Essence Launches In The UK: A Guide To Essence Cosmetics!

Hello everyone!
In light of the recent news that Essence has launched in various locations around the UK, I thought I would take the opportunity to offer you a comprehensive guide on all things Essence! Essence has been available here in Ireland for as long as I can remember and it's a huge success story. With fans from teens starting off with make-up to seasoned pros, there's something for everyone in their vast collection.
With prices ranging from about €2 to €5, you really can't go wrong. In this post I've just picked some random and favourite pieces of my Essence collection as we'd be here all day if I was to feature every item I own from them!
So without further ado, sit back and read what Essence can offer you!

BASE MAKE-UP 
The pictures included in this section are old ones from my old blog as I am yet to repurchase these products!

• Essence Soft Touch Mousse Foundation, €4.79

Admittedly, when I first bought this foundation I didn't have incredibly high hopes for it - I didn't expect a good quality foundation at such an inexpensive price. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised! It has a soft, fluffy consistency and the coverage is excellent, it can be applied with your fingers for a lighter coverage (which is what I like), or a brush adds a heavier coverage without feeling heavy and cakey. It is a matte finish so I would recommend this for girls who have oily/combo skin. Although it has a matte finish, I would say it gives a beautiful flawless finish that doesn't make your face look one dimensional, like some matte foundations do. At less than €5, I really can't fault this foundation. I had it in the shade 04 Matte Ivory but I felt this was slightly too light for me. So good news for paler ladies - this foundation runs quite light so you should be able to match your skin without any trouble! I'm an NC15/20 in MAC so if you're the same shade as me, look for a shade up in this foundation! 

• Essence Match2Cover Cream Concealer, €3.09

This handy little guy is a great dupe for the Bobbi Brown creamy concealer, in my opinion! You get a concealer on the left for hiding dark circles, and a concealer on the right for disguising blemishes. These are the creamiest, smoothest drugstore concealers I've ever tried! I used them both up completely and they're on my list to repurchase! They cover up blemishes and dark circles completely without creasing or caking. The blemish concealer is great because it doesn't gather around blemishes or look dry on them, likewise with the dark circle concealer. I think this would be a handy little number if you're travelling as it's your two concealer in one tiny palette! 

The one downside to this product is that it only comes in one shade. However if you're lucky enough for it to match your skin tone, you won't regret purchasing it! I'd choose it over some of my high-end concealers any day! 

EYE MAKE-UP

As a self-confessed eye make-up addict, nothing excites me more than the thought of ridiculously cheap, good quality eye products!

• Essence Colour Arts Eye Base & Essence I Heart Stage Eyeshadow Base 

The Essence range offers two different eyeshadow bases - the Colour Arts Eye Base for pigments (left), and the I Heart Stage Eye Base for regular eyeshadow. At €3.09 each, you couldn't leave an Essence stand without one! 

The Colour Arts Eye Base is specially formulated for the application of pigments. It is a transparent, sticky gel that provides a bright effect and lasts all day. It's a bit messy to work with at first but once you get used to the texture it'll completely change the way you apply pigments! I've never seen any eye base like this before so if you can, do pick up a tube! 

The I Heart Stage Eyeshadow Base is my all time favourite eyeshadow primer - I honestly cannot fault anything about it. This is my third tube of it, a tube of it lasts me about a year. This eyeshadow primer has a doe foot applicator and has a colour to it to cover discolouration on the eyelids. It blends so creamy and smooth and blending eyeshadow over it is a dream. As someone with oily eyelids, a good base is vital to me and I don't see myself ever loving a primer as much as I love this one. 

• Essence Eyeliner Pen (€3.09)

This is a felt tip liquid eyeliner, which is great because it allows you to get the intensity of a liquid liner without the struggle of applying it. The nib of this pen is quite thick, but I believe they have brought out a newer version of this that has a much thinner nib, which is great news.  I think this is a great choice for those who aren't too comfortable using liquid or gel liners as these pens give you great control and really allow you to get a good grip, something that liquid liners don't really offer as the handles are usually quite long.

It is definitely a more convenient choice than a gel eyeliner, particularly for travelling, as there is no brush needed and it's a perfect size for throwing in your bag. My worst habit with this little guy is forgetting to replace the cap when I'm finished using it, which results in me having to buy a new one of these much more regularly! At the moment I have a back-up one to keep me going in case of a slip up!

• Essence Big Bright Eyes Highlighting Pencil & Essence Kajal Pencil

 I only bought the Big Bright Eyes Highlighting Pencil recently - I've been all into highlighting recently and at €1.99 I couldn't resist! It's a small pencil that it designed for highlighting the brow bone or tear duct, or it can be used to line the waterline. It comes in three different shades and this one is called Highlight It... Pearly. I love it - it's creamy, easy to blend and gives the most stunning shine to the highlighted area. As you can see from the swatch, it looks quite harsh and scary when you first apply it but once it's blended it looks absolutely beautiful without giving your eyes a disco ball glitter effect.

The Kajal Pencil is a true deep black, as you can see from the swatch. It's a lovely smooth liner, it doesn't drag your eyes and it is smudge-proof. At €1.89, you really can't go wrong.
They have since released more colours of the pencil which I may try and get back to you on!

• Essence Single Eyeshadow & Essence Lash & Brow Gel Mascara

 And to conclude this section of my Essence guide is a single eyeshadow and their brow gel.
To be honest with you, I only own about four single shadows from Essence. The pigmentation is great as you can see on the right - this one is called Shrimp Me Up and it's a beautiful shimmery peach. I bought this with the intention of using it as a blush but I like it more as an eyeshadow, especially for the summer. As you can see from the swatch, it is a nice shade and it does have decent colour pay-off. It feels buttery and has good staying power when on the lids but I don't think the shadows would be my #1 recommendation if you could only choose one item from Essence to buy. They do have a nice colour range - and at only €1.99 I suppose it'll do no harm to have a play with them!

