Finally Reviewing The Essence Products That SHOULD Have Been In My Year End Favorites!

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December was such a busy month that I didn’t get around to doing a lot of the posts I wanted to. One of those was reviews for some incredible products from essence. Most of these should have been in my year end favorites because I have used them constantly. With that, let’s get into the reviews!

Out of everything pictured above, these two plumping glosses are my top favorites. I have the What the Fake! Extreme Plumping Lip Filler in Pepper Me Up and the What the Fake! Plumping Lip Filler in Oh My Nude. These glosses are $4.99 each and while both are plumping formulas, they are slightly different. Pepper Me Up has black pepper oil in the formula and is definitely the most spicy of the two. I wouldn’t say that it burns but it does tingle for a short amount of time. It looks black in the tube and swatch but on the lips, it’s the most beautiful berry shade. What I love the most about it, however, is that it leaves behind the most gorgeous berry stain. It doesn’t claim to be a lip stain but it is. I wore this all day to a concert and while the glossy finish wore away, the stain lasted the entire time.

Oh My Nude has cinnamon oil in the formula and it does tingle on the lips but less than Pepper Me Up. If you’re sensitive to plumping glosses, I recommend this one. It’s a beautiful pinky peach nude shade and I love it on its own or on top of other lipsticks. It does not leave a stain behind but lasts for quite awhile on the lips. Both of these glosses have a thick but not sticky feel and neither leave that nasty looking line of goopy product on the lips. They both have a doe foot applicator. These are my current favorite glosses and I highly recommend them.

My second favorite products are the The Slim Stick Lipsticks. These are $4.99 each and I have the shades Brickroad, Choc-o-holic and Over The Nude. Brickroad is described as a neutral mauve, Choc-o-holic is a milk chocolate brown and Over The Nude is a peachy nude. I don’t really agree with those shade descriptions and in my opinion, Brickroad is a red toned mauve, Choc-o-holic is a neutral brown and Over The Nude is a pinky nude.

I don’t usually like stylo type lipsticks but I don’t mind it with these. You are able to rotate the lipstick bullet up and down. The formula is a velvet matte and I find it to be very comfortable. It’s also long lasting and wears away gradually; not in a patchy or flaky way. I have nothing bad to say about these. I love the colors and the formula.

I feel kind of meh about these next two products. I don’t dislike them but I probably wouldn’t buy them again. The Magic Filter Glow Booster is $5.99 and I have it in the shade Light. It can be used as a glowy base or as a liquid highlighter. The formula does not have glitter and it gives a natural looking glow. I prefer to use it on no makeup days because it adds a small amount of color and glow to the skin. I don’t love it under foundation because the glow doesn’t show through and it has a bit of an oily, sticky formula that doesn’t work with every foundation. I don’t use it often because of that sticky feel. I wore this alone out one day and my hair kept sticking to my face🙃 So, while it does look pretty, it’s not something I use often for that reason.

The Jelly Grip Hydrating Primer is also $5.99 and it claims to be hydrating while gripping makeup. This primer is just… good. It’s not great but it’s not bad. It’s not like a lot of gripping primers that are super sticky and hard to blend foundation on top of and I do like that. I found that my makeup wore well on top of it but I didn’t notice a miraculous increase in wear time. As for the hydrating aspect, I didn’t feel that it was super hydrating but it wasn’t drying either. Overall, if you don’t typically like the sticky feel of most gripping primers, this isn’t a bad option.

The Blush Crush! Blush is $3.99 and I have the shade Lovely Lilac. This is a beautiful cool toned pinky purple color. I believe this line of blushes will eventually replace their The Blush line and honestly, I’m a bit sad about that. The formula is good but it doesn’t have the same creamy, ultra blendable formula that The Blush line has. I do have acne scars and I had to really work to blend this over my scarring or it would look patchy. I never had to do that with The Blush line. Once I got it evenly blended, though, it was beautiful and I didn’t notice any fading throughout the day. For the price, this isn’t a bad blush but I’m not tempted to buy every shade.

I hate to add these Harley Quinn Meta Glow Highlighters to the post because as far as I can tell, they have been discontinued. I wanted to mention them, though, because you can still get the original Meta Glow Highlighter and they seem to be the same formula, just different colors. These highlighters are $5.99 and absolutely stunning. Lucky You has a transparent base with a blue shift and Rebel has a transparent base with a pink shift. I mixed both together in the picture above and they gave the most blinding glow without looking glittery. I definitely want to pick up the original one that has a purple shift and I hope essence brings these shades to their permanent line.

Final Thoughts:

Essence continues to be one of my favorite brands. Somehow they manage to stay affordable while having some of the best quality products available. Let me know if you’ve tried any of these or plan to! Thanks for reading!