Flower Power and Flowerkissed!

It's a well-known fact that Essence is at the top of my all-time favourite cosmetic brand list, so it's no surprise that I've fallen in love with their latest collection!

An appropriately themed spring collection, Blossoms shines with a range of fresh goodies, including two-toned eyeshadows, pastel polishes, a fragrance, powder and two glosses. I chose to take a few pieces home when I spotted them at my local Target store, and thought I'd show them to you today.
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The Blossoms  range is full of pretty products, and the one that stood out to me most was the Multi Colour Powder in 01 Flower Power. Flower Power is an intricately designed daisy patterned powder made up of shades of bronze, pale pink, coral pink with and creamy beige. Slight shimmer runs throughout all of the flowers, with the beige and coral pink containing the most visible shimmer.
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Though I probably didn't 'need' a multi colour powder, it was was too pretty to pass up. It adds a bit of light to your face when you use it, I sometimes dust it all over my face but generally use it as a sheer highlight on cheekbones and along the bridge of my nose. It isn't very pigmented, so looks nice on top of other blushes to give a bit of dimension, too. This powder retails for $5.95AUD and contains 10g.

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The other item I picked up from the collection was the lipgloss in 01 Flowerkissed, which is a candy scented pink gloss in a fun dark musky pink shade.
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It is quite opaque and more pigmented than a lot of the glosses I own,slightly less pigmented when compared to something like the Revlon Colourburst glosses. Long-lasting and not sticky in the slightest, I think you'd be crazy to miss this one.
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It is a long slim tube with a doe foot applicator inside and some beautiful fresh white flowers printed on the outside of the tube. The attention to detail is a testament to the company and their effort amazes me when I see their tiny (and I mean tiny!) price tags.
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This is one of two lipgloss shades available in the collection and retails for a mere $3.50AUD for 4ml. I also grabbed one of the duo eyeshadows but will not review it here as I haven't used it yet.
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The Essence range is now available at Target stores Australia wide, and selected Priceline stores. I am unsure of where this is available internationally, please let me know if you know. Hop onto the Essence AU facebook page to find product images and new release notifications!

A Perfect Pink Duo

Forever on the search for a perfect pink lip option, I recently stumbled upon a combination that is a match made in heaven. My Essence affair continues with their Stay With Me lipgloss in 'Me & My Icecream', which I'm loving layered over L'oreal Colour Riche Serum lipstick in Freshly Candy (these products were also featured here, in my July Favourites)



Essence 'Me and My Icecream'



Swatch on hand

The shade does remind me of strawberry ice cream, and though I don't think this is crazily long lasting, it is decent and lasts the same length of time as my other glosses. On it's own it's slighly milky and looks very sweet, it's something you can put on without a mirror so it's great to stash in your handbag for touch ups. The colour isn't opaque, so I find this to be a great layering gloss for popping on top of a lot of my pink lip shades.



Sturdy packaging, note a sticker on lid



The applicator for this gloss is a bit strange, it has two round sections with a dip in the middle. It applies a good amount of product on your lips when you apply using the dipped section, which looks like this:



Gloss being applied

The reason I point this out is that it's close to being too far into your mouth, almost as if you are eating the product. If you tilt it, it's not really a bother though. I tend to use the end of the applicator more often than not, and it's a lot more comfortable than I thought the round tip against the lip would be. Something I dislike about it? That the shade name is only mentioned on the sticker on the gloss lid. I like my makeup to look as best as it possibly can, but I can't take the stickers off for fear of forgetting the shade names!



Freshly Candy swatch, Essence swatch, then them both layered

I adore L'Oreal's Colour Riche Serum formulation, but sometimes feel that they are just a little too creamy for everyday. I love the way 'Me & My Icecream' tones down the lipstick formulation, and makes it much more wearable. The duo still looks nice and creamy, though, which is nice. Sadly, I'm a silly beauty blogger and neglected to take a snap of myself wearing Freshly Candy on it's own, so will post this sometime soon for you. This is what the two pink products create together:



The finished look!

This look is great to pair with smoky eyes, but I've also worn it on lazy days with nothing but a sweep of taupe shadow on my lids. I'm really enjoying the Essence glosses, so much so that I've been picking a new shade up each week! They retail for $3.95, so it's really hard to resist! The L'Oreal lippies are $26.95 and are available where you usually buy your L'Oreal.

Have you tried something similar to this combo that I could try?

Have you tried either of this pink prodz?

emmabovary xx