Dupe Or Not? It Cosmetics Je Ne Sais Quoi Palette Vs. ELF Beautifully Bare Palette

I'm back with my first Dupe? Or Not? post of 2017! In case you've haven't seen these posts, I take a high-end makeup product and compare it to something more affordable, a so-called dupe. I test to see if the suggestion is an actual dupe, or just an option.

I haven't covered any face palettes on here, so I thought I'd compare the popular Je Ne Sais Quoi palette from It Cosmetics vs the Beautifully Bare palette from ELF. Aren't they both pretty?

Here's the size comparison of packaging as well. ELF is $8 and It Cosmetics is $42. Let's start with IT:

It Cosmetics Your Je Ne Sais Quoi Complexion Perfection Face Palette

• All-in-one palette that delivers a skin-perfecting glow. 
• Developed with plastic surgeons
• Talc-free powder formulas 
• Includes: new Sunshine in a Compact™ Matte Bronzer, new Perfect Lighting™ Luminizer, new Bye Bye Pores Blush™, and award-winning Bye Bye Pores Pressed™ Poreless Finish Airbrush Pressed Powder
• Infused with hydrolyzed collagen, silk, peptides and proprietary Perfect Lighting™ Technology to revitalize and illuminate your complexion
• $42
• ItCosmetics.com, QVC, ULTA
• Pink packaging

e.l.f. Beautifully Bare Total Face Palette

• This three-in-one total face palette with a bronzer, highlighter, and two blushes creates a flawless look that's beautiful and natural looking
• lightweight, silky formula
• some matte, some shimmer
• silver packaging, but it does come in the traditional elf black as well
• The shades can be popped out.
• $8
• elfcosmetics.com, Target (they have really started carrying a lot more products), some drugstores, some big box stores (walmart)

Now, let's get into swatches. Since both of these are light palettes, the swatches are hard to see, so I wet them to enhance them. ELF definitely is more pigmented. 

But are any of the shades dupes? Remember, It Cosmetics has a powder, highlight, blush, and bronzer, whereas ELF has two blushes, highlight, and bronzer. I compared the highlight on your left (I wet them both so they'd show in pics) and the bronzer. Neither are dupes, with the ELF bronzer being a cooler brown, but the highlights are similar.

I applied ELF on one side and IT on the other. While I am wearing the IT powder, I focused on the blushes, bronzer, and highlighter. Pictured on top is with flash and on the bottom in front of a window. I took them this way to enhance the glow.

But what does it look like in person after a few hours of wear? The pic above. You can see a natural glow, which is what both products are after.

And here it is with the flash. In case you can't tell, the ELF side is more pigmented, so it really shows up. It's on your right. The It Cosmetics is on your left. I can tell how it hides my pores and even freckles better and it doesn't look as sparkly in person as the ELF, which I prefer. I liked the blushes for both. However, the ELF palette does have talc in it, which causes my skin to react if I continually wear it consecutively. IT Cosmetics has similar but better ingredients. I do appreciate the ELF formulation, as usually their powder products are not silky soft. While it's not a dupe swatch-wise, I think they look similar in person. I really do like the ELF palette and you can't go wrong with either.

Do you own either of these palettes?

Do you like natural-looking makeup? 

Do you think they're dupes?