Sparkled Beauty

A brand new LE collection from Essence called Like an Unforgettable Kiss just hit Shoppers last week, just in time for Valentine's.

I came across a full display, so things landed in my basket naturally. Cute packaging, I gotta give them that!

Like most Essence LE collections, quantities are limited (between 2-4 items per product). If you see something you want, grab them now before it is too late.

Let me show you each product up close.

I couldn't pass up the lipsticks, so I got all 3 shades, $2.99 each:
- 01 Nothing but Lovestoned
- 02 Pink Me, and
- 03 Keep Calm and Kiss Me.

Interesting choice of packaging for lipsticks (as Essence calls them), as I normally associate thin long tubes with tinted lip balms. Love the colour coding, vibrantly convenient.

I would say these lipsticks fit somewhere between a lipstick and a tinted lip balms. They are comfortable and moisturizing on. The colours are slightly sheer but buildable.

01 Nothing but Lovestoned is described as an apricot, which is quite on point. On me, it simply is a lip balm as the colour shows up almost clear.

02 Pink Me is something I call a pink that suits all ages, i.e. a pink that does not make me age inappropriate :) An easy to wear everyday kind of colour.

03 Keep Calm and Kiss Me is a neutral toned red, not leaning too cool nor too warm. And since it is sheer, it is safe for work too.

I layered the colours in the swatches so you can see them well but there is always the option to wear the lipsticks sheer for a wash of colour. Recommend them either way.

The cute factor continues with the duo blushes - 01 Nothing but Lovestoned and 02 Pink Me, $4.99 each.

Heart-shaped boxes, beautiful prints and patterns make it hard to resist a purchase. Note that the boxes are small, just enough to fit your regular blush brush bit a tight space to swirl it around.

Also, Essence describes these blushes as having just a touch of colour, and I agree. They are not the highly pigmented type.

Beautiful on in the inside too, aren't they? I was excited to see Essence embracing the matte blush trend, considering they have come out with so many sparkly things in the past.

Below are the swatches for 01 Nothing but Lovestoned, each colour separately with an eyeshadow brush first (to see their pigmentation if used as eyeshadows), then both colours swirled with a blush brush.

The colours are matte alright, but pigmentation (even with building work) is not great unfortunately. To get that hint of colour on the swatches (and on the cheeks), I had to swipe the brush so many times.

02 Pink Me is slightly more pigmented, but still takes lots of work to show up. In both shades, the supposedly highlighter half kinda dilutes the blush half, making the end result too subtle to my taste.

I would only recommend these duo blushes if you want display items on your vanity, have a super dense blush brush to pick up more pigment, or use them as a matte setting powder for your cream blush.

Now this is a beauty toy for the young at heart :)

This adorable blush brush has a short purple handle (i.e. travel size), hot pink/ almost red synthetic bristles and a purple heart in the middle.

Only one colour combination - 01 Dear Valentine!, $3.99

The bristles are soft but not the softest I have felt in a brush, and they are not super dense either. This brush would work well with pigmented blushes, not the duo blushes above.

I heart this brush (literally). A true display item, also a not so subtle way to say the L word this Valentine's :)

I skipped on the 3 eyeshadows ($2.99 each), the Lip Smoother gloss ($1.99) and the fragrance ($9.99), and only got
1 of the 4 polishes -  04 Pink Me, $2.49, which I might get around to swatch next time.

Happy V-Day to those who celebrate it. I don't, but will enjoy this long weekend (Monday is Family Day in NS). Might be snowed in though, another storm approaches Thursday night :)