Essence Eyeshadows Overview

Continuing with my love of Essence i thought i might show off some of their eyeshadow, some from their core line and some from trend editions to give you an idea what they are like.

I have in the last few month's acquired quite a few of these; so here's a little run down of what is included; 

1. "Ready for Boarding" Eyeshadow Palette in 01 beauty on tour

2. "50's Girls Reloaded"  Eyeshadow  Duo in 03 come on board captain

3. "Ballerina Collection" 02 Eyeshadow soufflé in 02 pas des copper

4. Core Collection Eyeshadow in "Shimmer" (red)

5. Core Collection Eyeshadow in "Cappuccino, please" (beige)  

6.  Core Collection Eyeshadow in " Mystic Purple" (silver/purple holo)

1.  This one has gotten a bit of hat for not being pigmented enough but with a good base i find it works very well, because they are pastel colors they do have a bit of fall out but not so much that it all disappears. Great for spring and summer, you can get some really nice effects with these and i have found them to stay on most of the day (8 hrs) without fading too much.

2. The 50s collection had some nice eyeshadow duo's, sadly i only found one as it was a very limited release here,  the gold is a very creamy and buttery sort of shadow which goes on very silky while the blue has a bit more fallout but the color more then makes up for it. These are nowhere near as chalky or pale as the previous collections and are much more pigmented (one swatch above) but i find they stay on a bit less (maybe 6 hrs rather then 8) and don't fade quite as cleanly, these ones leave more obvious bold spots.

1. Shimmer | 2. Cappuccino, please! | 3. Mystic Purple | 4. Pas Des Copper

Essence Pas Des Copper compared to the Maybelline Eye Tattoos. 

3. Pas Des Copper i have talked about endlessly before, it's the only creme eyeshadow from 

Essence I've so far come across and it's a dream in everyday; long lasting, non creasing, smooth and easy application; it doesn't catch on skin or melt off in heat. It everything you want or will ever need in an eyeshadow including amazing color pay off. Sadly it was a trend edition, can only hope for more in the same formula.

4/5/6. The Core line is pretty damn solid for the price tag; you'll find some gems and some duds but mostly you'll find good quality for a most reasonable price.

Shimmer as you can see i have used a lot, it recently made for some great makeup for a Halloween costume and stayed on all night through some hefty company and heat. It's not hugely pigmented but for a red on your eyes ou probably don't want it to be. It will build nicely however if that's the look your going for, Slightly on the chalky side however.

Cappuccino, please! is a wonderful, soft and nicely pigmented honey beige that i have seen others compare as a dupe for MAC's very popular "Shroom".  I don't own Shrrom so i can't judge that but its a point to keep in mind; great for neutral looks, base color or eyebrow highlight. Great everyday eyeshadow, can't recommend it more.  (The pan in the picture is new as i had to replace my old one)

Mystic Purple, my very first eyeshadow from Essence; i was lured by the holo claims and also the crazy color on this thing. It's not really holo but it is a duochrome. As you can see in the pan it looks like a silvery-lavender but on the swatch it shines through with a lovely iridescent lilac. Not greatly pigmented but very easy to apply and a lovely color, just be sure to use a eyeshadow base for this one.

So if you haven't yet i strongly suggest giving these a try, at the very least try Cappuccino! For $3 you can't really go wrong! Also if your lucky enough to have it go give you  Pas Des Copper eyeshadow a little hug :) 

Lipstick Rundown

For todays post i decided (after some debate) to do a little overview comparing my three newest lipsticks to my two tried and true faves, as 5 seemed a nice number to go with, and i have a interesting little story about my very favorite lipstick. So let's get down to business and see who our contestants are; 

Revlon Soft Rose, Sportgirl Pout It Beauty Queen. Lipstick Queen Medieval, MAC Cremme De La Femme, and Lancome Color Fever in Rose Defile/

As you can probably tell my two age old favorites are the bookshelf lipsticks on either end which are Revlon Soft Rose and Lancome's Color Fever in Rose Defile ( im starting to sense a theme).

Swatch Time:

These are my natural lips for comparison with nothing on them but a little bit of clear lip balm.

Next, let's go in order that they appear in the photo and as such we will be leaving the best for last;

This is Revlon Soft Rose

I particularly like this lipstick as it's incredibly soft as is only a few shades darker then my own lip color, it has good staying power, lasting about 4-6 hours assuming i don't eat much and fades very gently without leaving random bald spots. 

It's quite pigmented and doesn't settle into lip lines. This one i have had for about a year now and will repurchase when it finishes up. Plus the quilt packaging is super cute. The photo here is a little bright but it's more on the brown/pink shade scale then a bright red.

This is Sportsgirls Pout it in Beauty Queen

This one is probably the most disappointing lipstick i own, I've had it for about three weeks and have used it maybe twice. I bought it based on a bunch of super positive reviews about the Pout It line and it just clearly didn't work for me; it sunk into lip lines even when i had gloss underneath and was a bit too light( even though it looked basically like my own lip color) .

