The main reason that this has so many bad reviews is that people are expecting it to be a highlighting palette. I can see why there is confusion, as ELF could be better as advertising this product properly. These are actually more like the Hourglass Ambient Light Powders. Not super shimmery, not meant to work as a blinding highlighter. These have a small amount of color pigment, and a SLIGHT shimmery effect. These are meant to be used as a finishing powder with a subtle sheen. So for people who have dry skin, or are just looking for a slightly glowy complexion, you can use these powders to set all over your face. Since they aren't super shimmery, you won't have glitter all over your face, but just a subtle, lit from within kind of glow. As long as you know what they are actually used for, you won't be disappointed.
I mainly use the lightest shade, as that is what matches my skin tone best. You can mix together different shades to get a decent match to your skin tone. Sometimes I use some of the darker shades around the perimeters of my face, almost like a barely there bronzer. An important thing to note is that I doubt that anyone darker than tan will be able to make much use of these colors. These powders are definitely more for fair to medium skin tones.
I have sensitive dry skin, and I find that these powders don't irritate my skin or exaggerate my dry patches. Overall this is a great affordable palette, but ELF needs to work on the way they describe the product, in order to have less disappointed people who were expecting this to be something it's not.