e.l.f. Essential Super Glossy Lip Shine SPF 15 {Review}

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Overview

Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars ★★★☆☆
Price Tag: $1 (regular line) / $2 (LE/seasonal products)
Shades Available: 6 shades
Where to Buy: In stores like Target, Hy-Vee, or Kmart; eyeslipsface.com

Update: I thought it was time to update this post to reflect a slight change in opinion.

I am about to thoroughly trash this product, but let me say first that I really do like the Super Glossy Lip Shines. I think they are pretty and long-lasting. I like all of the colours I’ve purchased so far, with Candlelight being the slight exception. I’m not a huge fan of peach, but the colour is still wearable.

I first bought Angel, Pink Kiss and Candlelight at a K-Mart back in April. After watching many favorable reviews on YouTube over Malt Shake, I included it in my first online e.l.f. haul a few months back. I’m definitely glad I purchased it. Goddess was a colour I wanted and finally found in stock at a different K-Mart.

Ultimately I lost Malt Shake, which is disappointing. I think it may have fallen out of my pants’ pocket, but I have no idea. I hope one day I’ll find it when I clean the house.

Update: I did eventually find the missing Malt Shake tube in a pair of pants I never wear—although it soon burst and I had to replace it anyway. Sigh.

Packaging

Despite being a lovely and economical product, this is where the Super Glossy Lip Shine fails in the worst possible way.

Update: It still does, and the packaging will remain my biggest gripe.

Originally, I kept the lip shines in my makeup drawer upright with the cap facing down. One day I pulled out Angel and found some product collected just below the cap. I washed off the container, but soon realized the lip gloss was leaking out of the top section. It wasn’t coming from the tip, but rather where the applicator connected to the tube. Too much internal pressure built up over time and caused the packaging to burst at this seam. I flipped the other two colours to stand applicator upward and everything was good.

Or so I thought.

I love Goddess. It is such a pretty nude pink. So, I put it in my makeup bag. Wow. If that wasn’t the worst possible thing I could have done.

Everything was all happy dandy, until a couple days ago when I needed to photograph/swatch a couple of Everyday Minerals products I keep in my purse’s makeup bag. This time, I discovered the container broke at the bottom end and Goddess oozed all over my makeup bag, EDM containers and, worst of all, my beloved ecoTOOLS mini Kabuki brush.

Goddess gunks all over my makeup bag

The e.l.f. Super Glossy Lip Shines work most excellent on the lips, but if you’ve ever touched it with your fingers, you’d know that it’s super gooey, gunky crap, thanks to a hearty base of petroleum products. Natural ingredients, my butt. It took me a couple days to clean the ecoTOOLS Kabuki brush using only vegan soaps. Vegan products work well at cleaning until they run up against petroleum. I resorted to using bar soaps because shampoo didn’t cut it. I had a difficult time just cleaning the goop off of the EDM sample jars and they’re plastic.

A Goddess explosion.

I have yet to find the courage to clean my makeup bag. Sure. I bought it at a consignment shop for $3.50 USD. Sure, it was cheap. But I really liked it.

Since a container leaking happened to two out of the five lip glosses I own, I cannot believe this was an accident. It’s not a big deal for me to buy another Goddess lip shine from K-Mart and I will probably do so. But I don’t like having to spend days cleaning the gunk of a $1 product from ~$20 worth of other products. The Kabuki brush was a close call, but initially I thought I would have to buy another. I’ll probably be able to clean my makeup bag, but it is most likely stained.

Update: I managed to get everything cleaned up and looking (mostly) like new, but I still refuse to keep any Super Glossy Lip Shines in my purse or clothing pockets.

Here, you can see the metallic label wearing off the plastic tube.

I’ve noticed that over a short amount of time the silver metallic labels rub off. You can see it in the pictures I’ve posted. Candlelight has lasted the longest, but that’s because I don’t usually carry it around as often as the other colours. Even Goddess‘s label wore off within a couple of weeks of living in my makeup bag. I know that there are other tube glosses from more expensive brands that don’t wear off over time, so this is definitely a problem on e.l.f.’s end. I’m not sure how the company would go about correcting this issue. I guess they would have to invest a little into more durable packaging.

Formulation

The scent for all of the glosses is the main drawback outside of the packaging. It’s kind of like an artificial fruity/bubble gum scent. I do not understand why e.l.f. insists on putting scents and flavors into their main line. Reserve that for the tween Sugar Kiss line. I think the majority of us could do without the e.l.f. scent fairies. I’d wager it’s far more off-putting to more of us in our twenties and beyond than helpful. I’ve grown used to it, but I know the scents make many sick to their stomachs.

One other issue I’ve had—and I think it’s related to the exploding packaging—is that sometimes too much product ends up coming out at one time. I’ve had large gobs of Candlelight plop into my mouth on more than one occasion. Weird taste and loads of gooey petroleum products in one’s mouth is not a pleasant experience.

Lastly, they are all rated SPF 15 (with the exception of Angel, the clear gloss). I’m not qualified to comment on the effectiveness against sun damage, but it is a nice touch from e.l.f.

Update: While the original line does have SPF 15 in the glosses, all of the limited edition versions have no SPF protection.

Shades

Let me repeat, the colours are very pretty. They are also fairly pigmented, as opposed to the e.l.f. Luscious Liquid Lipstick line, which often don’t live up to the colour in the bottle. All glosses are shimmer, with the exception of a couple, which results in a shiny, metallic finish.

