Essence

7 of My Favorite Affordable European Makeup Products

June 29th, 2016 by Carolina Braina 24 Comments

Best Affordable European Makeup — Some of my favorite (affordable) European makeup

Europe definitely has a lot to offer the international traveler. I mean, so many different countries and cultures concentrated in a relatively small area…

But visiting a dozen countries in a month can get extremely expensive, so what’s a beauty lover to do? Pass on the makeup shopping??

Of course not!

On the good ol’ continent, you can find lots of top quality products that cost less than a latte.

Here are my top recommendations!

1. Catrice Defining Blush in 040 Think Pink (€3.99)

If someone made me try the Catrice Defining Blush in 040 Think Pink after having depotted it, I’d for sure think it was a high-end blush.

I swear, I’d bet my entire makeup collection on it! It’s that good.

Creamy and not in the least bit powdery, nicely pigmented but easy to blend, and long-lasting, too.

Oh, and here’s the best part: it’s only €3.99!

2. Catrice Camouflage Cream in 010 Ivory & 020 Light Beige (€3.49)

If you’re blessed with oily skin and occasional hormonal spots like this mama, then you’ll know that liquid concealers just don’t last.

To cover up those angry red zits and the marks they usually leave behind, I think it’s much better to use a dry-texture concealer.

In my opinion, the Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage ($35) is the best in this category, but Catrice’s Camouflage Cream comes in a close second, and it’s just a fraction of the price.

Should you ever spot a Catrice stand during your European adventures, make sure you put your paws on this fantastic concealer.

3. Essence Long-Lasting Eye Pencils in 01 Black Fever & 02 Hot Chocolate ($2.49/€1.99)

Ok, I know that you can get Essence at Ulta these days, but wouldn’t it be cooler to pick up something from this affordable German brand after admiring the majestic Cologne Cathedral or visiting the breathtaking Neuschwanstein Castle?

My first recommendation would be the Long-Lasting Eye Pencils in 01 Black Fever and 02 Hot Chocolate, because I mean, who doesn’t need black or brown eyeliner?

These glide on super easily and last amazingly well both on the waterlines and lashlines.

4. Essence Sun Club Matte Bronzing Powder in 01 Natural – Blondes/Lighter Skin ($4.99/€4.99)

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A Bad-@ss Blush Saves the Essence How to Make Your Face Glow Makeup Box for Me

June 17th, 2016 by Jen Clark 7 Comments

Essence Makeup Boxes in How To Make Your Face Glow and How To Make Bright Eyes — Essence Makeup Boxes in How To Make Your Face Glow ($9.99) and How To Make Bright Eyes ($9.99)

What up, people! Let’s talk about some affordable makeup today. I’ve been low-key obsessed with Essence for the past little while. I mean, this is only like my third post about them in the last couple months.

I’ve already reviewed the Essence All About Bronze Eye Shadow Palette and the Liquid and Sheer & Shine Lipsticks, and SPOILER ALERT! I love them both.

Next up, a couple of the Essence Makeup Boxes — How To Make Your Face Glow, and How To Make Bright Eyes ($9.99 each at Target). I have lots to say about these, so let’s get started, shall we?

My favorite of the two, by far, is the How To Make Your Face Glow Makeup Box. It’s got a blush, bronzer, and highlighter, and it also comes with cute little instruction cards to teach you where to place the products. That’s always nice for beginners!

I am OBSESSED with the blush, and I would totally spend the $9.99 just to get it by itself.

You know how when a blush is just the most perfect color for you in the world and it makes your face look so bright and awake? I feel like this one does that for me!

The Essence How To Make Your Face Glow Makeup Box ($9.99)

Can you see that blush? Mmm.. so dang good! — Can you see that blush? Mmm… So dang good!

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One Wash Wonders: 4 Eyeshadows You’ll Love if You’re Lazy or Busy

March 29th, 2016 by Carolina Braina 14 Comments

KIKO Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadow 06 Golden Brown — KIKO Long-Lasting Stick Eyeshadow in 06 Golden Brown on my eyes and MAC Velvetease Lip Pencil in Lover’s Lane on my lips

One Wash Wonder Eyeshadows — My favorite One Wash Wonders. Clockwise, from top left corner: Burberry Eye Colour Wet & Dry Glow Shadow in 002 Nude, Essence I Love Nude Eyeshadow in 04 Sweet Like Chocolate, Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo Leather 24hr in Creamy Beige, KIKO Long-Lasting Stick Eyeshadow in 06 Golden Brown

Can we all please take a moment to thank the Beauty Gods profusely for creating One Wash Wonders?

