Essence Blushes - Review and Swatches

If you've read even just a couple of my posts, you've probably read a mention about me being pale. It feels really redundant to keep mentioning it, but it does make a big difference when it comes to how I view products.

I love bright colors for my cheeks and lips. I actually think they work well with my fair skin (think Snow White), but I have to be really careful when I apply bright blushes because the Snow White look can quickly become the Extra from Moulin Rouge look. Not good. That's why I decided during one of my many fall shopping trips (Shame on me!) to pick up a couple of blushes that weren't really bright and intense.

I ended up grabbing two blushes from the brand Essence, which is a super-cheap brand sold at Ulta. These blushes are currently selling on Ulta.com for $2.99 each.

Essence Silky Touch Blush in 20 Babydoll

Essence Silky Touch Blush in 10 Adorable

Left to right: Babydoll and Adorable

These blushes do have a soft, silky feel to them, and as you can see from the swatches, they have pretty good pigmentation for inexpensive, light colors. Babydoll is a slightly rose-toned, muted pink, and Adorable is a true, light baby pink. They both have a slight sheen in the pan, but they appear matte when applied.

I love that I can use a normal blush brush to apply these since I have to use a stippling brush for nearly every blush in my collection. The trade-off with these being easy for me to apply is that they don't last as long as some of my other blushes. By the end of a workday, these are pretty much gone. While that's slightly disappointing, there are days when I'm okay with trading-off a little bit of wear time to have something that is hard for me to over-apply, especially for the inexpensive price tag.

Have you tried the Essence blushes? What did you think about them? Are there any other Essence products I should check out? Do you know of any light colored blushes that are easy to apply on fair skin that last all day?

Weekend Haul - Sephora, Ulta, CVS, Walgreens, WalMart

My fiance's cross country team went to sectionals this weekend, and I went along as the female chaperone for the group. It was a nice trip with a really good group of high school kids. The bonus of the trip was that my duties were done after the races were over, and since I had to drive separately, I got to go shopping on my way home. It was an area that I was familiar with, so I had a list of stores that I wanted to check out and a list of things I wanted to try and pick up.

My first stop was the mall since I needed lunch and a potty break (there were only port-a-potties at the races, and I wasn't going to use one of those unless I HAD to). I then stopped in at Sephora. I wasn't planning on picking up much there because I had a 20% off coupon for Ulta, but I wanted to check it out anyway.

Look what I found!

This was a boxed set of The Body Shop that was originally priced at $42, and it was on clearance for $20. I had a new eye cream on my shopping list, and I figured I would spend that much even on a good drugstore one, so I went ahead and got this set. I love face scrubs, and I know vitamin C is good for helping with scars, so can't wait to give these a try.

I also asked for a sample of the Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation in 2.0. I got samples in a couple of Urban Decay orders I placed a while back, and I like the foundation, but 2.0 will soon be too dark for me. This way, I should have enough to get me through until I'm back to my normally super-pale self.

After a quick cruise through Bath & Body Works and not getting anything (Victory!), I headed over to Ulta to use my 20% off coupon.

I planned on buying the Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation in 0.5 because that will be my shade soon, but it wasn't in stock. Boo! There were a few other items that I considered getting as well that Ulta didn't have, which was kind of nice because I didn't walk out with much makeup. Here's what I did get:

I got a Clarisonic Mia in Turquoise. My skin started freaking out recently, and I caved to the hype. I hope it ends up being worth it. The cleanser came with it, and I picked up two extra sensitive brush heads since they were 20% off. If you've tried any of the other brush heads, let me know what you think of them. I'm thinking of picking up a couple of the deep pore ones when Sephora does their VIB sale next month.

I picked up some haircare things as well. I got the got2b dry shampoo and volumizing powder because I've been wanting to try both of them out, and I grabbed anohter Salon Grafix conditioning cleanser because I'm out and I miss having it (Side note: Salon Grafix is BOGO 50% off at CVS this week).

My current daytime moisturizer is almost gone, so I decided to give the CeraVe one a try.

I purchased the Essence dual pencil sharpener because I've read that it's a good dupe for the Urban Decay Grindhouse, and I wanted a pencil sharpener with a cap. I grabbed the NYX retractable eye liner in Bronze because I never hear anything about these, and they're cheaper than the Slide On liners.

My last Ulta item was the $9 trio of Tarte primers to try out. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try the eye primer or not because I haven't had good luck with Tarte eye primers. If you've tried it, let me know what you think.

My next purchases were from CVS. I have a coupon for $2 off any $4.99 Wet n Wild purchase that I wanted to use. I was hoping the CVS that I stopped at would have the limited edition 8-pan palettes, but I was out of luck there. Instead I picked up two liners, one liquid and one retractable (both of them are brown, even though the packaging looks black in the picture. Sadly, I can already tell that the liquid liner is going to be a dud. It is really red when swatched.

My next stop was Walgreens. I love this particular Walgreens because I've had really good luck finding limited edition items there, and yesterday was no exception. They had the Wet n Wild display with the 8-pan palettes I was looking for. Yippee! I only picked up the Sparkle 'Til Morning palette because I thought it would get the most use.

I also noticed some Sinful Colors eye shadow palettes, and I grabbed one in Barely There Shadow. I can't wait to try it out. I just did quick swatches on my hand, and they are nicely pigmented and apply smoothly.

The last item I picked up from Walgreens was another brown liquid liner. EleventhGorgeous on Youtube loves the Jordana FabuLiner, and I've been wanting to play with liquid liners, so I figured I would give this one a try too. Thankfully, it swatches much better than the Wet n Wild one. It's a nice, deep brown.

My last stop of the day was WalMart. I thought I might pick up a couple of the new Hard Candy items, but nothing interested me there. The few things that I did pick up were a Palmer's Cocoa Butter Swivel Stick, Simple Vital Vitamin Night Cream, and a couple of powder puffs.

That was the end of my shopping adventure. Since I didn't sleep the night before (there were bugs in my hotel room beds - Ewww!), I nearly fell asleep watching a tv show with my fiance, and we were both in bed by 9 p.m. Yep...we live really exciting lives. :-)

Did you get the Ulta 20% off coupon? What did you use it on? Have you had any fun shopping adventures recently?