is a perfect champagne gold color with a subtle shimmer for a luminous look. For reference I am an NC20-NC25 in MAC foundations and it works perfectly. Seriously, I reach for this almost everyday over other high end highlighters. It’s awesome!

2. ELF Studio line powder blush in Tickled Pink-cost $3.00 USD~This blush is THE perfect soft pink matte shade in my opinion. I love the packaging, it is very similar to NARS packaging and I love the blush just as much honestly. NARS blushes run around $27.00 USd and ELF studio blushes are $3.00 USD. Again, this is a product that I reach for constantly. I actually own every color in this blush and every single one is pigmented and great quality. The color range is beautiful, some have shimmer some are matte. I will include photos below of the 10 colors that I own.

ROW 1-Tickled Pink and Candid Coral
ROW 2-Peachy Keen and Mellow Mauve
ROW 3-Berry Merry and Blushing Rose
ROW 4-Fuschia Fusion and Pink Passion
ROW 5-Twinkle Pink and Gotta Glow

3. ELF Studio line Blush/Bronzing duo~cost $3.00 USD~simply AMAZING quality and a home run by ELF in my opinion. This product is a complete dupe for NARS blush/bronze duo in orgasm/laguna which retails for $40.00 USD at narscosmetics.com online. I LOVE this product year round for contour or blush but I use it like crazy in the summertime. Try it, I bet you will love it too!

4. ELF studio line High definition powder-cost $6.00 USD~ This is a five star product to me. It is so much like the Make-up Forever HD powder which retails for $30.00 USD at Sephora.com I will purchase the ELF HD powder as long as they continue to make it. It is a top notch finishing powder in my opinion and I love love love it! If I can get a product that works just as well for less than a third of the price why wouldn’t I?!?

5. ELF studio line flat top powder brush-cost $3.00 USD~THE MOST AMAZING flat top brush EVER!!!!! It is sold as a “powder brush” by ELF but I use it for applying liquid or cream foundation and it gives a beautiful smooth airbrushed finish every time. Here it is

These are just a few of my ELF favorites, I think I own everything on their website and I’ve used them all and I’ve had plenty of time to form an honest opinion so if there is anything you are wondering about just ask. I truly LOVE their products!!! Hope you will too. xo Elise

If you are familiar with LUSH handmade cosmetics then you probably already know about their amazing bath bombs, if you are not familiar with LUSH then you should definately visit lushusa.com. I discovered their products a few years ago and I fell in love!!!

My adorable husband gave me 3 boxes of their bath bombs for Christmas and they are truly one of my favorite things in life. They each look like a work of art and they smell like heaven.Aren’t they pretty???

Each bath bomb is original just like a snowflake. No two are exactly the same because they are handmade. They are packed with essential oils and with names like Candy Mountain Bubble Bar, Fairy Jasmine, and Vanilla Fountain who can resist?!?! They are seriously sooooooo pretty that I don’t want to dissolve them in my bath. Look at them!!

They look good enough to eat. Also, from what I understand LUSH creates the decorative tins each year for the holidays, the tins came packed so beautifully with all the products. I included my favorite tin that I received that looks like Candyland so you could get an idea of the holiday gift packaging.

These make great gifts for friends, family or even teachers. They truly are amazing and I wish you could smell them through the computer. If you want a real treat, treat yourself to a LUSH handmade bath bomb! What are your favorite LUSH products? I’d love to know.

xo Elise

Hi Everyone!

I received this palette for Christmas and I’ve had a chance to use it for the past 3-4 weeks and here are my thoughts.

1. Nice sleek sturdy packaging that is great for travel and I love the large mirror inside.

2. Amazing selection of beautiful, unique neutral shades that are nicely pigmented and rich in
color
3. I love the cooler tones like pistol and verve. This palette is much cooler in tone than
the original NAKED palette.

4. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the matte shades “Foxy”, “Tease”, and “Blackout”

This palette is mostly shimmer but I feel like it gives you a broader color range to work with
than the original NAKED palette although NAKED is definitely one of my all time favorite eyeshadow palettes. Here they are side by side (original NAKED top, NAKED 2 bottom):

As you can see the original NAKED palette is comprised mostly of what I consider to be medium and dark shades where as the NAKED 2 palette seems to have more of a light/medium/dark range of colors. I ADORE both palettes but honestly I don’t feel like they are different enough to warrant purchasing both.

If I could pick only one, I would choose NAKED 2 because I feel like you have a better variety of tones and shades to work with to create lots of different looks, also NAKED 2 has a matte highlight shade (foxy) which is always great to have. My dream Urban Decay palette would be an all matte neutral palette!!!

NAKED 2 retails for $50 USD and you may purchase it at Urban Decay online or Sephora. If you don’t wish to spend that much on a palette or your budget doesn’t allow it a great alternative to the NAKED 2 and the original NAKED palette is the NYX Nude on Nude palette. It retails for $25 USD and you may purchase it at NYX online or it is actually on sale for $19.99 right now at cherryculture.com

NYX nude on nude comes with 20 neutral eyeshadow shades with a mix of shimmer and matte and 10 lip glosses.

So, for all of you girls out there that can’t get enough neutral shades, one of these palettes is sure to fit the bill! If you know of a great neutral palette that you can’t live without please let me know about it.

xo Elise

I just found out that one of our necklaces at ShopCloverbelle on Etsy was featured on the front page of Etsy! YAY!!!! What a nice surprise on this rainy Sunday in Georgia. Thank You Etsy!!!! xoxo This reminds me that I need to learn how to do treasuries-it seems like it would be SO fun to put them together-I will add it to my “To Do” list..

One of my FAVORITE things to do in the world is find secondhand furniture and give it new life. I thought I would share a couple of pieces that I “saved.”I SO wish that I had before pics of both of these pieces, you can tell I am a newby blogger because I didn’t take “before” pics but anyways, picture two very dull, very brown, very old but beautifully shaped french provential pieces. One is a buffet and one is a dresser that I magically transformed into a buffet. Here is number one that I re-finished in peacock blue, I used the whole candle-rubbed & distressed thing and I now LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Especially against that flesh colored wall-OMG! Love the color combo! I am sort of OBSESSED with this teal color, please forgive me.

This next piece is the buffet that I re-finished. Again, I did the candle rubbing and painting then distressing thing and it worked like a charm. This one’s home is in our kitchen. Look what a little imagination can do!

So go out there and rescue some un-loved furniture and make your own unique piece instead of Pottery Barn table number 37. It’s way more fun!!!!

I love this new calander that I found at Marshalls the other day~it was $6 and it is made of metal so it may be used forever (saving trees). Sure, our family uses ical and its great to keep us all in sync but this was so perfect for my jewelry studio. The little pearl crown on the bluebird is what did it for me!

We don’t get snow in Atlanta often and this past week we did so Chanel got to wear her pink sweater, we love her so much-she is such a diva in her sweater isn’t she?!?

Sorry it’s been Forever since my last blog post, I need to get with it! Oh how I LOVE the new Sade–listening to it right now, give it a listen if you haven’t. She is A-MAZ-ING!!!

Feeling a bit bored with “traditional” Christmas colors and decor, this year I decided to do something a little different~I used Blue juniper trees with fresh cut holly in our front planters and used pine cones with fresh holly in our wreath, instead of red or green or gold which are colors that I usually gravitate to around the holidays, I used aqua as a constant color for Christmas in our home this year~it feels fresh and new and lends itself towards a vintage feel which I adore. I found the small metal star lights at Hobby Lobby last year on sale and decided to use them instead of traditional lights outside. I really like how it turned out~Merry Christmas Everyone!

I am in love with the color of this poinsettia, it is sitting in our front “parlor” ( which my husband calls this room). I just painted our “parlor” in “Dutchess of Windsor” by Ralph Lauren, it is part of his vintage collection and is almost a fleshtone. I am obsessed with this salmon-y flesh-y pink tone lately.

All around our house there are signs of the season~it’s always so fun to decorate for Christmas while listening to Elvis sing Christmas carols. Here’s a little tour of our home for the holidays so far…