Many people still see Essence as the "kids" brand. They are one of the cheapest brands in every drugstore and their packaging is pretty youthfull looking and playfull. I get why would you think that, but not buying their products because of that would be just plain stupid. They come up with some incredible things!
Since a couple years ago Essence really stepped up their game and they come up with new products all the time. The quality has gone up and the prices are still the same and very wallet friendly. The Essence Choose Your Glow Highlighter Pallete is my newest Essence item and even though I own about a milion highlighters, something about these just felt like I need them. Let's figure out why and if they're really worth it.
First, let's talk packaging. Essence packaging has gone through a lot and what we have now is just beautiful most of the time. This pallete comes in a very good quality feeling cardboard box and a very good quality mirror. I like the shape of the box, it's slightly rissen because the highlighters are pretty high up, so they don't get smashed and stay protected. There are three highlighters, in total they're 18g and the pallete costs 129 Crowns. That's like for free consireding you get three highlighters.
All Essence products are cruelty-free and this one is also vegan. There are three shades Candlelit glow, Major glow and Summer glow. Usually, highlighter palletes have different shades for different skin tones. It feels to me, that this pallete is built in a little different way.
According to the description, the Candlelit glow is a rose nude shade which gives your everyday look natural radiance, subtle glow and luminescent finish. Major glow has a high shine metallic finish. And Summer glow adds a touch of sun and warm highlight to the skin. All three of them are a pressed powder formula.
It sounds like everyone can use all three of them depending on the occasion and I really like this approach. I'm honestly a little sick of palletes, where I cannot use half of the shades because they're too dark for me. I'm pretty sure it's the same the other way round. There's only one version of this pallete if I'm correct, so I'm not sure if the base is transparent, so everyone can use them or if they're just meant for the light-medium skin tones.
Just looking at them, it lookes like the only shade I won't be able to use fully as a highlighter is the Summer glow. It's too deep for me to wear it on the cheekbones, however it might be a nice bronzer topper. Major glow and Candlelit glow are both very beautiful and I think I'll be able to use them as a regular highlighter.
Demo
I thought that swatches may not be fully enouhg, because highlighters usually look way different on the face than they look swatched. It's also very difficult to capture a highlighter well on camera, but I will try my best to do so.
Also I'd like to mention that all the highlighters are super soft and a little goes a very long way. I went a little ham in these demo pictures so you can really see it, but you just need a tiny bit. I applied them on bare skin, because fussing around with redoing my foundation all the time is just too much work.
Candlelit glow is a rose-toned (but not pink) beautiful subtle glowy shade. It's buildable and you can totally build it up to Major glow level, but it's a nice soft highlighter if you apply just a little bit. It has a slightly cool undertone and it looks incredible. I think this is my favorite shade.
Major glow packs more of a punch but it's very metallic and not shimmery or glittery. It's a nice pale gold, the tone seems very unique to me and I don't think I have a highlighter like this in my collection.
Summer glow creates a dark cast on my skin when I apply it as a highlighter, but if you have deeper skintone than me or if you like glowy bronzer topper, this might be great for you. It's still very beautiflul and blinding of you build it up.
In the photos they look very similar and they all have a similar glowy smooth soft texture. But in the first photo you can tell that Candlelit glow is not as blinding. Major glow was very hard to take a photo of because it was literally blinding my camera. And the Summer glow looks very intense, because it's packed with pigment and it looks more visible on my face because it's too dark.
Final thoughts
Would I recommend this pallete? Absolutelly. I feel like there's everything you need for every look, since there's a great balance of cold and warmth in every shade. If you're pale like me, you'll be probably able to use 2 shades as proper highlighters and one for whatever, but I think that for the price, it's incredible deal. I wonder if this pallete works for deeper skintones as well and if not, I'd love to see more versions of this pallete for different skin tones, because the formula is out of this world. This really feels like incredible high end highlighters in the texture.
I really enjoy this pallete and let me know if you like Essence products as well in the comments. Thanks for reading!