£20 Essentials with Essence? DIY Beauty Advent Calendar

£19.99

Finally a beautiful and creative beauty advent calendar for £20! Are Essence Cosmetics good quality? Is this calendar suitable for a mature audience as well? What is the DIY factor? 

CONTENTS 

Makeup: 13 items

More than half of this calendar is makeup items, including eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, blushers, lip glosses, lipsticks and tools.

In terms of eye shadow we have the Follow Your Heart Eyeshadow Palette which is a gorgeous nine pan nude palette. 

The Superlast Eyeliner Matt Black looks very promising as well, having a long, thin applicator, which should be able to create elegant, sharp and thin lines. I am also delighted that it is matte, as I find that matte black liquid eyeliners are the most flattering. 

The Lash Princess mascara range from Essence is famous for being amazing and costing just a few pounds. This time, in this calendar, another mascara is offered, the Instant Volume Boost Mascara Smudge-Proof And Intense Black, probably to introduce Essence fans to more of their mascara other than the very well known and hyped Princess ones. 

To finish up the eyes, the calendar also contains false eyelashes, the Lash On Lash Off Volumizing Magnetic Accent Lashes – 01 Turn Up The Volume! 

For the face, there is the Pure Nude Sunlighter – Be My Sunlight which is a luminous bronzer that reminds of the Hourglass Ambient Bronzers, due to their golden, luminous tones.

The Essence Matt Touch Blush – Peach Me Up! comes in a peachy pink and is matte, which I think has the potential to be a generous blusher and reminds me a bit of the NARS’ Orgasm. 

Then we have an array of lip products. There are three lip glosses, the first one being the Plumping Nudes Lipgloss – Bold Love, which has a plum nude colour. The second lip gloss is the Matt Matt Matt Lipgloss 02 Beauty-Approved! which puzzles me as I have never heard of a matte lip gloss before. This one comes in a gorgeous plum colour as well. Lastly, the third lip gloss in this calendar is the Crystal Wet Look Lipgloss 01 Bright Diamond which looks clear and shiny, which will add a glossy, shiny effect onto any colour.

There is one lipstick, the Colour Up! Shine On! Lipstick 08 Flaming Red, which is very moisturising and pigmented. I have always loved Essence lipsticks and I think they are some of the best on the market for such an affordable price. 

The lipliner included in this calendar is the Draw The Line! Instant Colour Lipliner – So Un-Grey-Tful in a plum nude shade, which will compliment beautifully all those nude lipglosses. 

The tools included in the Essence calendar are the Short Blender Brush, which is an eye shadow brush and the Style Your Wing! Cut Out Eyeliner Tool. I have a few Essence brushes, and they are decent and I still use them years and years later. I am not sure if the eyeliner tool will actually be a useful one, but it certainly looks fun to play with.

Overall, the makeup section looks good, offering a complete set of items for the eyes, a beautiful bronzer and blush and a multitude of lip products. Other than the flaming red lipstick, the range of products are in nude colours, allowing you to create a gorgeous makeup and, after all, giving you products that you can use on an everyday basis to do your makeup. 

From my experience with Essence makeup, these products have all the chance to impress you. Their eyeshadows are excellent, their mascaras are loved by many people, their eyeliners are always good and the blush and bronzer offered here would not surprise me if they would perform excellently and would be duplicates for very loved, hyped, expensive products on the market. 

Skincare: 5 items

In the skincare section there is a sheet mask, the Time To Wake Up Face Sheet Mask – Wake Up Stand Up. The ingredients look really good, although it does have lye at the very end of the list. 

Then there is a three step routine for lip care, the My Beauty Lip Ritual range, which I think is absolutely fabulous! The first product is the Step 1 Peeling 01 Peel It!, a jar with peeling cream, which will get rid of skin flakes. The Step 2 Mask 02 Patch It! is a lip mask which will hydrate and plump the lips. Finally, the Step 3 Primer 03 Prime It! is a primer for the lips enriched with shea butter, macadamia oil and Vitamin E and has a sun protection factor of 15.

The final skincare product in the Essence calendar is a hydrating setting spray, the Prime + Studio HD Hydra Primer Spray. This setting spray does contain alcohol, coconut water and perfume, all being potential irritants for the skin. I have only previously tried the Matte setting spray from Essence which was a disappointment. If you are a fan of setting sprays though, this could come in handy. 

