$1 vs $3: ELF Lip Gloss Comparison

Being a big believer in bargain beauty, 90% of my lip colors are by ELF.  Also, since I find lipstick to be too thick and occasionally drying, it would be fair to say that my lip color medium of choice is gloss.  Thankfully, ELF offers a large selection of lip glosses from $1 to $3.  That's a pretty good deal, but the cheapskate in me still debates: Are the $3 glosses any better than the $1 glosses?  Why get one $3 gloss when I can get three $1 glosses?

The majority of ELF glosses I own are Luscious Liquid Lipstick (which really is totally more gloss than lipstick), Hypershine Gloss, Glitter Gloss and Glossy Gloss.  So here is the skinny on these glosses, including my personal opinions on the pros and cons:

Luscious Liquid Lipstick and Hypershine Gloss

These two glosses are from the Essential collection and are pretty much the same in formula except for the fragrances and the applicator type.  Both are twist-up tubes, however Luscious Liquid Lipstick has a flocked, hoof-like applicator and Hypershine gloss has a brush applicator.

Pros:

• long-lasting
• nice texture w/ perfect amount of stickiness (which accounts for longevity)
• convenient packaging (one-touch application with no need for wands or lip brushes)
• moisturizing
• nice colors (versatile and look great on most skin tones)
• inexpensive 

Cons:

• sticky (though I like it, a number of people dislike stickiness)
• repetitive colors (some series of hues only differ by a shade or two)
• unusual fragrance (LLL smells like mint dental floss and HG has an unrecognizable cloying scent)

Glitter Gloss and Glossy Gloss

Pros:

• diverse color selection
• delicious fragrances (Glitter smells like vanilla cream soda and Glossy smells like gummy fruit candy)
• lightweight
• non-sticky

Cons:

• wears off easily (that's the thing, non-sticky = no lasting power)
• not as moisturizing 

Bottom Line:

I love all of my glosses, but if I had to choose, I would probably pick the $1 glosses over the $3 glosses.  While the Studio gloss pros outweigh the cons more so than the Essential line, in the end, having a long-lasting and nourishing lip color is most important to me.  I'm a busy girl and just don't have time to deal with many touchups throughout the day, so I like the conveniences that come with owning the Essential glosses.  I do hope they work on having some fuchsia color selections available in the future and some nicer fragrances, but it's really not a big deal.  I'm not going to stop buying the Studio glosses either, but, as stated earlier, if I had to choose between the two, I would go with the Essential line.  It's not only more reasonably priced, it suits my personal needs better than the Studio line.

Just my take on it.  Hope you all found this helpful!

Hugs,

Cat