There were like 3 new Essence limited collections at the drugstores at the same time...this is getting a little too time consuming to keep a track of to be honest. I love Essence limited collections tough, I always seem to find some great products in there. And even though I didn't pick up much from the WANTED wild west inspired colleciton, I found myself some gems.
There was a lot in this collection but my eyes fell upon the "fading" ombre cheeks products. There was a fading bronzer and a fading blush in the collection and I thought they look just beautiful. I believe they both cost the same, something around 90 Crowns, which is a fair price. Essence is a very affordable brand in general and they make some great products.
The Essence WANTED sunset dreams fading bronzer has a beautiful ombre transition from a very pale neutral tan to a darker neutral brown. It's more suitable for fair-light skintones for sure. According to its description it's supposed to have a metallic finish for a sunkissed glowing complexion and a super soft texture.
Now, I like glowy bronzers a lot and some of my favorites have a sheen but this bronzer doesn't seem metallic to me at all. I thought it was matte and then I realized it's a little bit sheeny and looks beautiful and healthy on the skin. But it's not metallic, that's not an accurate description at all, that's just gonna scare people off. It's a very creamy texture and I usually dip my brush into both shades and the shade works for me perfectly. It does have a nice sheen but there's no reflexion or glitter on your face. It's something between a contour and a bronzer. The shade is very neutral which I personally love. It's not too warm where you look orange but not leaning grey either. I think I could get away with using this as a pure contour shade.
As you can see in the swatch photo, the lighter side is way more metallic than the darker one. Mixing them both together created a nice medium tone, which is very well built on fair skin. I feel like it's hard to swatch because the brush just picks up both sides of the product differently, but here's a rough estimate of what it looks like.
The Essence WANTED sunset dreams fading blush is also an ombre blush but I was very interested in this because of the shades. Usually the transition is from like peach to coral, or just two tones that really compliment each other. This blush goes from lilac to coral-peach. I just had to know how this works and looks. It's the same texture at the bronzer, it's very creamy and smooth and a little sheeny but not like glitter. It's not overly pigmented so you don't have to worry about applying too much right from the start.
I really like this blush, the coral side is perfect for more warm looks and the lilac is perfect for cool-toned looks. I tried many purple blushes but they always look a little odd on me. This one however looks surprisingly flattering even on my quite pale skin. Even mixed together these blushes work really nice and create a very neutral pink-peach-cool shade. It's hard to describe but I'm a big fan.
The swatches are quite accurate, but it's hard to pick up the pigment the way a blush brush does. I use a very fluffy brush and mixing both sides looks like a lot more even color. In the photo is looks a little patchy and not as pink as it does when you apply it. It's tricky to swatch is but you can tell that it's not patchy or uneven or even overly pigmented.
Here's me wearing both of these products and you know by this point, that taking a photo where you can clearly see the cheeks products is just impossible. Maybe you can tell that I'm wearing something on my cheeks but it just doesn't translate well on camera. I will have to work on this, because it's impossible to show you the finish of these products.
The bronzer applies very well on top of any powder I've tried. The finish is very smooth and it has a slight sheen when you partially dip into the lighter side of it.
The blush applies very well too. It's quite a subtle blush, but you can certainly build it up as much as you want. Here I went for a mixture of both shades in the blush and I really like how they look.
Final thoughts
So, I would love to recommend these, because I feel like these both are way better than other Essence bronzers and blushes I've tried over the past couple years. The pigmentation on these is even, quite sheer but buildable and the price is very fair.
I'm a little more excited about the bronzer, because it's just so perfect in tone for me. I love the sheen it has and it works so well on top of anything I lay down. The same thing with the blush, but honestly I have so many blushes that it's hard to be excited about one. But I really like the lilac tone of one of the sides and I think it's such a nice and versatile product. Both of these would be great for travelling and you get a very nice amount in the pans.
Have you tried the WANTED collection from Essence? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!