Those magical neutrals that look amazing on their own, don’t require any makeup skills, and cut down the time you spend on your eyes to a handful of seconds are definitely the types of shadows I’m most grateful for.

In case you need a little inspiration for your first (or tenth) OWW purchase, here are my all-time favorites!

The Budget Buy: Essence I Love Nude Eyeshadow in 04 Sweet Like Chocolate (€3.19/$3.56)

Essence I Love Nude Eyeshadow 04 Sweet Like Chocolate — Wearing Essence I Love Nude Eyeshadow in 04 Sweet Like Chocolate last summer…

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An Easy, Beautiful Golden Bronze Eye Makeup Look Using the $5.49 Essence All About Bronze Eyeshadow Palette

March 21st, 2016 by Jen Clark 28 Comments

Is the weather starting to warm up where you live? I’m looking out the window at a gloomy night that is chucking it down with SNOW. Waahh! I just went on (what I thought was) a spring walk the other day, and now I have to bring out my winter coat again! If any of you are familiar with Utah weather, you know that, unfortunately, this isn’t that weird.

I’ll probably have to scrape off my car in the morning, but I’m choosing to be more optimistic with my makeup choices. I’m channeling sunshine with this springtime golden/bronze eyeshadow look.

This look is so flattering on every single eye color, and it’s so easy to do. AND the palette I’m using is only $5.49! It’s the Essence All About Bronze Eyeshadow Palette.

You guys, every single one of you needs to go out and buy one of these palettes. If bronze-y shades aren’t your thing, they’ve got a bunch of different options. Nudes, Roses, Greys, and more! They blend out like a dream and are so pigmented. Love, love, LOVE.

I started out with a matte transition shade in the crease to help the gold blend better with my skin. That’s the thing about this palette — the one con. There are no matte shades.

But, no worries. If you have one, just use a different shade from your stash. I actually used my contour powder today as my transition shade.

IMG_6499_edited-1 — I’m using the three “starred” shades in this look!

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New for Spring! Essence Lip Swatches

March 3rd, 2016 by Jen Clark 38 Comments

Ever since that fateful day I picked up one of their lip liners, Essence has continued to keep me pleasantly surprised with the quality of their makeup. In the world of extremely affordable makeup, the brand keeps working their way up to the tippy top.

They recently released a couple of new lip products for spring 2016 — their Shine & Sheer Lipsticks, and the Essence Liquid Lipsticks — and I love me a good lipstick! I also love me some makeup that I don’t have to sell my soul for, so this is a match made in affordability heaven.

Let’s start with my favorite of the two, the Liquid Lipsticks. There are six available shades, and one thing to understand before going out and buying every one is that they might not be what you expect when you think of “liquid lipstick.” My experience with liquid lipsticks is more along the lines of Kat Von D and Colourpop, where they go on super liquid-y and opaque and dry down matte.

These are more of a really pigmented gloss, but they still sit nicely on the lips and last a decent amount of time. I really am a huge fan of these for a plump and shiny lip.

Ready for the best part? They. Are. Only. $3.49.

Wut.

Essence Spring 2016 Almost Real 03 — “Almost Real” 03

Essence Spring 2016 Colour Party 01 — “Colour Party” 01

Essence Spring 2016 Peach Party 05 — “Peach Party” 05

Essence Spring 2016 Beauty Secret 02 — “Beauty Secret” 02

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Try Essence of Eye-Opening Energy for Sleepy Afternoons: Essence Crystal Eyeliner Is a Perfect Pick-Me-Up

April 18th, 2014 by Karen 9 Comments

Some people use coffee or tea for an afternoon pick-me-up.

Me? I like glitter liner because 1) it doesn’t give me the shakes or keep me up at night, and 2) it works almost as well as caffeine.

A little glitter on my lids or along my lower lash lines is a fantastic pick-me-up.

After lunch this afternoon (homemade tuna salad on rice cakes, which, OK, may sound weird, but it’s actually really good), I started feeling run down. I was getting the afternoon sleepies, so I thought, “needs glitter.”

