Monday 29 July 2013

Budget's Ahoy! Essence 50's Girl Reloaded



Now I am about to talk about a brand I hold very close to my heart (and for probably one of the stupidest reasons). While I was living in Switzerland it would be fun on the days when I had little to do, to go to the supermarket and check out the weird and wonderful things I could get. Of course living on a student budget didn’t exactly allow for splurges, and there was this brand, terrible advertising which limited itself directly to kids but upon further research with rave reviews.

Essence.

Essence is a German cosmetics brand that is in fact the number one make up brand in Europe (true fact!) …And boy is its cosmetics CCCheap.

I spent hours upon hours of bored days browsing the essence lines because it meant I was able to experiment with all those little make-up trends and fads without the mass whole in my wallet – and from there many memories were born (sigh).

Anyway, got back to Aus and discovered it is here and if possible at all, around the same price range! So, I can’t really help myself but buy something when I come across it.

Last week I saw in good ol’ target (tarjay) a new range called 50’s girl reloaded which is clear knock off of the MAC Hey, Sailor! 2012 range but with a navy and gold instead of a navy and white focus.

I picked up this eye shadow palette (03 COME ON BOARD CAPTAIN!) because on swatching the gold my pupils probably dilated like 90%, I just fell in love.

Other items in the range include: 

 Nail polish
-       01 ahoy! (white)
-       02 back to the 50’s (red)
-       03 I’m a marine girl (navy)
-       04 love me tender (antique gold)
-       05 you’re a heartbreaker (blue/teal)
Dual eye shadow palettes – they’re all variances on blue and gold
-       01 I’m a marine girl (light gold and royal blue)
-       02 you’re a heart breaker (white gold and teal-like blue
-       03 come on board captain (antique gold and navy)
Kohl pencil eyeliners
-       01 you’re a heartbreaker (navy/teal)
-       02 I’m a marine girl (navy)
-       03 love me tender (antique gold)
Translucent loose finishing powder (01 Ahoy!)
Lipstick
- Back to the 50’s (coral red)
- I’m sailing (light peach nude)
- Dual-ended eye shadow brush



 no flash - true to colour
 with flash

 true to colour gold
 true to colour navy




 No flash - shows the pigmentation and colour of the navy shade best




So the gold side I’d probably call a muted, antique almost dirty gold but weirdly still warm with multifaceted very fine milled shimmer. None of the photos really do it justice for its “antiqueness” if that’s what you could call it. The other thing I noticed about this shade is its texture, for a $5 eye shadow set, my gosh that gold is amazing! It is a fine powder with a creamy element to it and oh so soft.

My issue that once a powder is soft it usually means creasing but with my Clinique _____ eye base in 10 Canvas, the shadow lasted around 9 hours without any real noticeable wear.

The blue shade is a true navy with blue fine milled shimmer. I can’t rave about it as much as the gold as, to be honest, it isn’t as good. Don’t get me wrong it is still a pretty good formula but it’s a tad (just a tad) chalkier and that results in a struggle to get an even swatch of colour.

Pro’s

-       Good formula overall – especially for the ridiculously good price
-       For some reason the antique gold shade just makes me want to sail into its colourful goodness
-       Cute packaging
-       No wastage on a crappy eye shadow applicator
-       Decent sized mirror for application

Con’s
-       Gold is not very buildable – your first and second swatch is pretty much it
-       Blue is buildable but can be a tad uneven in application
-       I’m a bit concerned they might depot themselves – the shadows don’t exactly look secure in there. Will just have to keep safe a sound in the makeup drawer.
-       A couple more shades are needed to really create a look with this palette.

Overall I don’t think there is any harm in trying this palette out, it’s so cheap and soooo much better than any of the permanent essence shadow lines and it’s just so damn cute!
 









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