Essence Daily Dose of Power eyeshadow palette review

That Essence can do decent eyeshadow quality has been proven in the past with many of their different palettes. Most recently they released their limited edition Disney Princess collection in collaboration with sister brand Catrice and the quality of those three palettes are some of the best that Essence has done. However, they also release eyeshadow palettes as part of their regular line. Is the new Daily Dose of Power eyeshadow palette any good?

Review: Essence Daily Dose of Power eyeshadow palette

We all know Essence as an affordable makeup brand. This eyeshadow palette is no different: at just €4.99 a pop these little 9-pan palettes are very affordable. In total there are three different palettes: a pink and rosy toned palette called Daily Dose of Love, a brown toned neutral palette called Daily Dose of Energy and the bright, colorful palette called Daily Dose of Power. I bought the latter as I have never seen Essence do a palette like this. That’s why I wanted to try it.

What does this palette have to offer?

Essence’s Daily Dose of Power eyeshadow palette features a bunch of colorful shades and metallics. The color story does seem a bit of a mish mash with no rhyme or reason to it. However, when you scroll down and look at the looks I created you will see that this roughly splits into two parts: a warm toned coral part and a cooler toned green/ blue part. In total you get three mattes and six shimmers.

What is the color story like?

I already mentioned above that this is a deceivingly difficult palette to use. The colors seem to have been selected randomly but if you start pairing the shades together according to their undertone, it becomes a lot easier to use. That said though, this isn’t the best color story Essence has ever done. The three mattes are a red, a cream and a mint green. The cream is a bit of a non-shade to me: it would have been better if that had been a much deeper brown or black to add some dimension to the palette. Overall this color story is just a bunch of bright shimmer options with not enough mattes to set up a look.

How does the palette swatch?

Unfortunately for this palette, it doesn’t exactly get me hyped once swathed out on my arm. In a finger swatch these all look incredibly light and sheer and nothing truly packs a punch save for that weird orange toned bronze shade. Luckily for these shadows, finger swatches only tell part of the story and I was pleasantly surprised to find these perform much better with a brush. They blend well, the shimmers go only well if you pack them onto the lid with a finger and overall I was able to create two pretty looks. Still, the limiting color story just doesn’t do enough for me.

2 Looks, 1 Palette

As per usual I created as many looks as it would take to use every shade in this palette. I created two looks. The first look is a warm toned look featuring the reds, gold/ champagne, matte cream and that weird orange tone. The second look is my favorite and features the blue, the greens and the silver.

The first look I created was the warm toned look. I used the matte reddish shade in the crease and the red shimmer on the lid. In the inner corner I used the champagne shade as a highlight and I used the bronze/ orange on the lower lash line. To ensure a seamless blend, I used the cream to blend out the crease. Overall I thought this look turned out much better than I had hoped. The shimmers however are a bit sparse and do take some building up before they go on opaque.

My second and final look I combined the blues and greens with the silver. Again I used the cream shade to blend everything out because it is too light to really do anything else for me. The mint green matte worked surprisingly well but once blended out I felt it lost some of the vibrancy. The shimmering green and blue are easily stand out shades in this palette and also the silver performed rather well. Again, due to the flaky texture of these shimmers they are still not my favorites to work with.

My final thoughts

The Essence Daily Dose of Power eyeshadow palette has decent enough quality for the price point. At just €4.99 I wasn’t expecting the world and once applied to the eye these shades actually work quite okay. It’s just not my favorite palette I have ever tried. The mattes work well enough but the shimmers are just a bit too hard for me to work with. The pan size is quite small and the color story is overall a bit lackluster and just a bunch of brights. In short, A for effort, but a D- for execution.

Would I recommend the Essence Daily Dose of Power eyeshadow palette?

Since the quality is okay for the price point I think this can be a fun one to try if you are looking to expand your makeup collection beyond neutrals. If you don’t have a mint green matte yet, or a shimmering blue and you don’t want to spend too much money on it, then this palette could tickle that itch but without it being too expensive. However, if you love your brights already, then this palette has nothing new to offer.

What is a color story you would like to see Essence do?