Essence Advent Calendar 2017

Today I'm happy to be sharing yet another advent calendar that I did. Today is Essence's offering. It's 24 days and allegedly all full-sized products. I purchased mine from the Essence website, but when it was offered for 50% off the $39.99 retail price.

This had a cute interior design.

Each of the doors has an adorable saying in the inside.

Here's the breakdown by day:

Day One: Nail Buffer Block
Day Two: I Heart Trends Mini Nail Polish-Me & My Snowflake
Day Three: Longlasting Lipstick in 16 I Am Yours!
Day Four: Gift Bags
Day Five: Concealer & Makeup Sponges
Day Six: I Heart Extreme Mascara
Day Seven: I Heart Trends Mini Nail Polish- hohoho my love
Day Eight: Kajal Pencil in 01 Black
Day Nine: Pencil Sharpener
Day Ten: Gift Tags
Day Eleven: Balmy Kiss Moisturizing Lip Care
Day Twelve: Tweezers
Day Thirteen: Eyebrow Designer Pencil in 02 Brown
Day Fourteen: Nail Stickers
Day Fifteen: I Heart Trends Mini Nail Polish-the xmas nail story
Day Sixteen: All About Matt!  Fixing Setting Powder
Day Seventeen: Hand Cream (0.8 fl oz)
Day Eighteen: I Heart Trends Mini Nail Polish- Santa Clause's Surprise
Day Nineteen: Invisible Kiss Transparent Lipliner
Day Twenty:Matt Matt Matt lipstick in 05 Red-y or Not?
Day Twenty-One: Hair Ties
Day Twenty-Two: I Heart Trends Mini Nail Polish- Hello Nice to Glitter You
Day Twenty-Three: Hand tattoos
Day Twenty-Four: Mini hair brush

Here's a look at the nail polish:

And the makeup:

The holiday items:

The hair items:

And the other items:

Essence is a brand that I'm interested in diving deeper into, so this seemed like a good opportunity. I'll be honest, $40 seemed steep but I'm thrilled to have it at the $20 price point. I'd purchase in 2018 if I could get it at a similar price.

Essence Metal Eyeshadows

Tonight I'm going to share a quick peek at what was an impulse purchase one evening at Ulta. I spotted the Essence display with the Metals eyeshadows.

These baked shadows weigh in at 4g/ 0.14oz each and retail for $3.99. There were six shades at my Ulta, but there are nine shades listed on the brand's website. I purchased two of them to test the formula- and for one specific reason which I'll get into.


First up, Ballerina.

This is a lovely champagne shimmer. Ballerina Glam looks like it would be fantastic as either a subtle, glam lid shade or as a highlighter.

I wasn't sold on the baked formula. but was willing to give it a chance.

This is the swatch:

It's gorgeous and has better pigmentation than a lot of the other baked highlighters in my stash.

The other shade I picked up was Deep Sea.

I'm not sure why this called to me, but it did. It's a deep blue.

This is totally not my type of color, but the formula's very smooth.

This is pretty and smoky- now, I just need a reason to wear this at night!

I think these are fantastic for the price and highly recommend them.Ballerina Glam is my choice of the two (obviously). I'll be delving further into Essence in 2018, so stay tuned!