Today I wanted to share a few little gems from the budget beauty world – Essence Cosmetic’s All About Eyeshadow palettes.
Each palette includes 8 generously-sized powder eyeshadows, and features a mix light, medium, and dark shades in different finishes, giving you the flexibility to create subtle day looks and more dramatic evening looks, using one travel-friendly, compact palette.
There are currently four palettes in the collection: Toffee, Nudes, Vintage (all fairly neutral palettes), Bronze (a warmer palette), and Roses (a cooler palette). (Grey appears to have been discontinued as it no longer appears on Essence’s website). I have Roses and Bronze which vary slightly when it comes to finishes and shade variety – let’s take a look at each one.
Essence All About Roses Palette
Essence All About Roses palette swatches
The All About Roses palette includes mainly mauve, silver, and deep taupe shades, and has an almost 50/50 split of both shimmers and mattes. All together, they form a complete palette for the eyes, covering everything from your highlight, lid, crease, and deep crease shades. Despite being the coolest toned palette out of the four, a majority of the shades are still fairly neutral and could work for both cool and warm skin tones.
Above is a quick, very subtle look I created using the Roses palette. I used the three top left-most shades on my lid (shimmery white in the inner corners, medium shimmery mauve on the inner 1/3 lid, and medium shimmery taupe on the outer 2/3). Then I applied the bottom mauve shade (2nd from the right) in my crease and along the lower lash line, followed by the deep matte brown (on the bottom right) lightly in the outer-v.
Essence All About Bronze Palette
Essence All About Bronze palette swatches
The All About Bronze palette features warm golden tones and neutral taupey-brown tones. Unlike the Roses palette, this one is made up entirely of shimmery shades. I wish they’d swapped some shimmers out for mattes and provided a bit more variety (some shades look almost identical once on the lid), however for a quick all-over shimmery look, it works beautifully. I see this palette as a whole working best for those with yellow and olive undertones, however, if you don’t mind using just half the palette, the top row of more neutral shades would likely work on any skin tone. (I personally only use the top half since I find the bottom shades to be too warm on my neutral-toned skin.)
Essence All About Bronze & All About Roses Review
With the exception of a few of the matte shades, the shadows across both palettes offer amazing color payoff. They also have a super silky, buttery-smooth texture that’s incredibly easy to work with and practically foolproof. Out of all the brand’s I’ve tried, I’d say they’re a cross between ColourPop’s creamy, lightweight Super Shock Shadows, and Morphe’s velvety-smooth, ultra-pigmented eyeshadows.
As a fan of more minimal and simplistic makeup routines, I actually find myself reaching for these Essence palettes most days (even over my favorite MAC and Tarte shadows!), just because of how quick and effortlessly they apply. If you’re like me and prefer to use your fingers, you can literally apply and blend them out, without even picking up a brush. I also skip the primer step with these because they build up beautifully and last all day with very minimal creasing, just on their own.
Overall, it’s hard to believe the quality (and amount) of product you get in the Essence All About Eyeshadow palettes, especially for the price – they’re only $5.49 USD (that’s 69 cents per shade)! Even if you end up liking only half the palette (like I did with the Bronze palette), they’re absolutely worth the (very small) investment. Plus, they should last you quite a while thanks to their high color payoff (I’ve barely made a dent in mine!).
Available at Ulta, Target and Amazon for ~$5.49 each.
Have you tried Essence’s All About Eyeshadow palettes? What’s your favorite drugstore eyeshadow purchase?
