Essence Beauty Bloggers Collection Review

Hallo Zusammen! I know this review might be a little late--I don't think this collection is available anymore. However, I figured better late than never, especially since you can always find the items online. Let's go into general thoughts first: I'm on the fence on this one. Some of the products were great, and others fell below my expectations.

"But how can you have such high expectations for a drugstore brand?!" Simple. This is one of the top makeup brands in all of GERMANY. Essence sells a ton of awesome products, even though they are incredibly affordable. I love their blushes and eyeshadows, I own most of their Trend Edition palettes. Although Essence takes my top-spot for drugstore makeup more than often enough, they still have a tendency to fall short on a few things. Let's get into the product break down.

The first thing I want to discuss is the palettes. Essence produced 4 palettes in collaboration with 4 German beauty bloggers. In all honesty, I think that was a fantastic idea. I loved feeling like I was in touch with these other bloggers, even though we've never met. I felt like I caught a glimpse into their own personal style and interests. Maybe that's just me, but I applaud Essence for that.

Retail: €4,99

The first palette was created by Diana zur Löwen. She created "Touch Up To Go!" The palette comes with 3 eyeshadows in the colors On the Mauve, Coffee To Go and Shine On. Along with that comes a clear lip balm, or "one for all balm", and 2 blush colors; Peach and Party. Inside the palette it comes with a double ended brush, one fluffy and one angled end. All in all the palette did fine. The matt shadows (Mauve and Coffee) were the smallest bit powdery, but the color pay off was phenomenal. As for the shimmer shade, it was wonderful. It has a great pigment backing up all that glitter, and I (surprisingly) didn't get a single particle of fall out. As for the blush, for my skin tone they were both a little bit on the "way too bright" side. But then again, considering I'm as white as this blog post background, it's not too difficult for a product to be too bright for me. I enjoyed the peach shade when I used a very light hand, Party, however, was just too out of my comfort zone. It felt like I was wearing clown blush. I would give this palette a 3/5, taking into consideration the powdery-ness of the matt shadows and the almost over-pigmentation of the blush.

Retail: €4,99

The next palette was created by a blogger named Palmira. (I'm sorry I don't know what her blog address is!). This is the "Vintage Rose" eye palette. It comes with 5 shadows in the colors Shimmer on You, Velvet Rose, Charming Mauve, Hazel Eyes and Earth and Love. Along with those 5 shades you get a gel eyeliner in the color "Secret Key" (black) and a brow bone highlight in the shade "Hello Glow!" As with the first palette, a duel-ended brush is included. Before I say anything else, let me clarify that I HATE gel eyeliner. I just don't have the hand-eye coordination to use a brush to line my eyes. That is completely my fault, and there is nothing wrong with the liner. It is extra black (I did give it a try and also swatched it); however I found it to be a little too slick and it tended to slide around and smudge. I'll pass on that. The brow highlight was gorgeous, but a little bit too chunky for my taste. I would prefer it be a subtle glow rather than a streak of glitter. As with "Touch Up To Go!" the shadows were a bit powdery, with a lot of fallout that needed cleaning up. Earth & Love is my favorite of all the shades, mostly because it blends out nicely as a crease color. My rating for this palette is going to be a 2.5/5; I cannot use the gel liner and the shadows aren't the quality I expect them to be.

Retail: €4,99

The third installment in the Essence Bloggers Secrets collection is the "Shape and Shadows" eye contouring palette by a blogger named Mary from Strikeapose. Inside are 2 shadows and 2 brow shades. The eye shadows are: Hazel Groove and Marilyn Metallic, the brow shades are Audrey Highbrow and Brigitte Brown. Also included is a highlight shade in "Billie Vanillie" and a brow wax. As with the rest of the palettes a brush is included, this time with a spoolie on one end and an angled brush on the other. I am a little bit on the fence with this palette; I just don't really get it. Why release an "eye contour" palette when it is obviously meant for eyebrows? Granted the shadows are beautiful, it just doesn't make sense to me. I would rather see more than 2 eyebrow powders. If you have light hair, this palette isn't for you. Perhaps Hazel Groove can work, but even if it IS supposed to be a brow shade, it isn't light enough for blondes. The highlight is the same story as the last, chunky glitter instead of glow. No thanks. I don't personally use brow wax, but if you do I suppose this one would be just fine. The quality of the shadows and powders are actually on par with normal Essence products. If the shades match you, I would recommend this palette. It's great for travel, and it holds everything you need. I'm giving this one a 3.

Retail: €4,99

And last (but not least!) comes the Glow Must Go On! palette by Serena from Beautylab. You get 2 eyeshadows; Cinnamon and Sandalwood; a highlighter in Honey Glow, and 3 bronzers (no colors, but all warm shades). As per usual, a brush is included. This time just a small blush brush. This is my favorite of all 4 palettes, for quite a few reasons. First: the highlighter is to DIE for! It literally looks like honey on your cheek. It's not chunky (finally!) and the formula is overall beautiful. the eyeshadows are also wonderful, I like to put Cinnamon in my crease and blend Sandalwood on my oute corner with a tiny bit of a cream-colored shimmer all over the lid for an every-day glam look. These are the only shadows that aren't overly-powdery and blend perfectly. Now lets get to the not-so-hot part: the bronzers. In all honesty, I don't know who wants to put shimmery bronzer on their face. But even if you do like that, these bronzers are pure GLITTER. It is in now way flattering on any part of the face. Perhaps re-purposing them as eyeshadows would be a nice idea, but as a face product i just can't see it. The other down side to these is even if they were matt, I could NEVER use them. They are all far too warm, and looked orange on my skin. For such a great palette, these were a great disappointment. I still give this a 3.5 almost 4.

Retail: €1,79

Along with their palettes, each blogger released a nail polish. I cannot review them, because I didn't pick them up; I get my nails professionally done so I don't typically purchase nail items. The shades are lovely though!

If you'd like to check out some live swatches of these items the link to my YouTube channel is on my homepage. I hope you enjoyed this review and please check out my other social media!

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