And as for the brow gel - it is my go-to product for setting my brows! There's not really much to say about it apart from that, however it doesn't make your brows too sticky or wet, so that's always a bonus! It'll set you back €2.49.


LIPS 
Now for my favourite part! Essence have got some of the best lip products I've ever tried - they tick all the boxes in terms of colour range, quality and pigmentation. Not to mention the crazy-cheap prices!

• Essence XXXL Lipglosses, €2.49

These glosses were actually my first ever purchase from Essence! Well, not these exact shades - I have since thrown out my old ones and these are some newer ones! I have more of these glosses but these are my favourites. Essence offer these glosses in two finishes - matte and gloss. The matte ones are quite limited as there are only three shades (I have two, a pink and a nude), but their XXXL Shine glosses boast 12 beautiful shades. The three glosses you can see here on the left are, from top to bottom, Velvet Rose, Sparkling Papaya and Peach And Mix. They smell lovely and sweet, and they aren't incredibly sticky as lip glosses go. They also have excellent staying power and are pigmented enough to wear on their own, but also light enough to let a lipstick shine through. The matte ones are my favourites - they are perfection! They aren't drying, they stain your lips to ensure colour for the whole day and they have a gorgeous marshmallow scent! They apply so smoothly and don't patch. My only drawback with the mattes is the lack of colour selection! The matte range only has three = a nude, a pink and a red. These glosses would probably top my Essence favourites list. The shine glosses have such a vast colour selection you are bound to find a shade (or six....) that is perfect for you! 

(top to bottom) Velvet Rose, Sparkling Papaya, Peach And Mix.

• Essence Long Lasting Lipstick, €2.79 & Essence Lip Liner, €1.79 

 The Long Wearing Lipsticks are relatively new to the Essence family, and the shade I have shown here is 09 Wear Berries. This is one of my top 6 lipsticks - I absolutely adore it! It's a muted berry shade that is creamy and opaque with a satin finish. It stays true to its promise of being a long wearing lipstick, and is an absolutely beautiful shade for all year round, but I love it in winter especially. The smell is lovely too, it's not too overbearing and it doesn't leave a taste in your mouth. The range selection with these little guys is quite good - there are 13 shades to choose from, varying between soft nudes and bold pinks and reds.

And as for the lip liner - these are the best lip liners on the market in my opinion! This one here is 07 Cute Pink, and it is such a flattering shade under most pink lipsticks. These are the smoothest, creamiest lip liners I own - they don't drag your lips if you choose to fill in your lips with them, they don't smudge and they're long wearing. To tell you the truth, I would choose these over MAC lip pencils any day! MAC lip liners will set you back €15, these little bad boys won't even set you back €2! Sure where would you get it?!

 NAIL POLISHES

Last but not least in the permanent collection are the Essence Nail Polishes. They cost €1.89 and have the best colour selection I've ever seen on one make-up stand. So here are a few of my favourite picks! 

These swatches on my nails are only one coat of each nail polish.

 They have recently brought out their 'Sand and Sparkle' effects, I have the pink one (seen here) and they are absolutely fantastic!
All their polishes last about 7 days on me without a top coat.

(l-r) Rock N Roll, Fatal, Hello Rosy, You Belong To Me.

As you can see from the swatches on the right, the colours are opaque and shiny. Would you believe that's only one coat of each nail polish?! The pigmentation is beautiful, they really are colour and go polishes - they dry in 60 seconds and are chip resistant. You need to pick up one (or ten) ASAP!

And as a Bonus Jonas, I'm going to show you some pieces from their old limited edition collections. That is one of my favourite things about Essence as a brand - they release collections to coincide with popular movies, themes, etc. for example they released a Twilight collection at the same time the last film was released in 2012, and they had a Justin Bieber collection that was released around the time of his Believe Tour. Obviously none of these items are available any more, but I thought they'd be great to show you so you could get an idea of how much thought goes into their limited edition ranges. They are excellent and are great pieces to add to your make-up collection if the range is in collaboration with someone or something you're interested in.

 So instead of showing you each collection bit by bit, I'm doing it in the same format as above, by eyes, lips and face! I won't go into too much detail as I don't think there's much of a need considering the products are unavailable, so I'll just show you swatches and what collection they're from!

FACE

•  Essence Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection - 'Renesmee Red' Blush
• Essence Justin Bieber Beauty Beats Collection - 'Swaaaag!' Highlighter (favourite name by far)
• Essence OZ The Great And Powerful Collection - 'Beware The Wicked Witch' Cream Blush

Beware The Wicked Witch

Renesmee Red

Swaaag!

     

 EYES

Essence Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection Pigments: A Piece Of Forever (left)
Alice Had A Vision - Again (right)

LIPS

Essence Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection -
Renesmee Red (left)
Alice Had A Vision - Again (right)

NAILS

Essence Snow White Collection - Dopey
Essence Breaking Dawn Collection - Jacob's Protection











And that is the end of my guide to Essence Cosmetics! I hope you enjoyed this post and that it has served you some ideas of what Essence products may be for you. If you'd like any more detail on any of the products mentioned, please let me know!
For those living in the UK, here's a link to the Essence Facebook page so you can see if it is stocked anywhere near you: https://www.facebook.com/essencecosmeticsUK
For anyone else wanting some more Essence news, here's their website: http://www.essence.eu/ie/home/

Thanks for reading! What's your favourite Essence product?!
Zara :-) x