In my previous post I told you all about the sustainable beauty brand, Elate Cosmetics. Elate Cosmetics is based in British Colombia, Canada, and specialises in cruelty free and vegan makeup products that come in sustainable and re-usable packaging. Read that post to find out why the Elate bamboo palettes and seed paper envelopes are so much better for the environment than traditional makeup packaging. In that post, I reviewed the Elate powder foundation, cream foundation and concealer, and today I will share their cheek products with you. I bought my products from Flora and Fauna (affiliate), the exclusive Elate Cosmetics Australian stockist.
Elate Cosmetics makes both cream and powder cheek products. The powder blushes are called Pressed Cheek Colours, the powder highlighters are called Illuminator Pressed Powders and all of the cream blushes and highlighters are called Universal Cremes
All Elate cheek products come in 8g or 9g pans (depending on shade), that fit in the bamboo cheek compact or one of the bamboo palettes. The bamboo check compacts are round and have a rotating lid that has a mirror on the reverse side. The compacts themselves are sturdy but there is only one magnet securing the lid in place, and therefore, it can be slid off if put in a bag with other products. I deal with this by either putting the compact in a small bag that it tightly fits in, making it impossible for the lid to slide off, or I just put a hair tie around it. I think it would be a good idea if they added extra magnets to these in future, but it’s not a deal breaker for me, as this only tends to happen after the compact has been used a lot, and it’s not hard to fix the problem. I would rarely take a cheek product in my bag with me, so the products are usually only in my drawers anyway. Once you have used up all the product, you can then buy a new pan and re-use the same bamboo compact or palette, making these products eco-friendly and zero waste. You can also swap colours in and out of the bamboo palettes and compacts at any time to suit what you need at the time.
Cream
The Elate Cosmetics Universal Creme Blush and Highlights are described as being an “all-in-one” product that you can use on both your cheeks and lips. They are made with cold-pressed organic jojoba oil, castor oil, evening primrose oil and borage oil. I have the shades Lucent (discontinued), Celestial and Elation. Lucent is a highlighter with a white, colour shifting base, that looks sheer gleam on the cheeks. This shade has unfortunately been discontinued. Celestial is a cool light pink that is the perfect pink cream highlight for my skin tone, and Elation is a cool medium pink that has a silver sheen when it hits the light right. The sheen of Elation is due to tiny sparkles that are barely visible on the skin. It gives the cheeks a beautiful glow. This is the only Universal Creme blush that I own though, so I’m not sure if all shades in the line have the same effect or if it’s exclusive to Elation. I am tempted to get Love or Keen to compare the formulas. There is one Universal Creme shade called Gild, that is described as a “rich, deep tan bronzer for medium to deep skin tones or a perfect dewy contour for lighter skin tones”. Universal bronzers and contours never work for me, so I won’t be picking up that shade to try.
The Elate Cosmetics Universal Creme cheek products can be applied with a brush, sponge or fingers. My favourite way to apply the blush is to use a small synthetic flat top stippling brush (anything like the Eco Tools Seamless Stippling Brush will work fine). For the highlighters I tend to apply them with my fingers as I can apply the most product that way, but you could just build it up if you really want to use a sponge.
The Universal Cremes are very creamy products, so they’re easy to move around on the cheeks and blend. You don’t have to worry about them drying down before you finish the application, but the creaminess does reduce the wear time. I get about 4 hours of full colour wear with them, and then they fade, but they fade evenly and look beautiful on the skin the whole time. The creamy formula makes them look like a part of your skin whilst giving you a luminous glow. If you’re new to cream cheek products, this would be a great formula to try as the application is really hard to stuff up. Other than the wear time, these are the perfect cheek products for me. One thing I do want to add, is that they can get a hard surface layer. It seems to vary by shade as to how quickly it will happen, but they all do start getting a dry surface when left without use. It’s only the very top layer though, so you can easily break through that with your fingers or brush, and a quick swirl in the pan will make them look and feel like new. This happens to a lot of creamy products on the market, and these products aren’t the first time I’ve seen this happen.
