Today is the official start of my festive content which will be staggered over the next few months. October is literally days away, and I can’t wait to share lots of amazing Christmas sets and gifts with you. The Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 was something I bought the minute I saw it on sale within the UK, and I’ve also purchased a couple of other beauty advents to showcase here on my blog in the coming weeks. I’ve already done an unboxing on the epic Lookfantastic Advent Calendar 2020, but this is all about the budget friendly Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020.
Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020
The Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 is only £19.99 which I think is amazing for an advent calendar. Many brands charge £20, and fill the calendar with gimmicky fillers such as hair scrunchies and hair ties, but this advent calendar is a fantastic deal.
It’s different to other advent calendars which feature perforated doors or drawers, because the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 comes in a big box, with a sheet of numbered stickers from one to twenty four, as well as twenty four cute paper bags in four different designs.
With the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020, you’re getting to choose which products you want for each day, and you simply put the product in one of the paper bags, and then add a number sticker to say which date of Advent the product will be for. I think this particular format is great if you’re doing an advent for another person as a gift, as you can customise the products and surprise them each day.
As a blogger, I purchased the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 because for £19.99, you’re getting 24 Essence products, which I can then review on my blog, so that’s potentially 24 blog posts worth of content for £20 – working out at 83 pence per product – amazing or what? I’m not going to number up the bags, as I’m going ton start testing the products, but for £20 it’s an amazing calendar, and wait until you see what’s inside.
I am going to be sharing the contents inside the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 from this point onwards. If you don’t want to know what’s inside this calendar, please don’t read past this point to avoid any spoilers.
The Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 comes in a red and white striped box, with the 24 products loose inside alongside the 24 paper gift bags and the sticker sheet. What impressed me the most with this Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020, is that it has full sized products with maybe only one or two ‘filler’ type gifts. Essence did this style of advent calendar last year, but it sold out before I could purchase it, so I wasn’t going to make that mistake again…
I am going to share all 24 products with you in a random order, and you can choose which products you want for each day. The first product within the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 is the Essence Pure Nude Sunlighter Highlighter which contains 8g of product, and is a baked highlighter powder.
I’ve heard so much about the Essence Pure Nude Highlighter, but it’s never launched in the UK which is so annoying. This is the bronze version of the highlighter, which on my skintone would work as a bronzer. This one product alone is $5, and would be around £5 if it was in the UK.
There are three nail polish products within the calendar, with two shades of the Essence Glitter On Glitter Off Peel Off Nail Polishes in the shades Put a Ring On It and Party Queen. One is a fuchsia pink glitter in a clear base, and the other is a straight up silver glitter in a clear base. In addition to the two glittery polishes, there’s also the Essence Glow In The Dark Top Coat, which is a fun addition to the calendar. Again this top coat isn’t available in the UK, so this advent calendar is a great way to get hold of some products which aren’t UK Essence products.
The next product in the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 are the Essence Lash On Lash Off Volumizing Magnetic Accent Lashes, which are reusable magnetic lashes that require zero lash glue. These lashes alone are £5.99, so you’re getting 23 more products for £14 which is crazy.
Then we have the Essence Matt Touch Blush in the shade Peach Me Up 10, which is a very pretty peachy pink matte hue. I have had this shade before, and the Matt Touch Blush formula is lovely, and long lasting on the skin. I am looking forward to trying the Essence Prime + Studio HD Hydra Primer Spray, which is a coconut water infused mist that primes, sets and refreshes makeup all in one.
The next product in the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 is a mascara, and I love Essence mascaras. This mascara is the Essence Instant Volume Boost Mascara, which is a product I reviewed back in 2017, so I’m happy to have it back in my life.
Everyone raves about the Essence Matt Matt Matt Longlasting Lip Gloss, and the shade 02 Beauty-Approved is included within the calendar. It looks like a peachy nude, and is really pretty. The Essence Crystal Wet Look Lip Gloss in the shade 01 Bright Diamond is also included, which is more an iridescent lip topper than a gloss.
Essence liners really are amazing, and they’ve included the Essence Super Lash Eyeliner in Matt Black within the advent calendar. It’s an inkwell type eyeliner, with a very fine liner brush.
The Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 includes three products which are designed to work together as a lip treatment. The Essence My Beauty Lip Ritual includes Step 1 which is a scrub, Step 2 which is a mask and then Step 3 is a primer. It’s strange that step 2 isn’t a proper product, as it’s just a sachet but the other two products look great.
There’s another three products within the advent calendar; the Essence Colour Up Shine On Lipstick in the shade 08 Flaming Red, which is the perfect festive red lip colour. There’s the Essence Plumping Nudes Lip Gloss in the shade 05 Bold Love, and lastly the Essence Draw The Line! Retractable Lip Pencil in the shade 05 So Un-grey-tful. The plumping gloss and lip pencil look like they’d go together quite nicely.
The next two products are more beauty tools than makeup products, and are the Essence Short Blender Brush which is a lovely, fluffy eyeshadow blending brush. Plus the Essence Rose Wood Sticks, for cleaning up your cuticles.
Another product for the nails, is the Essence Sapphire File, and there’s also the Essence Time To Wake Up Face Sheet Mask. I had no idea that Essence even had sheet masks? In the UK we get only a tiny amount of the Essence products which is such a shame, but it’ll be interesting to see if their masks are any good?
My least two favourite items in the Essence DIY Advent Calendar are these two. There’s the Essence Bracelet Nail Stickers, which are cute little black, white and gold nail stickers with little gems to place over the top of your nail polish. Then the other boring product is the Essence Style Your Wing Cut Out Eyeliner Tool, which is a plastic disc for placing next to your eye as a stencil for helping you draw eyeliner wings.
The last product within the Essence DIY Advent Calendar 2020 is the biggest product from the whole set, and it’s the Essence Follow Your Heart Eyeshadow Palette which I guess is designed to be the best gift on day 24 of the advent calendar. It’s a nine pan, neutral eyeshadow palette and it looks so pretty. This palette is £6.99, which is crazy when the whole calendar is £19.99, but it’s a great gift to receive on Christmas Eve.
So that’s the entirety of the Essence DIY Advent Calendar. I am so impressed with it, and the contents are so varied with a nice mix of shades. I can’t believe it’s only £19.99, for full sized Essence products, and whilst I wasn’t in love with the tiny sachet of lip mask, the rest of the products are great and I cannot recommend this advent calendar enough, if you’re looking for a more affordable advent calendar option.
You can find the Essence DIY Advent Calendar right here.
*This post was also posted on MakeupMuddle.com which is my other beauty blog*
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