Girl math was one of our favorite trends in 2024, and that’s why we’re bringing it with us in 2025. Finally a reason to justify all of our completely necessary purchases (duh)! But seriously, girl math has been taking over social media and we’re here for it.
If you’re wondering, “what is girl math?”, we’ve got you covered! Girl math is the playful justification of when spending money “doesn’t count” under certain circumstances. Take cash for example, Gen Z has declared cash as “free money”. When you use cash to pay and you don’t need to see your bank account go down, your purchase was basically free and therefore “doesn’t count”. Girl math can also mean saving money by purchasing two affordable items instead of one expensive item that costs more!
If you were to ask us, we think that makeup is the perfect purchase to apply any and all of the girl math principles to. High quality products without the price tag can be hard to find, but not with e.l.f.! We’re here to give you all of our favorite tips and tricks: getting into a girl math deep dive, while also covering our favorite lip combos and makeup essentials for under $10. Let’s get into it!
What Makes Girl Math Work
Still trying to understand how girl math makes any sense? We’re here to break it down for you. Essentially, if you’re paying less per product, you can buy more! Instead of spending $100 on four to five luxury items, you could spend less than $100 and get a full face from e.l.f.!
Combining high-quality, affordable products can give you results just as good as an expensive glam! When testing out more affordable products, you can have more versatility and creativity than you would if you were using only a few luxury-priced products. When discussing affordable makeup with high-quality payoff, girl math is the right way to reason!
Purchasing Multiple Affordable Products vs. One Expensive Product
Just to make one thing clear—one of the main girl math principles is to buy more, but for less! We’re all about high-quality products with price tags that won’t hurt your wallet. Let’s share some of our favorite reasons to shop e.l.f.:
-
Luxury beauty brands are charging $42 for a beauty wand....Luckily for your wallet, our Halo Glow Beauty Wands offer the same premium quality but for only $9! If we’re using girl math: you could get a highlight, contour, and blush wand from e.l.f. for less than the price of just one luxury beauty wand.
-
$25 for one liquid blush? Absolutely not! Instead shop our Camo Liquid Blush for only $7! Packed with pigment and are blendable AF, you could purchase 3 shades of our liquid blush for less than one luxury brand blush. It’s almost a no brainer!
-
Purchasing a luxury lip liner for $20 is crazy. For $20, you could purchase 10 (yes you read that right, 10!) of our Cream Glide Lip Liners. At only $2 each, you could have every shade for any makeup look!
-
Lip balms are really having their moment this year, but that doesn’t mean they have to break the bank. $19 for a lip balm? Let’s get e.l.f.ing real! Instead you could purchase 5 of our Squeeze Me Lip Balms for the same price! For only $4 each you can have one for your bag, one for the car, one for your nightstand, or anywhere else you can think of.
Quality Makeup without the High-End Price Tag
Why is it so important to make high-quality products without the luxury price tag? Because high-quality products need to be accessible to everyone! At e.l.f., we believe that just because we make our products more affordable, does not mean that we sacrifice the quality of our products.
Keeping a luxury style standard with an affordable price means that we’re helping to create a more inclusive beauty space—which is a must. Everyone deserves to have high-quality products available to them at an affordable price. Making holy-grail makeup products accessible to our community allows for everyone to feel beautiful, showcase their creativity, and of course, feel their best (s)e.l.f.!
Glow Reviver Lip Oil & Cream Glide Lip Liner
A great lip combo is the secret weapon to every look! Whether it makes you feel more put together on a no-makeup day, or if it’s the finishing touch to your glam routine, having a go-to lip combination is a must-have.
Two TikTok viral, fan-favorite, affordable lip products we love are our Glow Reviver Lip Oil and Cream Glide Lip Liner. Pairing these two lip products together is the creamy, glossy, and glowy lip combo of your dreams. Available in 10 unique shades, our Glow Reviver Lip Oil has gone mega viral for a reason—These lip oils are ultra-glossy, nourishing, hydrating, and only $8!
Our creamy lip liner comes in 8 neutral shades, making it easy to find which pairs best with your lip oil. Start by lining your lips to give them a more defined shape, then swipe some of the lip oil on top for that high-shine finish. If you feel like you need even more glow, try our Glow Reviver Lip Oil Glimmers! They have the same smooth feel as our original formula, but with a more shimmery finish.
Squeeze Me Lip Balm and Cream Glide Lip Liner
Worried about a lip combo drying your lips out? Not with us! Our Squeeze Me Lip Balm will become your holy grail at only $4! This moisturizing lip balm is the perfect pocket-sized flush you need to add some shine to your pout!
Start by lining your lips with Cream Glide Lip Liner to add some color and shape. Then apply your favorite fruity-flavored lip balm on top! These lip balms have an sheer, but ultra-glossy finish- if you’re looking for more pigment, we recommend opting for Strawberry, Watermelon, or Grape to add more color to your combo!
Affordable Face Sculpting Combo
Just like your lip products, having the perfect makeup base is also a must-have when it comes to any makeup look! Here are some of our favorite, affordable face makeup combinations all for under $10.
If you’re looking to showcase and define your natural features, we have the perfect combo for you! Our Camo Liquid Bronzer and Contour and Instant Brow Lift are the two necessities you need to sculpt and define your features.
Use a cool tone of the liquid bronzer to contour areas like your cheekbones, jawline, nose, and forehead. Then, we recommend going in with your eyebrow pencil to help shape and sculpt your brows to perfection. For $10, this combo is essential for showcasing your beauty!
Affordable Eye Makeup Look
Creating a go-to eye look can be so overwhelming- what products do you really need, how to apply them, and where to place them? Here’s our secrets to creating the perfect eye look for only $10. Start with our Bite-Size Eyeshadow, these mini palettes are created with 4 pigmented shades, mixing both shimmers and mattes. These palettes are formulated to give you a complete eyeshadow look for only $3!
Pull your eye makeup look together by using our Instant Lift Brow Pencil to fill-in, shape, and groom your brows.
Affordable Glam Makeup Necessities
Our essentials to create a seamless glam look? A flawless base and a defined lip! To help pull your glam look together, we recommend our Soft Glam Liquid Foundation and our creamy lip liner.
This satin-finish foundation is the perfect base product to give you skin a soft-focus glow. With buildable coverage, it's hydrating, breathable, and long-lasting: all essential for a glam base! Then, go in with your lip liner to help line and define your lips. This liner is available in 8 creamy, neutral, high-pigment shades, making it easy to pick the perfect match for you. Or at a $2 price point, you could treat yourself to the entire shade collection!