The skincare section is well balanced, offering a face mask, a complete range of lip care and a setting spray. I think that especially the lip care set is a fantastic addition and is something that most people will be able to use.

Bath, Body & Other: 6 items

Nails: 6 items

This calendar does not contain anything in terms of body or bath. As far as I am aware, Essence does not have any such products. However, they did include six nail products in this calendar. 

There are three nail polishes. Glitter On Glitter Off Peel Off Nail Polish 01 Put A Ring On It is a silver glitter nail polish which looks extra fun. The Glitter On Glitter Off Peel Off Nail Polish 03 Party Queen is part of the same glittery range, this time coming in pink. The third one is the Glow In The Dark Top Coat 36 Girl On The Moon about which I did not find much information, but apparently it does glow in the dark! 

Another fun item is the Bracelet Nail Stickers 10 Bracelet which appears to be some stickers you add onto your nails that look like chains. 

The Studio Nails Rosewood Sticks are wooden sticks to help you push the cuticles back or for helping you clean around your nails after you applied your nail polish. Lastly in the nail section there is a sapphire file, which will surely come in handy. 

I love that the nail section is all party fun, giving you funky items to play with, while also giving you some essentials, such as the nail file. This is what I mean when I keep saying that some advent calendars lack the fun element. I think these calendars are the perfect opportunity to try some fun colours and experiment with new things. 

EXPERIENCE 

Get ready, because this calendar gets better and better! This is a DIY calendar, meaning that it comes in a beautiful box, that opens and contains all the products inside without any packaging. The fun element is that you get stickers with the numbers 1-24, and paper bags with Christmas decorations on them. It is your job to choose their order and prepare them as a Christmas Beauty Advent Calendar. For anyone that loves DIY, this will be extra fun and lovely to prepare. 

However, this will not be for everyone, as some people will like everything to be ready to open. That being said, this calendar is advertised as a DIY one, so its whole concept revolves around fun and creativity. If you do not like the concept, I believe there are more 2020 Essence Beauty Advent Calendars out there, which have a more conventional packaging. 

This calendar has 24 items which means it does not offer a product on Christmas Day.

IS IT WORTH IT?

This is an amazing beauty advent calendar at an extremely affordable price. For £20 you get thirteen makeup items, which, as I previously mentioned, mostly have nude colours, making the range appropriate even to a more mature audience. 

Essence makeup is not just affordable for the sake of it, most of the time offering quality as well. In terms of makeup, this calendar is a lovely opportunity to receive some new products to try and experiment with. 

If you want to know more about Essence Cosmetics and want to see some of their makeup in action, watch my video here. You can also check some of their nail polishes here. If you are curious about more makeup looks created with Essence, see here.

The skincare section is fabulous as well, as everyone needs some lip care, especially given the current circumstances when our lips are even drier from wearing face coverings. Again, from a young audience to a mature one, the skincare will suit all. 

The nail section might be the one that will not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, the glittery nail polish might cheer you up on dark, winter days, and the nail file and nail sticks will come in handy regardless. The nail section is the one that brings the fun factor. 

In terms of the worth value of the calendar, it is difficult to calculate it, as the essence products vary in price from one country to the other. With Romanian prices, the worth value would probably be just over £20. With UK prices, the value would greatly exceed £20. The trick to it all is that most of the products offered in this calendar are discontinued, at least as far as I could see. Whether you are an Essence Cosmetics fan or whether you just want to experiment with their products, this is your chance to grab all these items before they disappear off the market. 

The DIY element is a genius trick to make this calendar even more fun, and I am sure this will bring joy and pleasure to many customers. 

Also, many of the products in this calendar are vegan and cruelty free.

The final verdict is that this calendar is worth it, top to bottom, left to right, in all shapes and forms possible. I will even go as far as to say that this looks like a fantastic calendar even if you are not on a budget, but are looking for new products to experiment with and have some fun for Christmas. Moreover, I think this is appropriate both for a young audience and a more mature one, due to the fact that it contains beautiful nudes and glittery colours and products. 

 See all reviews of Beauty Advent Calendars 2020

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More Beauty Advent Calendars 2020 coming soon!

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