Essence always comes up with something new and I'm ALWAYS here for it! I truly love this brand so much. Their new launches get me really excited and now they focused on sensitive skin.
The new Essence Skin Lovin' Sentive Concealer is a lightweight, covering and caring, non-comedogenic concealer. It contains aloe vera and it's free of parabens, silicones, fragrance, alcohol and mineral oils. It has medium to high buildable coverage and it's suitable for sensitive skin. There are 3 shades on the website, which is just terrible. I have the shade 05 Fair which is the lightest. It comes in a classical concealer packaging where you get 3.5ml of product. It has a flat flexible wand. It retails for around 100 Crowns.
The Essence Skin Lovin' Sensitive Mineral Powder is a blurring and mattifying pressed powder. It's formulated with aloe vera and it's also non-comedogenic and free of fragrance, parabens, alcohol, silicones and mineral oils. It comes in one shade - Translucent and you get 9g of product. It comes in a mint compact with a transparent lid and it retails for around 100 Crowns.
The concealer is a very nice and lightweight texture and just glides on really well. I don't find it great for layering but I don't tend to build up my concealer anyway. I am a little disappointed by the shade range, even the two shades 05 Fair and 10 Light looked exactly the same in the store and that's 2 out of 3.
I am happy that the powder is translucent. It looks like it has a tint to it so it's harder to tell if it's really translucent. It seems to be very finely mild which is not usual for pressed powders. Since it's a mineral powder it probably won't be super mattifying, at least I always find that to be the case.
Wear test
Day 1 - concealer + powder
I decided to first wear test both of these products together because they are supposed to work together for sure. I am a big fan of the concealer because it blends so well and looks so natural but has a decent coverage and highlights really well too. I blended it out with my Zoeva concealer brush and it worked really nicely.
The powder was the only powder I've used today. I usually use multiple powders for different parts of my face but today I just went in with this one. It's not very matte which I actually like because you get that nice natural finish and not a flat matte one. Under the eyes it also worked really well and didn't look too dark. It is supposed to be translucent and even though is looks a little pigmented in the pan, I really think it's translucent because it didn't cover up my cream blush and bronzer at all.
Wear time 10.5 hours
So let's look at the concealer first. There's no separation or weird texture where I applied the concealer to highlight, it lasted well just like the foundation would by itself. Under my eyes it's looking a little textured and dry as it's usually the case. One thing that I have to note is that I believe the powder might be too matte to be used as an undereye powder.
When I applied the powder to set the foundation I thought it's not matte enough and my face felt a little more tacky than I like. However, through the day the powder started to settle down and now my face feels more matte. And I wore a very hydrating tinted balm foundation today, so I am still not looking dry at all. I am a little more matte than expected. I quite like that though because it's keeping the base together after hours of wear and my face doesn't feel sticky at all.
Also, I wore a mask for about 2 hours prior to ending this wear test so I believe that the lasting power of that powder is pretty good. I don't see any missing patches of foundation at all. I will have to look more into it though.
Day 2 - just powder
I decided to test this powder by itself so it's a little more independent of the concealer formula. It's a very fine powder but it doesn't mattify a lot. I used it with my Sephora foundation which is very skin-like. I applied the powder with a parge powder brush. I first just packed it on but light buffing works a lot better for me and did set the makeup a bit better. I didn't use it under my eyes because I usually reach for one of my designated under-eye powders.
Wear time 10.5 hours
I spent a lot of time today wearing a mask and that's just a makeup battle no powder can win. There's quite a bit of separation around my nose, under my eyes and on my chin where the mask touches my face. That's very normal these day. What I do like is that my face in all the other areas looks really smooth, matte but not dry and flat. I really enjoy the finish of this Essence powder. I also think that it lasted really well considering I was sweating quite a bit in my mask on a walk.
Day 3 - just concealer
Today, I decided to test out the concealer by itself with a set of trusted products. I blended it out with a sponge and it applied really nicely and smoothly. The coverage is lower with a sponge for sure but I think I prefer the finish of the sponge application. I used the concealer under my eyes, on my forehead, nose and chin and I usually do. It's a great pale highlighting shade. It blended really well with the base and it seems to be working just fine with the powder I used.
Wear time 9.5 hours
First of all, I am very happy that my undereyes aren't dry at all. The concealer actually stayed pretty intacked there. My T-zone and places where I highlighted also look pretty nice. I don't see any major separation. Of course, I wore a mask today so there is a little weird bit here and there when I look really up close. But overall, I am impressed.
Final thoughts
After testing the products together and by itself a couple times I decided to end this review on a good note. I really like both of these products...just not really together. They are very affordable which is great and they also work really well.
The concealer is very creamy and blendable. It doesn't have full coverage so you cannot count on it for that and I find it a little hard to build. But it has beautiful finish and doesn't dry my skin out anywhere, not even under my eyes! The shade range is a little too small and some of the shades look very similar but the formula is nice and I like for a quick everyday Zoom meeting look.
The powder is very nice as well I just didn't enjoy it with this concealer. Otherwise I love it and especially with my semi-matte and matte foundations it sets them but doesn't add any more dryness. I prefer buffing it in which has to be done carefuly otherwise it can take of coverage. But it works like a charm and it's very finely mild powder that doesn't leave a cast, sets the makeup well, looks like skin and I would say it's suitable for any skin type. Not sure about every skintone because it claims to be translucent but I'm not sure if it actually is. However, when I use creams underneath the pigmentation usually stays the same after I apply this powder so maybe it is pretty translucent afterall.
I would recommend both of these products because for the price you get some great everyday products for sentive skin and if you have sensitive eyes like me, you will appreciate that.
Have you tried the new Essence range for sensitive skin? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!