Essence Cosmetics

Today I have three Essence products to show you. Essence is a fairly new to me brand. They're very affordable, though availability varies by region. So far I'm very

Essence multi action mascara in blackest black
XXXL shine lipgloss in love story
Colour & Go nail polish in 108 ultimate pink

Essence multi action mascara in blackest black is a great, reliable mascara. The wand distributes the mascara evenly so I have zero clumping and my favorite part? My lashes are still soft! A lot of mascara leaves my lashes very hard and dry, but this mascara keeps them in their.."original lash form" so to speak. It's a great, reliable little mascara I'll always keep in my bag.

Colour & Go nail polish in 108 ultimate pink is truly the ultimate pink! It's so girly and happy and bright. It reminds me of hot summer days, sno cones and water fights. I love it! Application was smooth. You can get away with one coat of this polish with zero VNL, but I did two to make the color pop a bit more. The colour & go polishes also have a new bottle shape which is amazing and I prefer it to the old bottle shape. You can see two older Essences I reviewed here.

                                     

             XXXL lip gloss in Love Story is a gorgeous pink-mauve gloss, it has a bit of a subtle retro feel to it for me.  These glosses have a great non-stick formula. I'm pretty weary of lip glosses because most of the ones I own are very sticky and my hair sticks in my mouth, it's gross. These are wonderful, though. No stick, and I get a good 2 hours of wear before I have to reapply. No flakes, either.

Final verdict?
Essence is a brand that has yet to disappoint me. I own three glosses, two mascaras, and a few nail polishes by them and the quality is consistently impeccable. You can buy Essence at your local ulta, ulta.com, Fred Meyer, or H-E-B if you're in the US.



These products were sent for honest review. My honest review? I'm pregnant and they make me feel pretty, darnit.

Essence

About Essence:

• Affordable cosmetics with a range of colors
• No animal testing!

Essence is a brand that I often see a lot of swatches of and wish I could try, but don't have access to without annoying shipping costs. My first experience with Essence was great, and I still need to post about it. I took part in an Australian beauty swap and the lovely lady whom I was paired with sent me this stay with me lip gloss called "me & my ice cream". It's this beautiful baby pink. I'll do a review of it tomorrow.

Anyway - the company generously mailed me an adorable notebook (that I do not have a photo of, bad blogger!) and two nail polishes.



(left) Wanna be your Sunshine and (right) walk on air.

On the Bottle:

Nail polish with flat brush-quick dry: trendy nailstyle within seconds!

I'm currently hanging out at my mom's for the next few days so I do not have my nifty editing program to crop and brighten the photos up a bit. No big deal, the swatches aren't atrocious by any means but they haven't really been cleaned up. Oh well..I do suppose it's a testament to my photography skills and what needs to improve. I also left my macro attachment so this is as close as I could get to these gorgeous colors. Could I BE anymore unprepared? With that being said, I'll have...more than one photo of each color.

First up? Blue me Away. In the bottle it looks a smidge darker. On the nail it's a fantastic cobalt blue, something I do not own! It goes on great in two coats and dries in about 5 minutes. These are "colour & go" polishes so they're supposed to dry..quickly. This color did. I love it, it's so...hanging-out-in-my-polka-dot bikini-while-my-boyfriend-surfs.





Next? Wanna be your Sunshine.

First, I love the name. It's adorable. Yes, I DO want to be your sunshine! In the bottle the color is a banana yellow, with a slight golden shimmer to it. On the nail the shimmer becomes much more prominent. Application is that of a typical yellow. A huge pain. Use three thin coats and you'll have an easier time. This color didn't dry as fast as "Walk on Air" did. The combination of a difficult color in general and more coats left me with wet nails after about 10 minutes. It's not a huge deal, and I'm guessing with a different top coat (I used julep's fast dry..never again) you might get a quicker dry time. The color is beautiful and cheery - perfect for summer. The golden shimmer really adds another dimension that helps this color come alive. You'll want to enlarge the photos to get a better grasp on the color and see the shimmer.





Final Verdict:

Great colors, decent formula, and they're very affordable, too. The brush is fantastic. Stiff but flexible, no spare hairs and just the right size for my nail. I will be buying more colors and letting you guys know how that goes! According to the essence website you can buy these at Fred Meyer, Ulta, and H-E-B in the states. In Canada you can buy them at Shopper's Drug Mart and Pharmaprix.

Here is the link to the ulta page with Essence nail polish! .49-.99 cents! I plan on buying No More Drama, You Belong to Me, Choose Me, Let's Get Lost (um, one of my favorite songs ever, by Elliott Smith!) and High Spirits. And A Lovely Secret..and Gleam in Blue..and Wake up..

These colors were provided to me by Essence. My opinions are only influenced by how hungry I am..and currently I have WAY too much sugar pumping through my system I feel like my teeth are going to pop out of my mouth at any moment. ;)