E.L.F. Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener Review & Swatches

E.L.F. Cosmetics Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener ($6) is a new, affordable under-eye brightener that works to correct the appearance of dark circles while illuminating the under eye area. The formula is infused with squalane and hyaluronic acid to hydrate and plump the eye area and it’s available in six shades. This released a few short weeks after NARS dropped their Light Reflecting Undereye Brightener.

I wear Tarte Shape Tape and I do feel that it leaves no room for correctors. It’s very creamy, very thick, and very pigmented. Wearing corrector under it is just a recipe for overkill in my opinion. Also, I don’t suffer from heavy duty dark circles under my eyes and don’t need much correcting. I use concealer under my eyes to conceal tiredness, puffiness, and finer lines but I don’t have really bad dark circles.

Oddly, I do like peachy color correctors though for more natural, fresher looks. Today I barely put makeup on and was using this as a concealer of sorts under my eyes. I love Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Vanish in Medium. It’s this really nice color correcting peach that brightens up my entire eye area. I don’t bother using anything under my eyes when I use it. Tarte’s Colored Clay CC Undereye Corrector and their new Shape Tape Corrector is kinda nifty too! But again, they aren’t items I use daily nor are they ones I use along with my concealer. These are for days I just want a more natural look.

I wasn’t really sure I needed to try E.L.F. Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener because I don’t really like glowy anything under my eyes. I feel like it puts a spotlight on imperfections under my eyes but I decided to add it to my little stash of correctors anyway as it was six bucks so why not?

Aside from price and size I can’t quite compare the E.L.F. Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener to the NARS version as I haven’t yet tried the NARS one out. I can however, compare it to the Becca Under Eye Brightening Corrector version. Becca’s$ version is $33 and 0.15 oz in size, NARS is $34 at 0.21 oz, and E.L.F. of course, is the winner in terms of size and price at $6 for 0.35 oz.

Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener comes in the same plastic jar as the Putty Blush featuring a clear bottom and a black top with E.L.F’s logo. It’s fairly basic packaging and will travel and store easily.

As I said above I can’t compare this formula to the NARS version but I can say that it isn’t anything like Becca’s version. This formula is much less pigmented, thinner, and not nearly as emollient as the Becca version. Becca’s formula is quite thick, very pigmented, and a bit shinier/glowier where as I didn’t get that from this formula.

I gave this a lower rating because I THINK people with really bad dark circles under their eyes aren’t going to be particularly pleased with the pigment here. On one hand I really love this isn’t too pigmented as it will pair well with concealer. The thinner consistency and the sheerness of the products makes it an ideal product to layer with other products without being too overdone. On the other hand, the lack of pigment means you aren’t getting a powerful color correcting finish. Yeah, you’ll get a nice bit of brightening from it but if you want it to really conceal and correct your dark circles this isn’t quite going to do the job. In the end, you’re probably better off just finding the most pigmented concealer you can and using that to conceal darkness versus using this AND a concealer to do that work for. It’s sort of an unnecessary step due to the lack of pigment. Granted, correctors aren’t concealers. That’s something we do have to remember. However, correctors should have a fair amount of pigment to work best and this is a pretty sheer product. I personally didn’t mind the lack of pigment. It provided just enough to give my eyes a natural, brighter appearance. I got a good deal of sleep last night so I was able to use this and only this without applying concealer on top. But on Monday I could NOT get away with that and needed to apply this and concealer on top. My concealer seems to lay nicely on top of it initially. It even provides some nice moisture so my concealer eased on smoothly when using it in conjunction with this formula. However, worn alone or worn with concealer it did crease. Worn alone it did fall in finer lines under my eyes and when I wore it with concealer it caused creasing as well.

E.L.F. Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener in Light/Medium

The formula is quite thin with a lightly emollient texture. I do think you need a flat brush of some sort to apply it. You can go wild and dip a finger in it but a concealer brush works best. My personal favorite is E.L.F’s Concealer Brush which is $5. I’ve been using this brush forever and a day as far back as when it was three bucks and part of the “E.L.F. Studio” Collection. I purchased it because I needed something to sheer out It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer and it worked awesome with it. To this day I still use it with squeeze tube concealers. I think this brush works great with this. It allows you to paint the concealer on and you can use your fingers to blend it out easily. The emollient texture is nice for drier eyes but it does work against you if you have finer lines as it slips easily and settles right into pesky finer lines.

If you want a bit of brightening under your eyes and don’t require a ton of concealers you might just like E.L.F. Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener. But those looking for a solution to dark circles will be disappointed with this formula. I think it wears best by itself for a more natural look but doesn’t quite do the job when worn in conjunction with concealer!

E.L.F. Putty Color-Correcting Eye Brightener is available now on the brand’s website and should be coming soon to mass retailers.

Will you try it?

Where to buy

ELF Ulta