I love Essence. It’s as simple as that. I love how frequently they launch new trend collections, and everything is extremely affordable yet really good quality too and if I had to choose just one budget drugstore brand, it’d be Essence.
I always like to keep an eye out for new releases on the Essence website in their new products section to get a sneaky peek at what’s going to be gracing the shelves of Wilko and when I saw the brand new Essence The Velvets Eyeshadows, I knew I’d need to order multiple shades as they sounded very promising. Essence are stocked in larger Wilko stores but I always find their ranges instore to be a little hit and miss, so I personally prefer to order online, especially as Wilko offer a free click and collect service.
The Essence The Velvets Eyeshadows are solo eyeshadows in a total of nine shades; all of which are quite muted in tone, and cost £1.50 each and contain 2.8g of product. I chose five of the shades from the range, but I could have easily chosen all nine as they’re all such pretty shades. Each of the eyeshadows feature a raised, woven design which I really like as I feel like eyeshadows with a raised design are generally quite pigmented and these are possibly the most pigmented Essence eyeshadows I’ve tried so far.
Smooth Caramel 03: This shade is the palest of shades I bought and as it doesn’t show up as any colour at all on my pale skin tone, I’ve been using it as my setting powder for my eyeshadow primer by dusting over the top of my primer before using other eyeshadows. I always find eyeshadows blend a little better (any brand not just Essence), when I use a powder or powder eyeshadow to set my primer in my place and it takes away any tackiness that’s perhaps left behind by the primer.
Taupe Secret 05: This is a pale, cool toned brown which I’ve gotten a lot of use of as I think it makes for the perfect crease shade for cool eyeshadow looks but to be honest, all of the shades I bought apart from Smooth Caramel work well as transition shade as they have such a smooth and creamy texture. This shade might double up as a brow shade for those with light blonde hair as it’s nice and ashy in tone.
Mr Mocca-Bean 06: I was really impressed with the pigmentation and smoothness of this shade, and I have been using it as both an eyeshadow and my brow powder shade.
You Better Mauve! 07: This is a pretty deep purple shade which is another one which is super soft and smooth.
Coral Me Maybe 08: It’s a peachy pink shade which is a little chalkier than the other shades and it has a subtle sheen which the other shades don’t have as they’re all matte.
Overall I am so impressed with the Essence The Velvets Eyeshadows, and I’m now dying to get my hands on the other four shades as I like these five so much. They’re very soft, creamy and pigmented and they’re easy to apply and blend with little fallout. In my opinion, there’s nothing not to like and for £1.50 they really are a fantastic find.
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