On top of this is looked very fake, as in the color kind of just sat on top of the lips as if i had put my face into a jar of pink watery paint. Hopefully this will find a new home as a color i use to tone down my too bright shades. It does look a little better in the photo then in real life however.

This is Lipstick Queens Medieval

This one i have been the proud owner of for less then 24 hours at this point and i think it will quite clearly become a favorite; but firstly i have to say this is not a lipstick creme or mat or shimmer or frost or nothing. It's basically a tinted balm that looks like a lipstick. The best comparison i can make is the Revlon Lip Butters BUT this is far less creamy and much closer to a balm or a gloss. It's quite build-able, the photo above is two swipes. It looks a bit intimidating in the tube but is actually a red that anyone can wear. 

Ideally if you're afraid of a bright red on your face making you look like you suffer from Clown Face Syndrome (CFS) this is the best way i can think of to ease into using red lipsticks. The idea behind it is that back in Medieval Times the church would call you a harlot and other nasty things if you wore "obvious make up" so women without the benefit of makeup stores had to find other means to look all sexy and pretty.

Apparently one method was to sting your lips with lemon so that the blood would come to the surface while your lips were thinner from the acid making it show up a brighter red. The same concept if you bit your lips slightly to make them look red but for a bit of a longer lasting effect. This is supposed to mimic that look.

It's made with lots and lots of Vitamin E so it's fairly moisturizing and terrific for a winter lippy.

Plus is came in awesome package;

P.S. This product may be why this post is here today. Just saying.

This is MAC's Cremme de la Femme

I got this because i wanted a MAC lipstick, so sue me.

No really that's the only reason i bought this. I just picked the most rosy looking color (the rest were all nudes) and just went with it. Now i can say i have a MAC lipstick and the other bloggers can't laugh at me. (okay, they probably wouldn't anyway)

However, despite my less the optimum purchasing reasons behind this i actually like it alot, i don't have anything with a frosty look like this and it'ssuper pigmented. The shimmery peachy pink shade is just beautiful and i'm surprised i haven't seen this color talked about much. So far the lasting time seems to be about 2-3 hours but i think that's because it's so very creamy and thick. But once it's gone it leaves a pretty shimmery glittery coat on my lips. A Win.

BTW i bought this at target because like i said before the MAC counters are scary, but they lipsticks seem to be disappearing incredibly fast. I went in two days after this (it was the last one on the shelf)  and all but two nude lipsticks were gone.

My all time favorite Color Fever in Rose Defile

What can i say about this that is not plainly apparent in the picture; it's a dream lipstick. Pigmented, soft, creamy, smooth, moisturizing, long lasting and gorgeous light pink/mauve shade that i just adore. It makes me so incredibly sad that it seems to be discontinued or possibly exiled through time for being too damn good.

Now as i said, i had a story about this particular product and i do;

I got this about two years ago as part of a Christmas present back before i really cared too much about make up and just wanted a good base set so i didn't have too worry about it. So being the uncaring un-makeup person i was, i threw away all the packaging away and moved on.  This lipstick itself does not have any labeling except to say "Rose" on the bottom. It might have also said Color Fever and Defile at some point but over the time I've had it, the name has faded away.

So i used it then and i kept using it because even to my untrained, not understanding make up brain this was absolute awesomeness in a tube (why hasn't anyone named a gloss that?).

So over the past few months I've been getting worried that it's running low and i could not for the life of me remember what brand this was or where the heck is came from. 

Until yesterday, when i went to help my mother buy some of her high end Dior makeup but through a stroke of luck (or destiny) she decided to try the Lancome brand instead (because they did better gift offers). 

So in the care on the way home i was admiring the packing on the pretty lipstick and blush wishing it was all mine. That's when i told mum how pretty the little carved rose on top of the lipstick and blush packaging was.

Then, this morning, when i was setting up my lipsticks to take photos for you guys i noticed the same rose carved into the top of my favorite lipstick of all time! So a bit of quick research (googling) tells me that this is from the Color Fever range in Rose Defile.

Yay...but the story is bitter sweet as the range seems to have been discontinued and once this stick is done i may have to say goodbye to my favorite lipstick forever. Until such a time however i shall continue to search and hopefully find a dupe or see if Lancome has carried the color over to a different line.

As a further testament to it's awesomeness I've had it more then two years, treated it not too gentle and it hasn't suffered any damage, no melting or breaking or cracked container. The only sign of wear is the faded text on the bottom.

Here's a slightly clearer picture of what the shades actually look like; Revlon is a Pink with brown/yellowy undertones. Beauty Queen is a light pink creme. Medieval is a blue tinted red sheer /balm. Cremme De La Femme is a high pigment peachy pink creme that reminds me of NARS Orgasm for the lips, and Color Fever is a yellow tinted pink/mauve creme.

And this is where my lipstics live, i got the container for $7 at Target and it's awesome. This keeps the lipsticks that are newest and most in rotation for me, except the Color Fever which lives in my handbag,

So what's your favorite?