With ending summer, we're getting so many new things in the stores. Not only does Sephora keep coming up with new brands out of nowhere, but there's a lot of new in the drugstores as well. One thing that just caught my attention was this ADORABLE Essence collection.
You probably know Essence, for many people it's almost a kid's brand with toy makeup, because it's really cheap and has really playful packaging. For me, it's a brand I never gave up on, no matter what. To be honest, their makeup game has been changing so much in the past two years, I am glad I never stopped trying out their new products, because now, they're on point.
They really got a lot better with time, and that's why I decided to put some money into this collection. Also, because PAC-MAN! I know, that Wet n Wild has a PAC-MAN collection going on right now as well and it also looks very cute, but we don't have Wet n Wild here in Czech Republic and in most of Europe, if I'm correct. So there's at least this collection to play with.
There's quite a lot in this collection. I assume, it's limited, so go and grab it as soon as you can, if you want any of these products. I didn't buy everything, I just got what I thought I might like and use, because I have a lot of makeup already, I don't need to be hording too much more really.
There are two baked highlighters, eyeshadow pallete, face brush, blush pallete, eye mask and a lip balm. I don't remember all the prices, just the prices of the items I got, but the collection is very unexpensive, just like Essence products tend to be. Let's dive into what I think about these.
Lip Balm
I don't remember the price of this one, but it was somewhere bellow 90 Crowns for sure. I wouldn't spend too much on a lip balm anyway. However, this one is color changing, which I never had and I just wanted to try it. It turns mauve - purple on me after a few minutes and it's quite opaque and hard to take off, so I use it more in the evening and when I don't really mind a stain on my lips. It's a very nice color and it smells like apples and the packaging is just adorable. However, I don't think it's a necesarry purchase from this collection. I just thought it's a fun item.
Highlighter | 99 Crowns
I've heard a lot about Essence baked highlighters, but the baked formula was never available in Czech Republic. Well, until now. There are two shades, one of pure golden and the other one if more cool toned gold/pink, a very basic pretty highlighter color. A color that I don't own at all. From the first time I swatched it, I fell in love. It's one of my favorite highlighters now, because it just looks great with everything. It's so reflective, very smooth on the skin and it doesn't make your texture too bad. It's just a perfect everyday, every occasion, every look highlighter. There's also a lot of it, so it will probably last for a while. I am still a little into the idea of getting the gold one as well, because I don't really have a pure gold highlighter and it may come in handy.
Brush | 89 Crowns
There's never really enough brushes and Essence actually makes my favorite brushes I own. Every single brush I have from them is just my everyday brush and I use them all the time. This one looks very versatile, I use it mostly to set my face because it does less mess than my fluffy powder brush. It's very nice and quite dense and doesn't fluff powder everywhere. It's also very good quality, very soft and the soft touch handle with the PAC-MAN design is just everything to me. I recommend it if you have use for it, because it's probably good for bronzing, or really applying any powder products.
Eyeshadow Pallete | 184 Crowns
I gave Essence's eyeshadows so many chances and usually, I wasn't too happy about them. The newest palletes they did were OK, but not great and the dustiness of the shadows was somehow never compensated with the pigmentation. So they were very dusty but there was no real pigment going on. My favorite Essence pallete is actually one of the first eyeshadow palletes I've ever bought, and it's full of creamy goldtoned shimmers. Everything after than wasn't a sucess, but this one is a whole different story.
The color selection isn't really my cup of tea, but since I never go for these colors, I don't even own a warm toned pallete like this, so I decided to get it. Let's not lie, I totally bought it just for the packaging. The PAC-MAN maze on the front with an actual MOVING PAC-MAN? Are you kidding me? I had to have that. You shake the pallete and the PAC-MAN moves, I don't know which genius came up with that, but that's a Nobel Price material right there. I love it so much.
Besides from the packaging, I actually tried the eyeshadows and I was very surprised. The are a little bit dusty, Essence still has a very soft dusty formula, but the pigment is there like never before. The shimmers aren't as impressive, we live in a pressed glitter and foiled pigment days, but they are very nice. I like that you get three mattes and five shimmers, from which one is a perfect inner corner highlight. This selection was well designed, in my opinion. The pans are nicely sized, I like that they are big and square and take up majority of the pallete. I am missing a mirror a little bit, because it would fit so well into the lid. However, I understand, that it would probably higher the price and it's not really something people care about as much these days.
To be honest, this is probably the best Esssence eyeshadow pallete I've even seen and worked with and I'm really glad I got it. I feel like their limited edition palletes are always way better than the standard ones. And this one was definetly a good purchase.
The eyeshadows really remind me of the Zoeva formula. They don't swatch too good as well and the mattes are very soft and blendable but a little dusty. But overall, at the end you get a beautiful look and the shadows blend incredibly. This is the exact same story.
The medium brown shimmer is actually more a metallic with glitter type of a thing and the two lightest shimmers are very reflective and smooth. I think that overall, even though the shimmers don't look like too much, they are very nice and pretty impressive.
Final thoughts
Overall, I really like this collection. The packaging is very on point and fun a pretty. If you're obsessed with retro gaming like I am, you probably already bought it the minute you saw it. However, even if you're not, the highlighter and eyeshadow pallete are totally worth the money. I haven't tried the blush pallete, but to be honest, Essence blush palletes have always been great, so I would look into that one as well, if I were you.
Have you bought anything from this beautiful PAC-MAN collection? If so, let me know down in the comments how do you like it and thanks for reading!
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