Update: e.l.f. has been busy discontinuing shades in the SGLS line. You may, however, be able to find the discontinued versions at places like Hy-Vee Food & Drug, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and other similar establishments.

e.l.f. Super Glossy Lip Shines: Malt Shake, Candlelight and Angel

Angel [glitter]

Angel is the basic standby: clear gloss with chunky glitter. Due to a lack of SPF protection, and zero need for a whitish gloss, I have not replaced the first version.

Malt Shake [sheer] {DC}

Malt Shake is a great colour. By far the darkest of the five—at least in the tube—but that’s not saying much. It’s still a very wearable shade. This is one of the colours I own that lacks sparkle; instead, it is a sheer gloss. I do hope I find the AWOL container.

Update: Found old gloss and replaced with new one.

Pink Kiss [shimmer/metallic]

Pink Kiss is a baby pink colour with lots of metallic shine, albeit more than what I prefer. It is a nice true pink, if that’s what you’re looking for in a gloss. Personally, I find it light and too pink. I need more colour payoff.

Candlelight [shimmer/metallic] {DC}

Candlelight is similar in consistency and colour, but with a strong peach tone. Even though it’s not my favorite, it’s very wearable and also has a metallic finish.

Goddess [shimmer/metallic]

Goddess is smack dab between these two, taking on a nude pink colour that is gorgeous. I’m not surprised K-Mart sells out of this colour. It’s still a little too metallic for me. I don’t know why, but Goddess always looks identical to Candlelight in all of my photographs, but I assure you that the former is most certainly a nude pink shade.

e.l.f. Super Glossy Lip Shines: Pink Kiss, Candlelight and Goddess

Watermelon [shimmer/metallic] {DC}

My local K-Marts have both expanded their line to include a few more shades of Super Glossy Lip Shines and I was happy to add Watermelon and Juiced to my fleet. Watermelon is simply wonderful. This is a strange shade to describe, but I think it’s best described as a dark salmon shade of pink. Whatever it is, Watermelon is now one of my favorite glosses.

Juiced Berry [sheer] {DC}

As some of you may have read in other interweb reviews, Juiced Berry is a clear gloss. Don’t let that package fool you. I knew this when I bought it, but I figured it is useful to have a clear gloss with SPF protection around.

e.l.f. Super Glossy Lip Shines: Juiced Berryand Watermelon

Super Glossy Lip Shine Gift Set {LE}

Over the past Holiday season of 2009, there were two 3-pack versions of the Super Glossy Lip Shine luxury gift sets offered at Target stores. One was pink and the other was termed “neutral”. I chose the pink set (should have bought more). The three shades are New York City, Pink Lemonade and Los Angeles.

e.l.f. Super Glossy Lip Shines: New York City, Pink Lemonade and Los Angeles

All three pinks in this box set are very vibrant and pretty. Both New York and Los Angeles lean to the hot pink side, whereas Pink Lemonade is more muted when compared to the others. It’s still vibrant, sort of like a darker shade than Goddess and more neutral than Watermelon. New York City is a shimmer shade, Pink Lemonade is metallic, and Los Angeles is a chunky glitter gloss.

New York and Los Angeles look similar on the mouth, with the glitter having the most effect on the appearance. Neither are powerful shades, despite how they appear. Pink Lemonade is the big winner in terms of colour payofff. I’m not sure what it is with these metallic shades, but all of them are very powerful. It joins the ranks of Pink Kiss, Candlelight, Goddess and Watermelon as gloss shades that have a strong colour payoff.

To read the full review about this Target gift set with more product comparisons, you can find it here.

Images

Final Thoughts

Pros: great value, nice colours, long-lasting, great range of colors, lots of LE shades
Cons: packaging is not sturdy, scent quality is cheap, a little too sparkly, not all colors have good payoff

If e.l.f. can fix the packaging, they have a great product. Good size container and pretty colour choices. Unfortunately, I don’t think what happened to me was an accident. I’m convinced it originates from a fatal flaw in the packaging design. Hopefully e.l.f. will fix this problem in the near future. I had wanted to purchase a couple for my latest e.l.f. haul, but ultimately decided against buying more lip gloss specifically because of the problems I’ve had.

That said, it’s difficult to seriously criticize a $1 USD product. There’s not a lot invested and I can always buy another when one breaks. Perhaps quality packaging is too much to expect from the e.l.f. $1 line.

On the other hand, shouldn’t we at least expect decent packaging? I mean, exploding lip gloss packaging seems a little hazardous when it’s base is petroleum products. These glosses can easily damage clothes and accessories.

I know there are some that will argue with me, but maybe raising the base price of the main e.l.f. line to $2-$3 USD would be worthwhile if the end result is better products/packaging. I don’t need $1 products; I would like low cost, quality products (well, technically, I don’t need makeup, but I’m sure you understand where I’m going). There’s a reason why I’ve bought so much makeup from Everyday Minerals and the e.l.f. Mineral/Studio lines. They’re higher quality merchandise, but about half the cost—or less—of traditional vegan makeup brands.

Well, just my two cents.

Update

Having used this product nearly everyday for the past year, I must say it’s really grown on me, despite the three unfortunate incidents with the exploding packages and weird scents. I have not had any more problems with the packaging after I made the decision to leave all of the glosses in my makeup drawer, preferring to stick with more sturdy alternatives for when I’m on the go.

I wear Goddess, Pink Lemonade and Watermelon all the time. Despite the photos and swatches, these are very similar to each other. The three shades are simply gorgeous and very natural for my skin tone.

I really, really hope e.l.f. will add Pink Lemonade to their main line, because it’s my favorite Super Glossy Lip Shine shade.

In the end I recommend this product, but I strongly suggest you leave them at home.