Essence Wanted: Sunset Dreamers limited edition

So far I spent a few of my August palette month posts reminiscing over old palettes, but what about something brand spanking new? This palette is out now as part of the limited edition Essence has out for Summer 2018. And if I am not mistaken, this could very well be a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Heat palette.

Essence Wanted: Sunset Dreamers eyeshadow palette 01 Desert Heat

If this is indeed a dupe of the Urban Decay Naked Heat than it will be steal. This palette retails for €8, while the Urban Decay equivalent costs €55. Inside, there are 12 different warm toned shadows. This palette is part of the newly released Sunset Dreamers limited edition collection. It is out now: I found mine in store just last week.

The Packaging

The palette comes in sturdy plastic packaging. There is no mirror, but there is a brush. Like the last limited edition palette Essence released, the brush is for once not absolutely useless. It is small, but it is a good synthetic brush that can come in handy when you want to do more detailed work. So good job Essence!

The Palette

There you have it: the palette in all its glory. There are 12 warm toned shades in total. The minute I spotted this, it gave me Naked Heat vibes. The color scheme is pretty much identical and there are 7 mattes and 5 shimmers. The palette has a bunch of oranges and orange toned reds. There are no shade names in the palette.

Naked Heat Dupe?

So I decided to put the two palettes besides one another for a comparison. And as you can see some of these shades, well not some, most of them look to be spot on dupes for the Naked Heat. The only shades that really seem different are the shimmer shades: those look less vibrant than in the Naked Heat palette, but the overall color scheme is pretty much the same.

The Swatches

In the top picture you can see the Essence palette swatched. As you can see, the shadows are smooth and well-pigmented. The only shades that seemed a little chalky are the lighter mattes, but everything else had a nice buttery texture and felt really nice. They blended well too, which is always a good thing, but we’ll get back to that later.

In the bottom picture, you can see the Naked Heat shadows swatched above the Essence eyeshadows. CAn you see how close these are? Some of these are spot on dupes. The only shades I feel perform better in the Essence palette are the matte purple and the first shimmer in the palette: the latter has a bit more gold. In Urban Decay’s Naked Heat the darkest shade on the far right is a much better texture and color. Also, the lighter shades performed better and have a smoother texture than in the Essence palette.

The Application

I quickly pulled out a look to see what I can do with this and I went with the shades that I love to use in the Naked Heat. I used one of the red shimmers all over the lid, then I put that lightest shimmer right one the center. While the lighter mattes felt and swatched quite chalky, they performed well on the eye. They blended easily, but not so easily that they get wiped away instantly. The only shade that isn’t as pretty as in the original palette is that darkest shimmer.

The Conclusion

This new Essence limited edition eyeshadow palette for summer 2018 is a stunner of a palette. If you were on the hunt for a dupe of the Naked Heat palette than looking into the Wanted: Sunset Dreamers palette is definitely worth it. I get very similar looks with this and I really like the quality. I can only reach one conclusion: I’m impressed.

What do you think of this palette?