Essence in Canada!

I was so excited when I heard Essence was coming to Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada, because I had heard so many great things about their nail polishes and how inexpensive they were. I needed to run out to the drugstore for nail polish remover today, and was happily surprised by the sparkling new Essence stand in the cosmetics aisle! I'd completely forgotten to look for it and there it was!

The prices are as good as advertised - the most expensive thing I bought was $3.99! In total I spent about $22 and I got four nail polishes, a blush, a lipstick, a gel eyeliner, and an eyeshadow quad! Impressive!! Based just on swatching alone so far (for the makeup) the quality looks really good! Take a look at the whole haul:

Close up of the polish bottles, which are Essence Colour & Go Quick Drying Nail Polishes. Left to right, the colours are Let's Get Lost, Walk on Air, High Spirits and You Belong to Me. The first two are SO hard to photograph! Both Let's Get Lost and Walk on Air are much darker than they look here. The polish bottles are actually fairly small, only 5 ml compared to the average nail polish bottle size of 10-15 ml. Even so, the price of $1.49 is still awesome!

Same deal with the shades in these swatches (L-R You Belong to Me, High Spirits, Walk on Air and Let's Get Lost) LGL and WoA look much darker in real life. WoA is more like a creme navy blue/marine blue cross, and LGL is a deeper, richer teal, also creme finish. High Spirits is a great khaki green shade with microshimmer, and You Belong to Me is a pretty robin's egg blue/mint shade with very, very fine microshimmer. All swatches are two coats only, so coverage is great. WoA looks very sheer after one coat but gets to full opacity after the second.

Essence Quattro Eyeshadow in Over the Taupe - yes, taupe! Duh! What did the blog get it's name for if not for stuff like this? This looks like a gorgeous palette of cool toned taupes, every shade you need for a great eye look. The two lighter shades seem to have a little less shimmer than the darker ones, and all seem to have good pigmentation and feel soft.

 

 Essence Gel Eyeliner in London Baby - a cool toned dark brown liner with a bit of shimmer. Nice and dark, the kind of almost-black-but-still-brown eyeliner I've been looking for. Formula seems smooth but very soft, so be careful when you first dip your brush in there or you'll get a big ol' dent... *coughcough*. Once it's set, it LASTS! I swatched this and then washed my hands about 5 minutes later...soap, water and scrubbing hard with a towel and this swatch looked the same. Very impressed!

Essence Silky Touch Blush in Babydoll. Very pretty pinky peach blush, satin finish. Pigmentation is great and this will probably be a fantastic everyday, no-fuss blush that works with any look.

Essence Lipstick in Coralize Me! Very pretty coral-pink lipstick with a bit of shimmer. Goes on sheer but the colour builds nicely. I've been wearing it for the last 30 minutes or so and my lips don't feel dry at all, which is the ultimate test for me. The shade looks really natural and pretty, on my skintone just the right balance between light and dark - doesn't look to bright but doesn't wash me out either.

I'll make sure to do a face of the day with these products ASAP - probably tomorrow! I'm so excited to try them all out!