Essence Fresh and Fit Awake Primer – AMAZING Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow Dupe!

I’m going to start this post on a slight negative but I find the overuse of the word “dupe” to be really annoying. Everyone is desperate to label anything a dupe even when they’re just similar, when a genuine dupe is a product which performs the same, is the same shade or has the same formula as another product. I love a good dupe but only when it’s a real dupe, and for example just because a mascara has a similar shaped wand to another mascara, it doesn’t make it a dupe. My favourite kind of dupes are those you discover accidentally and that happened with the Essence Fresh and Fit Awake Primer and the Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow Primer.

I probably would never have stumbled across this dupe normally, but I just so happened to photograph each product within an hour of eachother and noticed they were similar in many ways so I decided I really need to test them against eachother to see if they were indeed a dupe. There’s £35 difference between the two, read on to find out if this Essence Primer is a Charlotte Tilbury dupe?…

Packaging Comparison

The Essence primer is packaged within a squeezy plastic tube, is nude in colour with a black screw lid. Once you unscrew the lid, the tube has a hole which the primer squeezes out. It’s very simple packaging but it’s a very affordable primer, and I think the packaging looks pretty sleek considering how affordable it is. 

The Charlotte Tilbury primer is in a sample size from a set, and the full size is a lot more luxurious like you’d expect considering the full size is almost £40. The packaging is still a plastic tube, but it has pretty rose gold accent details and a rose gold metallic lid.

I like that both primers are in plastic bottles as they’d both work well in a makeup bag, and they’re both under the 100ml liquids limit when travelling with liquids in your hand luggage. Some brands when they try and ‘dupe’ brands (cough Makeup Revolution) try and rip off the higher end brand’s packaging but that’s not the case with this primer.

The full size CT primer has a clear bottle, whereas the Essence primer has a nude coloured bottle. Just looking at the two primers, you wouldn’t think they’d be potential dupes which is why I’m so happy to discover their formulas are extremely similar. 

The Essence Fresh and Fit Awake Primer is a brand new launch as part of the Essence Autumn and Winter 2017 Collection, and is £3.50 from Wilko and contains 30ml of product.

It is described as containing light reflecting pigments for a pore minimising effect, with a vitamin complex and cranberry water. It also claims to extend the weartime of your makeup as well as creating a smoother, fresher complexion.

The Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow Instant Soft Focus Beauty Flash is £38.50 for 40ml from the Charlotte Tilbury website and is one of their bestselling, award winning products. It can be used under foundation or worn alone and has an illuminating effect on the skin with soft focus ceramic microspheres for a flawless, poreless complexion. It’s a product which is raved about so much within the beauty community and until now I don’t believe there has been a dupe for this formula. 

I’ve included three different swatch photos – the first shows the primers when they’re first squeezed from their tubes, the second shows each primer being blended into the skin whilst the third photo shows both primers being fully blended into the skin.

In the first two photos the colour difference is quite noticeable, with the Essence Fresh and Fit Awake Primer being a light peach colour whilst the Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow is a bronze colour, but both have pearlescent effect. When the two primers are fully blended into the skin, there is almost no difference whatsoever in the swatch photo above.

I have applied each primer to one half of my face numerous times, and you absolutely cannot tell which is which when on the face, as they’re visually identical with the same luminous glow and blurring abilities.

They have identical consistencies in that they’re both lightweight lotions which absorb quickly and leave no greasiness on the skin. One difference between the two is the scent as Wonder Glow has a subtle rose scent whereas Fresh & Fit has a subtle generic floral scent which I actually prefer as I don’t like rose scents but they’re both extremely subtle and not at all noticeable when on the skin. They both leave the skin very dewy, soft and luminous and they both have a subtle blurring effect on the skin.

Apart from the differing scents, I hand on heart cannot find any other differences between them – the Essence Fresh and Fit Awake Primer is an AMAZING dupe for the Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow and even their ingredients are similar so I don’t think this was an accidental dupe on Essence’s part.

I love the Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow, but the Essence dupe is fantastic and I’m so excited to have found it as the Essence primer is £35 cheaper than the Wonder Glow, and I’d much rather use the £35 to spend on some of the other gorgeous Charlotte Tilbury products.

What do you think of this amazing Essence Fresh and Fit Awake Primer as a Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow dupe?

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