E.l.f. Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener: Thoughts & Review

I was pretty surprised to see the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind concealer go viral a few months back. Mostly because it has been a pretty consistent best seller for at least a decade. Now it looks like color correcting itself has in turn gone viral, and combined with elf’s latest reputation as a viral “dupe” brand (sorry Makeup Revolution…) that can put out reasonably priced makeup and skincare, it was only a matter a time before we would be seeing a product release like this.

Photo from Elf website

Alt Text: Color correcting shade “Light Medium” in round container with black lid.

These “Color-Correcting Eye Brighteners” are the newest additions to the Putty line from elf. There are six shades available at launch. I have “loyalty access” on elf’s brand site/app so I purchased one as soon as I noticed it, and I was already too late to get the shade “Fair” (a pink toned corrector) so I purchased “Light/Medium” which has a warmer hue. I personally prefer a peach tone in a color corrector because I have blue veins and darkness around my eyes, but especially towards my inner corners near the sides of my nose.

Photo from Elf website

Alt Text: All six color corrector shades swatched on three arms of different skin tones. From top to bottom: Fair, Light Medium, Medium Tan, Tan Deep, Deep Rich, and Rich.

I’ve played with this product for a couple days now. My first attempt was with completely bare skin, I warmed the corrector up and applied it directly to my inner corners with my ring finger in a patting motion. Almost immediately, there were small bits or ‘pills’ of the product clumping on my eye area and promptly flaking off onto my cheeks. No visible coverage was on my eye, just an oily reflect. The pigment seemed to have been what balled up and fell off. When I added concealer, it never set and there was arguably less coverage than usual. Probably due to the butter/waxes and many oils that are in this product, for some reason.

I attempted using this with a primer underneath (Milani’s eye primer) and the results were slightly better. Still a ton of pilling but I managed to get some of the pigment to adhere to my problem area. It looked very reflective and patchy though, but with additional concealer over it my inner corners looked cakey and weighed down compared to the rest of my makeup. After about half an hour I looked in the mirror and noticed the corrector was pilling under my concealer and created a bumpy looking texture and my eye area looked like an oil slick. I’ll try working with it a bit more, but I really don’t see myself being able to use it.

*Edit: I had to stop using the corrector due to a bad reaction from it. My eye area swelled and the skin was peeling. I do have sensitive/reactive skin where my seborrheic dermatitis is. Mine is primarily on my scalp but also on the sides of my nose and around my eyebrows, including the very inner corners of my eyes where the skin meets my nose bridge. Since that’s where I place other correctors and concealers that is were I placed this one. I’ve never had a flare up triggered by a makeup product before, but that is something I wanted to add.

I wish this product would have worked out for me. Something I would definitely change would probably be the amount of oils that are in this product, especially since this is marketed as something to layer UNDER another concealer. I’m pretty pale too, for reference I wear elf Flawless Finish Foundation in the shade Lily, and L’Oréal True Match W1 or 2 and the elf corrector in Light/Medium was very sheer on me.

Have you tried this product or one similar? Does color correcting work well for you? Leave a comment with your favorite concealers or correctors. I personally like to do it sometimes, either with more pigmented products and a light hand or with a product like Maybelline has.

I’m new to blogging but I’d like to post more about different makeup related things, so please leave some ideas or suggestions in the comments. Thank you for reading!