I busted out Gold Rush and Twinkly Starlight, two of the five new glitter liners by Essence.

They’re $2.99 each and new additions to the Essence line. They’re on the creamy side, too, because they have a gel base, so they’re a little easier to work with than your run-of-the-mill liquid glitter liner.

Because the flecks of glitter are different shapes and sizes, the formula looks bumpier and more textured on lids than, say, something like the Heavy Metal Glitter Liners by Urban Decay, which have tiny flecks of uniformly shaped glitter.

Twinkly Starlight (left) and Gold Rush (right)

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Party-Ready Eyes for Just $2.99: The Essence Metal Glam Eyeshadows

April 18th, 2014 by Karen 13 Comments

So much metallic, glittery, shimmery goodness for just $2.99! I almost can’t believe it’s true, because sometimes, when you add glitter, metallics and discount together, the formula equals “something sketchy.”

But in this case the formula equals fun.

You know how I feel about sci-fi… LOVE IT! And that might be one of the reasons I like these new $2.99 Essence Metal Glam Eyeshadows. Pressed metallic shadows with a glittery overspray, their shiny, shimmery metallic finish looks kinda like Terminator-esque liquid metal/chrome.

Essence Metal Glam Eyeshadow in Jewel Up the Ocean — Jewel Up the Ocean

You can wear them wet or dry, but I prefer wet because it turns up the intensity of the metallic effect (metallic-ness?). And I figure that if you’re going to wear metallics on your lids, you might as well go all out.

For me, they were a little tricky to apply at first, but once you get the hang of ’em, I think you get a lot of bang for your buck.

I mean, shoot, they’re only $2.99.

Essence Metal Glam Eyeshadow in Coffee to Glow — Coffee to Glow

The trick is figuring out how to keep the fallout under control. Use a fluffy brush like the MAC 217 or 224, and you could very well end up with sheer shimmer on your lids and glitter all over your cheeks.

Now, if that’s what you want, it’s all good.

Essence Metal Glam Eyeshadow in Frosted Apple — Frosted Apple

But I like to just use a clean wet finger. It gets the job done and eliminates fallout. Plus, because the finger’s wet, it cranks up the intensity of the pigments and shine.

I’ll wet a finger with MAC Fix+, swipe it across the pan a few times to pick up some product, and apply on my lids.

BOOM! — dramatic metal.

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These Essence Stay All Day Long Lasting Eyeshadows Could Teach a Class in Perseverance, But Could Use Some Help Blending In

July 6th, 2012 by Karen 15 Comments

essence stay all day long lasting eyeshadow

“Calling all cars! Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for cheap makeup thrills. Repeat, cheap makeup thrills.

“Suspect was last seen shimmering on eyelids for $2.99. I repeat, $2.99. Over.”

With the Essence Stay All Day Long Lasting Eyeshadows, shimmery, long-lasting color is just 299 pennies away.

These pigmented cream shadows are great for quick washes of shimmery color, and they cling like crazy to my skin. On my combination dry/oily lids, I get from 7-8 hours with primer and 5-6 without.

Not bad for $2.99, but I think they’d be even better if it weren’t for a few things…

The texture

Seems a little hit or miss. Of the four shades I’ve tried, 09 For Fairies feels the best — almost like a mousse. It’s soft and fluffy and just glides across my lids.

The other three shades, however, 01 Coppy Right (great name!), 02 Glammy Goes To, and 07 JM-ME Blue, feel denser and drier to me, which makes them a tad tougher to blend and apply.

Blending

I’d hoped to be able to easily blend a few of these colors together in the same looks, but they have a tense relationship… The colors don’t transition well, or at least easily, into each other.

If all I’m doing is softening the edges of a single shade on my lids, no problem — the blending goes a little better — but they’re still not as easy to blend as a MAC Paint Pot or Benefit Creaseless Cream (although they’re an awful lot less expensive).

Layering

Tricky! Apply a milligram too much, and these begin to appear heavy and caked, and almost too metallic. For me with these, one thin, single layer works best.

essence stay all day long lasting eyeshadow
From the left: 02 Glammy Goes To, 09 For Fairies, 01 Coppy Right and 07 JM-ME Blue