Splurge or Save?: ELF Gotta Glow vs NARS Albatross

(NARS left fingertip, ELF right)

There’s no denying that I love my NARS Albatross highlighting blush. It’s got an iconic status, and spends alot of it’s time atop my highlighters stash. Despite this, and I’m not going to lie, £21.50 caused me emotional pain to aquire this. That’s more than I spend on petrol in a week.

£21.50 buys you a gorgeous, golden shimmery highlighter that’s soft, buttery smooth. It’s finely milled, no flaking and no fall-out. It looks gorgeous on, and works universally with all the other NARS blushes.

When I heard about ELF’s Gotta Glow being compared to my beloved Albatross, I starting hoping for an amazing dupe. It costs just £3.75. That’s a £17.25 saving! Which is all the more important as NARS have hiked up their prices, two years ago Albatross was under the twenty quid mark. And my question is, is NARS really worth that £17.25 extra? What more am I getting for my money?

Packaging wise it’s easy to see similarities. NARS is all rubbery, which gets icky and dirty very quickly, and ELF just looks like a cheap imitation. But does packaging really matter? No. Not to me. It’s my face, and the makeup on it, that’s on show to the world. Not the inside of my makeup drawer (thank goodness, it’s a mess!)

Then comes the formula comparisons. Gotta Glow is chunkier, less finely milled and has major fall-out. To avoid looking like a glitterball, I tap my brush. Simple. And once blended, no matter how hard I look, I can’t find a difference between the two on my face at all. It’s only noticeable when I swatch on my fingertip. But for £3.75 I wasn’t expecting an amazing texture.

If a single tap of the brush before application is the only realy difference between how these two look on my face – count me in. That’s worth £17.25 to me, and another week’s worth of petrol paid for.

Gotta Glow net weight is 4.75g, Albatross is 4.8g – a bargain if I ever saw one.