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Essence The Nude Edition Mini Eyeshadow Palette is one of 6 new quads recently released by Essence. There are also Brown, Peach, Rose, Mauve, and Grey edition palettes. Each are $4.99, contain 3.6 g / 0.12 oz of product and can be purchased from Essence or Ulta.
The compact is a lightweight plastic with a snap closure and it feels on par with other products I’ve purchased from the brand lately. I don’t have any difficulty opening the lid and when I close it, it feels like it will stay shut securely. The eyeshadows look like they are in “wells” in the plastic rather than in metal pans and the powders sit flush with the edges of the plastic. They do not smell like anything to me and the product page on Ulta says these are formulated without perfume.
Swatches
From left to right:
1 – Pale nude with subtle pink tones and a matte finish.
2 – Frosty pale champagne with more of a pinky undertone. All fine shimmer, no larger sparkle. On my arm, this swatches out with more depth than I see on my eye. When I actually wear this it looks more like an almost-white nude shimmer.
3 – Matte, light taupe with subtle purple tones. When this is swatched or applied heavily, the purple shows up more but as I sheer it out, it almost warms up a bit and just looks like a nondescript neutral taupe.
4 – Deep purplish grey with a matte finish.
Performance
I chose this palette over the others because it looked like a combo of shades I’d actually use regularly. I like the balance of depths and that it mostly contains mattes. When I wear this, the overall color on my eyes, I’d say, isn’t really neutral but more of a greyish taupe with a hint of purple. It’s definitely very cool toned.
The formula feels lightweight and silky, like “it blends itself”. I am able to pick up color haphazardly on a brush, take it directly to the eye, and have no difficulty blending it out. This can be a benefit if you like easy, fast, simple, barely-there eye makeup. I don’t like this quality as much for deeper shades though because I often find the color looks uneven as I blend it out and I end up needing to build it up. The deepest shade in this palette holds itself together enough that I can use it easily as liner so I think they did a good job finding a balance.
They apply a bit differently depending on what primer I use or if I use none at all. Over bare lids, these can feel a bit dry for me on days when my skin is more dry or dehydrated. When my skin is in good condition, they adhere well and show up just fine. Applied over Elf Lock It Down Primer, they adhere much more strongly and with more intense color payoff. They also stay where I put them more so I can be less careful about blending and need less rebuilding of the color throughout the application process. NYX Lid Lingerie Cream Eye Pigment gave me the best application experience where the color adhered well but not too much and didn’t affect the resulting color intensity/payoff as much (the shadows stayed more true to color over this product).
Fallout was minimal and I only noticed a bit from the shimmer and the deepest matte. The shimmer is made of only fine particles so fallout is hardly noticeable if it happens but also easy to brush away. Small bits of the deepest matte fell but were also hardly noticeable. If there was any fallout from the other two shades I just didn’t notice likely because the color was lighter and closer to my skintone.
Without primer, these started creasing slightly on me around 4 hours in but didn’t get much worse for quite a long time. It was only after 7-8 hours that the creasing started to become obvious. They lasted really well over primer and I started seeing slight creasing after 10 hours.
Looks
Look 1:
- NYX Lid Lingerie Cream Eye Pigment in In-Nude-Endo – Used to even out lid
- Lightest matte – Inner corner, brow bone
- Deepest matte – Outer lid, lower lashline, liner along upper lashline
- Midtone matte – Used lightly to blend above edges of deeper matte in the inner and outer crease area
- Shimmer – Center of lid, center of lower lashline (dry brush)
Look 2:
- NYX Lid Lingerie Cream Eye Pigment in In-Nude-Endo – Used to even out lid
- Lightest matte: Light dusting all over lid and brow brone
- Midtone matte – Crease, lower lashline
- Deepest matte – Liner, smudged into upper lashline
- Shimmer – Center of lid, inner corner, brow bone (damp brush)