Ah yes, I am also bringing skincare reviews back to the blog. And we’re kicking things off with the Essence Fresh & Fit Vitamin Bomb face serum. Essence has been doing quite a lot of skincare in the past few launches they did and so I was curious to try them. The only thing I reviewed for you so far is the Hello Good Stuff Primer Serum, which I used as a primer, so today is the first I am actually reviewing an actual Essence skincare product, so let’s go.
Skincare review: Essence Fresh & Fit Vitamin Bomb Face Serum with B5 & Niacinamide
One of the reasons why I wanted to try Essence skincare was quite simple: their skincare is as affordable as their makeup is. And I love myself some affordable skincare. Not because I don’t want to invest in my skin, but because I love finding products that work just as good as high end but at a cheaper price point. At a mere €4.59, I think this is a good contender and the fact that this claims to have niacinamide in, had me very very intrigued. Niacinamide is hands down once of my favorite skincare ingredients, my skin LOOOOVES it, so I was very happy to try this out.
What does this product have to offer?
I think Essence was very clever to incorporate more skincare into their line. Skincare is a major trend in the beauty sphere (and rightly so!) and this looks like the rest of their line: simple and basic, but also affordable and hopefully effective. Essence claims this serum should hydrate and smooth the skin. It has Vitamin B5, E and Niacinamide for some added bonus and it should leave the skin looking radiant. I have used this product up completely so far and it didn’t set off my sensitive skin, so that is always great.
What are the ingredients like?
So this serum comes with a dropper as an applicator what I like. This is a glass bottle, which also makes this product feel much more high end than you might expect, though a glass bottle in a bathroom, always makes me nervous. Let’s have a closer look at the ingredient list. Here it is:
AQUA (WATER), NIACINAMIDE, GLYCERIN, PANTHENOL, TOCOPHEROL, HELIANTHUS ANNUUS (SUNFLOWER) SEED OIL, SODIUM HYALURONATE, XANTHAN GUM, GLYCERYL LINOLEATE, PENTYLENE GLYCOL, SODIUM LAURYL SULFOACETATE, SODIUM OLEOYL SARCOSINATE, MENTHYL LACTATE, ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN, SODIUM GLUCONATE, GLYCERYL LINOLENATE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, SODIUM OLEATE, SODIUM SULFATE, CITRIC ACID, PHENOXYETHANOL, PARFUM (FRAGRANCE), CI 15510 (ORANGE 4).
I was quite surprised by this list to be fair. Niacinamide is the second ingredient on the list. Now I am no skincare expert but I do know that the higher up the list the ingredient is located, the more of it is in the product. There sadly is some fragrance in this and also a coloring agent. So this may not be the best if you are sensitive to those things. I have never been able to figure out exactly what makes my skin react to certain products, which is hy to me, this looked to be an okay product.
What is this product like?
If you’ve been around, you’ll know I prefer to not review a skincare product until I have used it up completely. In fact, I think by now this product was already featured in my 2021 beauty empties video as I did use this up some weeks ago. Nevertheless I remember experiencing this product as simple, yet it does what it says it will do. It hydrated my skin, it wasn’t super effective in the smoothing department I found, as I have used other niacinamide products that I felt were better at dealing with texture than this is (the Good Molecules Discoloration Correcting serum comes to mind). Maybe this is just a bit too much filler and not as many active ingredients as the ingredient list may have you expect.
My final thoughts
My initial response to this was scepticism but that definitely turned around once I actively used this on a daily basis. The Essence Vitamin Bomb face serum is a nice product at an affordable price point. I wouldn’t say this a mindblowingly wonderful, gamechanging skincare product. It’s just nice. I am uncertain it truly adds anything, so I won’t be repurchasing it for myself, but if you don’t have too many demands from your skincare, I think this is quite nice.
Would I recommend the Essence Vitamin Bomb Face Serum?
Well, I find it difficult to make very bold claims about skincare products. I liked this alright, but I wasn’t blown away by how effective this was. It has some questionable ingredients that many people may want to avoid depending on what works for them. So this I wouldn’t recommend for everyone. But if you want to try some affordable skincare then I think Essence has some pretty good products in their line if all you are looking is for something that can cover your basics.