Essence Blossom Dreams limited edition

For spring 2017 Essence did not only renew its standard line, but they also released a brand new limited edition. When I spotted it in store, I figured it would be nice to try some products out. My interest was piqued mostly by the nail effect pigments, which can transform your average polish into a (duo)chrome extravaganza. However, I of course cannot say no to a rainbow highlighter and a pretty eyeshadow palette either. This is the review.

Essence Blossom Dreams eyeshadow palette 01 Spring is in the Air
Essence Blossom Dreams rainbow highlight 01 Prism of Light
Essence Blossom Dreams waterbased top coat
Essence Blossom Dreams iridescent effect nail pigment  01 Rosy Reflections
Essence Blossom Dreams mirror effect nail pigment 01 Mirror, Mirror on my nails

If there is one thing Essence gets right in their limited editions its trends. I think this is one of the more successful limited edition collections Essence has released in a while. The products are unique and on trend, but also work really well. As always these are some affordable products. The eyeshadow palette retails for €3.59, the highlighter for €3.39, while the top coat costs €2.39 and the nail effect pigments €2.59 each. There were a few other products in the line, but those didn’t seem very interesting to me. Not sure about availability either. Limited editions by Essence seem to be a bit difficult to track down depending on your location.

Essence Blossom Dreams Eyeshadow Palette

You know I love a good eyeshadow palette and whenever Essence releases one, I am always curious to try them. There were the Hello Autumn LE, Lights of Orient LE, but also the permanent Bronzes & Nudes palettes in the past. Some I liked, some I didn’t. Some I know I’ll keep, others I want to declutter or have already given away since reviewing them. So Essence shadows are a bit hit or miss for me, but still I remain curious.

The packaging is cheap as with many Essence products. But I don’t mind as long as the product is decent. The palette consists of 5 shimmer shades that seem perfect for spring. The shades range from a bronze brown, to a lilac taupe, a pink highlight, a straight up white and a rosy pink. It was that latter shade that sucked me in.

Swatches show you how shimmery these are. And that can be dangerous as shimmers, especially with Essence, can easily be blended away into nothingness. These shades all have decent pigmentation, but I am not wowed. I mostly feel that these eyeshadows swatch differently from what you might expect by looking at them in the pan. The pink seems to have more red in the pan, but that barely shows up on the skin.

You can imagine I was skeptical as I started to apply these shades. But I was surprised how easily these applied and allowed themselves to be build up. I am wearing the brown and rosy pink shades in my crease, the taupe on the lid and the white on my brow bone. The pink highlighter is in my inner corner and I smoked out the lower lash line with the brown. All in all a very pretty, almost ethereal look, that I think works well for spring.

Essence Blossom Dreams Rainbow Highlighter

I was surprised to see another rainbow highlighter. Essence already does one in their permanent line now, but I hadn’t been able to get my hands on it just yet. That one however, has a much more outspoken color scheme to it. This is much more pastel, which instantly made me expect this to be a lot more wearable.

The product consists of very muted rainbow shades. You can clearly see a purple, blue, green, yellow and peachy shade in the pan. It doesn’t appear to pack a whole lot of shine though, so I wasn’t sure how glowy this would be. Once I started swatching this I knew that looks could be deceiving.

I swatched each shade individually, but also swirled them together. Each shade has a distinct color to it, also in a swatch. But when you blend it together, the result is quite an icy shade. It is not as intense as the I <3 Make Up Unicorn highlighter, but where that is almost silver, this has a much more white sheen to it.

On my cheeks this highlighter gives a very pretty cool toned sheen. You can clearly see how this adds glow, but without any excess shimmer. You can build it up for that kapow in your fave effect, or you can do like me and go for a gentler application which results in an easy to blend natural glow.

Essence Blossom Dreams Nail Pigment & Top Coat

On to the instigators of this blog post: the nail stuff. When I saw these I knew I wanted to try them. Chrome nails are so on trend and what better way to do them at home? The collection contains two nail effect powders that need to be set with the waterbased top coat. This means you need at least two of these products to make it work, but it was surprisingly easy to do.

While easy to do, it was a messy process. You simply polish your nails as usual. You let your last layer dry for 1 minute and then dip your finger tip into the powder and rub it onto the nails. Seal it with the top coat and you’re good to go. The picture on the left was taken right after application: your hands definitely can use a wash after doing this. The picture on the right was the nail look after 4 days of wear. I noticed distinct wear of the effect pigments within the first day of wear and as you can see the shine wears of fairly quickly too. A fun product for a night out or a special occasion.

The Conclusion

Essence’s Blossom Dreams collection has some cool products that I think are a fun addition to your make up collection, but not total must have. The eyeshadow surprised me most as it worked much better on the eyes than it did in a swatch. The highlight is a good one, but if you already own plenty of icy toned highlighters this isn’t truly a new product. The nail effect pigments are fun to play around with, but because they don’t last very well, they aren’t as great as I had hoped they would be.

Which of these Essence products would you purchase?