Powder
The Elate Cosmetics Pressed Cheek Colours currently come in 6 blush shades and one bronzer shade. I own the blush Desire, which is described as a “perfectly balanced light pink”. The Pressed Cheek Colours are made with natural mineral pigments, carrot root extract, Gardenia flower extract, bamboo extract (for radiance), and are pressed with organic Jojoba Oil. The ingredient description makes it sound like these powder blushes would give the cheeks some sort of shine, but I haven’t had that experience with Desire. It is quite a powdery blush formula so it looks like any other matte blush on me. I have dry skin, so I like blushes with a subtle sheen just to give my skin a bit more life, and this doesn’t do that for me. If you like a matte blush that is made with natural ingredients, than you might like this. I can still easily use this blush, especially if I bring down my highlight lower, it’s just not my favourite formula. Elate has got a good range of blush colours though, a lot better than many small indie brands, so if you have darker skin, you might find a shade from them that will really work for you.
The Elate Cosmetics Illuminator Pressed Powder currently comes in just one shade, Dew, but I also own their previous shade, Opal, as well. I have raved about Opal over and over again because it is my all time favourite highlighter. I have asked Elate many times to bring this shade back as it’s the perfect light silvery pink for fair skin. I didn’t want to review this shade and rave about it so much without showing you the current shade available, so I bought Dew to do a comparison for you. Dew is described by Elate as having a “golden champagne hue”. In my comparison swatch next to Opal, it does look like a golden highlight, but it’s far more wearable for me than most golds, as it has more of a beige undertone. When I’ve done swatches of Dew next to other golden highlighters in my collection, it looks like a more neutral beige next to the other yellow base tones. Dew is the only golden highlighter that I can actually wear in my collection, and it does look very pretty on the skin. In saying that, Opal is still my all time favourite highlighter just because the shade suits my skin tone so perfectly.
Both of the Illuminator Pressed Powders have a great formula. It’s smooth and easy to apply, and it gives the cheeks a sheen that is visible, but still subtle enough that it doesn’t draw the eyes solely to that area of the face. The sheen is created by micro sparkles in the formula, but they don’t stand out, so it doesn’t look like I’m wearing glitter on my face, which I appreciate. The only negative about this product is the shade range. Elate Cosmetics have a good range of blush shades, to suit many skin tones, but I can’t see Dew being the perfect highlighter for darker skin. I would like to see them bring out more shades in this formula because it is so nice, and I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed that they bring back Opal too.
I love the products from the Universal Creme and Illuminator Pressed Powder lines. If I run out of Opal, Celestial or Elation, I would happily repurchase them. Elate Opal is my very favourite highlighter, I don’t have anything in my collection that compares to this shade or formula. I will beg Elate to bring back the shade if I ever run out of it, but for the sake of other pale people out there, I hope they bring it back anyway. Dew has the same great formula as Opal, and it will probably work on a greater variety of skin tones, so I recommend trying it if you need a new highlighter. If you haven’t read my previous post about how sustainable Elate is and my reviews on their foundations, then you should go and do that now. They have put so much work in to making this brand as environmentally friendly as possible, and they are continuing to improve their packaging to try and make the whole brand plastic free and waste free. There aren’t many brands that are as sustainable as Elate, so I will continue to support them and hope that they grow and succeed. We really need brands like Elate at this time. If you’re looking for other eco beauty brands, then you can check out my Eco Beauty Products blog post. If there’s anything from Elate that you like, you can purchase their products from the Elate Website or from Flora and Fauna (affiliate) in Australia. Using my affiliate links costs you nothing, but it helps to keep my blog running. I have a couple of lip products from Elate and their mascara, so if you want to see a review of something else from this brand, just let me know. If you want my new blog posts sent to your inbox, then sign up to email updates, You can also find me on social media – Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
If you have tried anything from Elate, let me know what you thought of it below. I would love to hear what you think of this eco beauty brand.
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