Essence Makeup Review

As a student I love affordable makeup. So when Essence Cosmetics offered me the opportunity to review some of there products I said of course!

Check out what I tried below...


Price $4.99

The first product I got to try was the Stays no matter what 24 h volume mascara in black. As I say in every review I want mascara that will give me some serious length and volume. I hate flat lashes so I am always looking for dramatic looks!


The brush itself is good as you can see not a lot of excess mascara between bristles so that helps in regards to clumps. I am super shocked at how well the length and volume is with this mascara. I seriously wouldn't think a mascara less than $5 would give good results. I have been using this mascara for the past two weeks and have been happy.


Price: $3.29
The next thing I tried was the Stays no matter what 24 hr eyeliner

The tip is pretty good which makes it easy to apply

It comes off easily however I found it was not really waterproof. Right before my big move to Ca I had lots of emotions so of course I shed a few tears and noticed my inner eyelid area lost all of the eyeliner. With that sad I wasn't really impressed.

Price: $1.99
The next thing I tried was the Kiss Care Love Lip Balm. First thing I noticed was the bubble gum smell or something yummy it had. They really don't give much color to your normal lip color and the consistency is not too sticky/thick or too thing where you have to keep adding some on. I would say it is just good enough. 

Price: $3.49
Finally I tried the 3D eyeshadow in Irresistable smoky and Irresistable mermaids kiss

The shape of the shadow is cool bc if there is one thing I had in duo eyeshadows is there is no clear separation between the two and I always get the darker color all in the light one. Here there is a diff in one from the other so you could use just one only and not make a big mess in the other.

Here are the swatches of the colors. On the left is Smoky and the right is Mermaid kiss. I am not a fan of the shimmery shadows so of course these shadows on not something I would use but they do have good pigmentation. These swatches are just the shadow so with a good primer they would give good color.



Where to find: Any ulta store

**disclaimer-this product was provided for my 100% honest opinion**

Almay Color + Care Liquid Lip Balm

When I first the display for the new Almay Color + Care Liquid Lip Balm I thought I have to have them all! The colors looked so beautiful with amazing pigmentation. What in intrigued me the most was the fact that it was a liquid lip balm. Now I don't know about you but I had to see what the texture was and how it differed from other lip balms and etc. The collection consists of 10 different shades of various purples, pinks, corals and nudes and since they only had 8 at my local store I went ahead and got them all.


The colors I got were: Just Plum, Apple-a-day, Pink, Apricot, Cantaloupe, blooming, rosy lipped, and nudetrients.

Don't the colors look amazing??

The first thing I had to examine is the texture. The wand looks like your everyday lip gloss one. The texture is a thick, when I touch it with my finger its a little on the sticky side so if your accidently touch it you def will have to wash your hands after. I like the feeling it has on my lips but def don't like the stickiness of it. And to me they felt like lip gloss I really didn't understand how they were considered liquid lip balm??

So how does the pigmentation look?? 

I picked 3 of the colors to try out

The first color I chose was Pink. This color looks very pink and let me tell you it looks nothing like it does in that tube. If you look at my swatch it really only added a hint of pink on my lips and instead just looked like a clear gloss on.

So I grabbed apricot since it was a deep color on the bottle and thought it def will show up on me. Again it adds a hint of color on my lips but I was expecting amazing bright color but you can still see my natural lip pigmentation on my lips.

The last one I tried was the nudetriments one because it was the lightest one and thought this one will def show on my lips which are darker. Again, you can only see a slight pigmentation which def doesn't represent the color it appears on the bottle.

I also tried the Apple-a-day and Just plum but forgot to take pictures of those two and those being darker colors also showed little pigmentation. I am not sure if its because my lips are dark or what not but I think the pigmentation could be a lot better! Also another thing I want to add is they didn't last long either so I had to constantly re-apply the balm. Overall, I would have to pass on the Almay color + Care Liquid lip balm. If they had better pigmentation, better longeivity, and a more lip balm kind of texture. I honestly thought I was wearing lip gloss when I applied it. Bummed bc they were almost $6 each and I probably won't use them again.  


What did you think of the Almay Color + Care Liquid Lip Balm??

Price: $5.99 ea
Where to find- Any Drug stores- CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Target, etc.

http://www.almay.com/Home/products/Lips/lip-balm/almay-color-plus-care-liquid-lip-balm.aspx

**disclaimer-These products were purchased by me**

NYC-Applelicious Glossy Lip Balm

I am so excited to have a bunch of drugstore makeup/nail reviews coming up. Don't get me wrong I love my designer makeup, but, as a student it gets hard to afford the good stuff but good thing there are a lot of drug store brands that make some amazing products. Today I am reviewing the new Applicious Glossy Lip Balm collection from New York Color

 

Inspired by the famous "big apple" aka New York, these lip balms are supposed to deliver color, shine and moisture. The collection consists of 10 different colors and I will swatch 4 of those today

 

The colors I have today are: Apple Plum Pie, Big Apple Red, Applelicious Pink and Blushing Golden

I swatched all colors on my arm. Sorry if its hard to see the colors on my arm but these balms are not super super pigmented

 

Apple Plum pie looks like a purple color but it doesn't come off like that on my lip color. It added a hint of color but not too much

 

Big Apple Red wasn't as red as I thought it would be. 

Applelicious Pink added a hint of pink to my lips. I think I would have a liked a bright pink color more than a natural pink 

Blushing Golden is the only color you can really see on me. The other ones are more like my normal lip color so its hard to see them on. This one is a light frosty color you can def see on me. 

Overall, the Glossy lip balm has a good consistency-not super thick where your hair sticks to it. It is perfect and moisturizes pretty well. I do really like the apple smell these balms have. Yum! the only thing I wish was better was the pigmentation of the balms. There def good to wear at for example work but I would have loved them to have a dark pigmentation so I could wear them our instead of wearing lipstick. I def have been wearing these to work bc they hydrate my lips very well.

Price-$2.99

Where to find-Drugstores or online

**disclaimer-These products were provided for my 100% honest opinion**