Hey Beauties!
It's been a while since I bought something just because of the looks. This blush from Essence Limited Edition Happy Girls Are Pretty, just won me over with the cute autumnal design. It looks like a sweater pattern with heart in the middle. Yes, the concept is similar to Charlotte Tilbury blush designs, but it’s also not even close to being the same. Essence is one of those companies that lure you in their products with their cute designs. Some of the products from limited edition are in fact winner, but some are not worth the money.
The packaging is plastic and transparent, to let design be the star of it. It's not the most sturdy, but it'll do. The price is 2.95€ and you get 9 grams.
The blush is called 01 You sweeten my day! As I said the sweater design with heart in the middle is really cute. Sweater pattern is light pink, while the heart is more of a deeper pink. Sweater shade to me looks like a highlighter, but it actually gives a lighter sense to the whole blush. Heart is obviously darker and has most of pigmentation.
Pigmentation seemed horrible in the beginning, because the upper layer was so hard, but it actually becomes softer and gives some color. Saying that, it is still very light shade in general and it’s definitely not strongly pigmented. You need to build it up quite a lot to get it noticed. I’m sure this will be a problem for a lot of people.
The shade of heartis my favorite, since it’s like a dirty pink. It is warm toned (has slight peach undertone on me), very light and sheer, but it has a bit of warmer sheento it. No visible shimmer. The shade around the heart, which to me looks like a sweater pattern, is more like a highlighter. It's very light almost white cool pink, which has a feel of lavender shade to it. It is cool toned and also has that sheen to it. When you mix together both shades, you get cool toned light slightly dirty rose shade. The shade is lighter than the heart shade and darker than the shade around the heart. It also seems like a bit of a mix of cool and warm, though I think it looks more cool than warm.
I personally prefer the heart shade, because it's just such a pretty fall take on a dirty pink. I also like that it's warm toned. Sometimes I mix both shades together, but always spend more time in the hart design, which makes the blush still warmer, but a tad lighter.
I also like the fact that the blush is initially matte, but has that pretty sheen to it, which doesn't involve any kind of shimmer.
First is the shade of heart, then it's the shade of sweater design around it and the last are both shades mixed together. It's supposed to be a multi-color blush.
As you can see, the blush is really subtle. I put on a lot of product, but it still seems very light.
I compared it with some of my blushes. Happy Girls Are Pretty is the sheerest and lightest of them all. It’s like a dirty rose shade. Catrice Illuminating Blush in 010 I Am Nuts About You is brownish dirty mauve. It's the darkest of these shades and has the same matte, but sheer finish as the Essence. Maybelline Colorama blush in 101 is peach based pink with gold shimmer. It's as sheer as Essence, but the peachiest of them all. Artdeco Mineral Blusher in 24 Pink is the most classic pink with cool sheen to it. It's the shiniest of them all.
Design made me buy it and I can’t decide if it was worth it or not. Obviously it’s really pretty, but the product itself left me wanting more. The pigmentation is the biggest disappointment. I like the shade a lot and especially the fact that it gives such a nice sheen to it, without being shimmery. But it would be nicer, if it would also be pigmented enough. I also don’t really care about the sweater shade around the heart. It just makes blush cooler, which doesn’t suit my skin tone, anyway. If the heart shade would be on its own, it would definitely get me more excited.
Not bad, but also not good. It’s average blush (if not under average, because of the pigmentation) with a very pretty design. If you like the shade and pretty design go for it. But if you want something pigmented, which you can put on with one swipe, it’s not for you.
Mateja from Mateja's Beauty Blog also reviewed this blush here.
Mateja from Mateja's Beauty Blog also reviewed this blush here.