Essence Glow to Go highlighter palette

My experience with Essence palette, be it eyeshadow be it face palettes, is a bit hit or miss. The products are affordable and sadly that means that the quality isn’t always there. However, since the products never truly break the bank, I love trying them out when a new launch rolls around. For their S/S 2018 collection, Essence has released a new highlighter palette and I was curious to try it.  

Essence Glow to Go Highlighter palette 010 Sunkissed Glow

This 4 pan highlighter palette retails for a mere €4.59. I don’t know about you, but that is affordable. For less than 5 euros, you get not one, but 4 highlighters. In total this palette contains 14 grams of product: also not too shabby. I feel that if this works well, then this can be one of hidden gems at the drugstore.

The Packaging

Essence packaging is never much to write home about. It is always rather simple and playful. This palette is no exception. The case is made of sheer plastic, there is no mirror and it has a pretty handy size for handling. It is slim enough to take traveling, but I seriously doubt how sturdy this will be. The palette closes with a snap and I think this may be one of those palettes that opens easily inside a makeup bag.

The Product

As I mentioned, there are 4 pans of product inside. Each product looks quite shimmery in the pan, but that can of course be different on the cheek. The 4 shades range from a champagne and bright peach to a bronze and rose gold. Two of these could work as a highlight on my fair skin, but I do fear the darker shades may not be dark enough for truly deep complexions. However that rose gold, while stunning, is much too dark for me to work as a highlight, so it is worth a shot if you have a darker skin tone.

The Swatches

The moment of truth: swatches! The camera had trouble picking up the amount of shine these powders have. In real like these powders look metallic. On the pictures it seems as if there is a bit of shimmer in this product, but I find that that is barely noticeable in real life.

The champagne shade pulls quite yellow. The peach tone is quite pink: but they are definitely great highlights. I like how one is more subtle than the other. There is one for everyday and one for the night time or more amped up looks. I have made the bronze shade work for me as a glowy bronzer. The rose gold, I find to work well as an eyeshadow instead.

Texture wise these powders feel a little bit stiff, but they end up gliding on nicely. I do think that these powders separate after a few hours of wear time. After 5 – 6 hours, the base shade starts to disappear and shimmers start to appear. After a full day of wear (8 – 10 hours) the highlighter has pretty much disappeared.

The Application

This is the before and after of using the bronze shade as a bronzer. I find that if I use a stipple brush and a light hand, this shade works well as a glowy bronzer on me. It is not too noticeable, yet gives a healthy glow. I have a pretty high forehead and I love using a bronzer to create some shadow there. Despite the shine in the product, this product still works as a bronzer.

Here I used the champagne shade on my cheeks. As you can see: this is a subtle highlight. But I personally like that. I love my highlight, but I do like ones that are easy to control. This one is incredibly hard to overdo. It would win bonus points if it were longer lasting on the skin, but I like the glow this gives, especially in the winter time.

Lastly, I used the peach toned highlighter in my inner corners of this eye look. As you can see, this shade packs enough of a punch to nicely highlight those inner corners. It is a bit too much to be wearing all over I’d think, but it is a nice shade that works well on paler skin tones.

The Conclusion

I think the Essence Glow to Go highlighter palette is actually genuinely great. It is definitely one of the best highlighter Essence has released to date. And since you get not one, but four shades, there is something for everyone here. On the cheeks, this doesn’t last too long, but at this price point I don’t think that is too much of an issue. Well done Essence!

What Essence highlighter is your favorite?