the power of a pretty essence blush // limited edition blushes

For a blush fiend like me, the lure of a limited edition blush is often too hard to resist. When the price of a blush is on par with a large skinny flat white from Michel’s Patisserie, any strength I might have had against the purchase is completely dissolved.

essence are constantly coming out with strong limited edition collections, with most blushes sitting around the $5 mark in each release. Wonderful for those on a budget or who are only just getting into blush, the pans are generally decent quality and the designs really unique and pleasing to look at. They aren’t overly pigmented, which should suit those with a fear of clown cheeks, and makes it a lot easier to work with for blush beginners.

The essence Marble Mania blush in Swirlpool is my favourite blush release from the brand thus far, and though it now looks a bit tired thanks to the build-up atop the powder, the performance is still going strong and it gives a great berry toned glow to the cheek. My least used essence blushes would have to be the lip & cheek crème’s from the Ready for Boarding collection, in 01 Sending You Kisses and 02 Beauty on Tour. Though I love the small pan packaging and aesthetic of this collection, I consistently reach for my YSL Crème de Blush pots over this, and we all know that YSL is too big a brand to compete with (especially in cream blush stakes, where they really dominate!)

In terms of pure pan P0rn, the Home Sweet Home collection saw the prettiest pan releases for essence. Inspired by a knitted jumper design, 01 Knits for Chicks and 02 Wool-D You Cuddle Me? Are just stunning to look at, and the pigmentation is quite decent as well.  The Cherry Blossom Girl collection and the Asian Sensation blush is a very pretty one, but lacks the punchy pigmentation I tend to prefer in a blush pan.

What features do you look for in a blush?

Luxe or affordable?

Plain or patterned?

Do you struggle to stick to one blush shade, or do you use the same colour every day?

 

*I purchased all of this myself. Beauty blogger blush problems!

Cheeky April Purchases

I was a little better with shopping this month, though I did go way overboard in the nail polish section…for some reason I feel less guilt when I buy polishes, so even though I bought a lot I’m happy to say that most of the nail polishes were on sale!

I’d been lusting over the newly released Dior Addict glosses that have been reformulated and Chris decided to treat me to Princess to celebrate my first few weeks of student teaching. The Dior lady was lovely and let me try on a few of the shades before I settled on Princess, and threw in a stack of fragrance samples for us to try! I will definitely be returning to purchase from her from now on, a great Myer experience can sometimes be hard to find. I posted about my essence haul here, and I’m loving the two beautiful blushes that I picked up.

The essence shadow is a matte white that I picked up to use as a brow bone shade, and I’ve been using it every day to blend out my eyeshadow. The Rimmel Match Perfection cream gel was a score from Cosmetics Direct, it was on sale for $8 as it has sadly been discontinued. I’m hoping to make a stockpile of these as it is my very favourite foundation formula, and I also picked up a nude NYC lipgloss which is floating in a handbag somewhere!

It is quite evident that nail polish was my weakness this month, with far too many bottles entering my collection. At this rate, I’ll need a Helmer (or two!) to store them all! I was struck by the Covergirl polish in Midnight Magic and took it home with me as soon as I came across the newly launched stand. Sadly they are now BOGO so I missed out in that respect, but I am still happy to have had this little guy come home with me.

The OPI polishes weren’t purchased by me, but came to me by way of a voucher I won from MyHairCare.com on Don’t They Know Who I Am? I had my eye on a few of the new OPI collections and so chose to grab a shade from each to satisfy my polish appetite. I hardly ever treat myself to OPI (since they are $20 a bottle here) and so I was elated to get my hands on Which is Witch from the Oz collection, You’re Such a Budapest from the Euro Centrale collection and Pink Yet Lavender from the Mariah Carey launch. The rest of the loot are a mixture of Priceline's 40% sale and some gifts from Chris.

 

I am a huge fan of the Bloom nail polish formulation, so when I spotted the stand selling for $0.83c a piece, I jumped in and filled up my basket! A stack of ‘similar in the bottle but different on the nail’ shades came home with me, and I’m excited to use the lighter shades to brighten up some of my dark winter outfits as well. I love that these are all named after places around the world, and I hope that these are just discontinued shades and that Target aren’t pulling the brand from their stores (like they have with Australis, sadly!)

 A few random buys to round off the month! An Olay Touch of Sun face lotion and a terrible Rexona parallel import from The Reject Shop, along with a beautiful faceted bead statement necklace from Diva. I’ve been eyeing off a similar piece from Lovisa that refuses to go on sale, so I snapped this one up to wear while I wait.

What did you purchase in April?

 

 

 

Home Sweet Home // essence Winter collection // Photos, Swatches, Review

 

My love for the affordable German cosmetics brand essence has been well documented on this blog, and with each new collection my love seems to grow. The new Home Sweet Home collection has a distinctively wintery theme to it, which suits the rain and grey skies that Melbourne has been treating us to lately. I prefer cold weather in general, warm knits and boots are my thing and so when I saw the knitted embossing on the powders my heart just soared.

 

I usually only pick a few select items from a new collection as I have to keep my budget in mind, but the low prices of essence products make it hard to stop at just one or two pieces. The two blushes are so beautiful and are worthy of entering my blush drawer on looks alone, to be honest. I love the orange and hot pink mix of 02 Wool-D You Cuddle Me? but my favourite would have to be the pale pink and deep pink mix of 01 Knits For Chicks.

 

 

As with the other essence blushes I have tried in the past, these are a touch more chalky than I would like, but for the price I really don’t mind the formula at all. The colour lasts quite a while on the cheek, though naturally they don’t have the lasting power of a blush powder from the likes of Chanel or Tarte.

 

Now that I’ve gotten the hang of wearing neutral and brown shadows more often, I decided to pick up the chocolate shade along with the pale pink shadow. I plan on using the pale pink as a soft highlight, which is a tip I picked up from the beautiful Vita. The 3 eyeshadows from this collection are 01 Happy Couching, 02 Light the Fire, Place! and 03 My Home is my Castle.



blushes (individual stripes, then whole pan mixed) // eyeshadows



Though I liked the look of all 4 polishes from this collection, I was selective and really thought about which shade I would cherish the most. Hot Fruit Punch is a raspberry red and the berry twist in it really suits my colouring. I tend to wear these sorts of reds more than the fire engine varieties, so am happy to see more berry polishes coming out in stores.

 

What do you think of the wintery feel of this collection? What would you most like to see used in a makeup look?

 

*I personally purchased all of these items. Honesty, always.