A recent trip to Wilko had me doing two things, one buying a lot of cute stationary and two taking a look at the essence make up range, buying a bulk of it to come home and engross myself in new products. I managed to get my hands on enough products to try a full face of Essence and here are my thought.
Essence soft touch mousse foundation £3.80
First thing to note is the shade range is minimal (there were only five at my local Wilko) Apart from this being completely the wrong shade the mousse texture is surprisingly nice, soft, smooth and applied well with my beauty blender. For me this is an very light coverage foundation which I would use on a “good skin day” and needed little coverage but a bit of a boost in glow. It struggled to cover pigmented areas of my skin and small blemishes but on clearer parts of my face it settled nicely.
Essence 16h long – lasting concealer £2.50
Again the shade range was not really as it should be since high street brands have really been upping their game with this recently.
Usually I apply my concealer around the areas of my face and blend afterwards but this was made slightly difficult as the formula dries quickly. Blending really became a task, the more I blended the more patchy it became and I was left with the areas where it had dried being more highlighted then others.
Essence Nude Faces eye shadow palette £4.00
Inside are ten nude shades, five being matte and the other five metallic which for £4 is very reasonable.
Usage wise I found the eye shadows hard work! The mattes are very dusty and due to this have little colour payoff so you really have to build and blend up the colour which took a lot of time and effort. The metallic’s worked a lot better, although the formula was a lot more oily then other metallic’s I’ve used I didn’t have to work as hard as with the matte shades. Having the metallic shades available in the palette was how I held my eye look for the day together and made it a bit more bearable (Sorry).
Essence Lash Princess mascara £3.00
Before buying I had heard good things about Essence mascara and was hoping I’d love it.
The lash princess said to give lashes “sculpted volume” with a fanned out edge.
The applicator is curved which helped to grab and lift my lashes in one easy swoop and from root to tip. The wand was not saturated with product when I removed it which made coating even and not in the slightest bit clumpy. I really liked this mascara as I felt my lashes were given the boost they needed without being needing to curl, the dark colour and lack of clumping gave my lashes the illusion of great length. I was happy with how they turned out.
I have been needing a white eyeliner and at £1.00 this is just what I was looking for. The colour is nice, the pencil is easy to use, soft, ensuring it glides on. It stayed on my waterline for a lot longer then I expected. Overall I will be continuing to use the pencil and I would even buy more in other shades.
Essence Matt Touch Blush £1.00
Has a nice range of colours available (the colour shown is 20 – berry me up), as with the matte eye shadows this does apply chalky and there will be a lot of dust. I also thought the colour was a lot brighter when applied to how it appeared in the pan which took me by surprise. Not one of my favourites or something I will be using again it was just to messy for a colour that I was not expecting.
Even as I write this I cannot make my mind up as to whether I love or hate this highlighting stick!
It’s a cream based highlighter with pink coloured undertones which glides on and blends out effortlessly whilst giving you an unbelievable reflective glow. I really, really like the effect but I can’t help feeling like I’ve crawled out of my eight year old niece’s make up box and transformed into a unicorn. It is safe to say I am just to old to use this product without looking like I am trying really hard to be current.
Essence Colour Boost liquid lipstick £2.80
The liquid lip formula is thick and sticky, the colour is pretty but it applies streaky. As this is a vinyl effect the liquid does not dry down and therefore continuously has to be reapplied after eating and drinking etc. A little to high maintenance for me.
It is safe to say Essence has not really worked out for me although I will be holding on to the mascara and eyeliner I will be gifting the other items to my niece as she will love all the glitter and I think they are great products for her to start out with.
Let me know your thoughts on the Essence brand, have you found anything that works great for you? I’d love to know if anyone’s experience has been different to mine.
Next post will be Friday.
Kate x