Essence Stays no matter what eye pencil & shadow

I'm having a tiny bit of an love affair with Essence right now, but its just so refreshing to see such an extensive range of products from a budget brand. Today I'm going to be showing you these Stays no matter what eye pencil & shadow sticks*. I was originally introduced to these by the make up artist doing my make up at the Essence event, she used the purple shade on my eyes and insisted I try the other three. 

I have four shades; Gorgeous Grey, Cute Copper, Green Garden and Powerful Purple. All four come in the same crayon style packaging meaning they can be used as either an eyeliner or a shadow. I love that this corresponds to the shade of eye pencil inside meaning its super easy to find the one I want.

While trying these eye pencils out I found that they weren't the easiest shadows to blend, and once the eyeshadow has set there's no moving it. To be honest I regard this as a good thing, as this kind of formula means the shadow was both crease free and long lasting in my eyelids. With these facts in mind, I would say these are more ideal as an eyeliner or as a block of colour, although I have used the bronze shade to contour the eye over a creamer base and it gave a really lovely finish. I also think they would work wonderfully as a base for power eyeshadows.

These pencils give a really accurate application and would be great for traveling as there's no brushes required, although if you wanted a less intense look you could always smudge the product before it sets with your finger.

These are just £2.49 each from Essence which personally I think is great for a product which is super pigmented and long lasting product. Have you tried Essence make up yet?

Collection Work the Colour Palette

I was having a bit of a spurge in Superdrug the other day when I came across this range of palettes on the Collection stand. I figured at £3.99 a pop they were well worth a try, so went home with the 'nude eye palette' which is right up my street. Included in the cardboard palette is a mini duo applicator, eight powder eyeshadows and a cream highlighter. The idea behind the palette is that you use shades 1,2 and 3 along with the highlighter to create your desired look featured on the back, although personally I would have preferred another eyeshadow shade over the cream highlighter as all of the shades towards the left of the palette look as if they would make descent highlighters anyway. Although I guess the idea of an added cream highlighter would be welcomed if you are looking to build your make up collection collection.

To be totally honest I don't care too much for the top row of shadows. Number one here is a poorly pigmented white/cream shade which I suppose could be useful as a highlighting shade if you really tried to get the colour to show (below it is swatched twice as apposed to once like everything else). The next pan contains the cream highlight which is just as bad, I just fail to see the purpose in it as its pretty much undetectable on the skin. Things get better here with shade 3 which is by far the best shade in this first row, in fact it petty much matches up to the rest of the palette which despite the so far negative review I actually really like! It's just a really pretty shimmery brown which you can see demonstrated below.

The second row makes this palette worth every single penny to me! I really love it and have been sporting these three shades on my lids ever since I picked up this palette earlier in the week. As instructed to on the back I simply blend shade one all over the lid, add shade two into the center of the eyelid to add some definition then finally complete the look with shade three which I use to contour my eyelids! It just creates a really pretty natural look which I love against my skintone! Unfortunately I don't have an eye primer with me since the majority of make up is still in my flat back at university although I have been putting this to the test over my Becca cream concealer. In doing this have found that when I check this around right hours later there are still traces of the shades even if there is some cracking occurring, although I imagine this wouldn't be a problem with a descent primer! 

The final row is one I cant say I have used much (mainly because I've been too busy swooning over the second) although again its made up of three decently pigmented natural shades shown below. Like the rest of the palette they all have a hint of shimmer too them which varies from shade to shade.

Overall I really like this little palette! While it isn't the most pigmented product in the world that can be overlooked when you consider for under £4 you get a total of eight lovely eyeshadows and a cream highlighter. Plus I love the fact that it gives advise on how to wear the eyeshadows. A truly great product for beginners!