REVIEW: essence Light Up Your Face Luminizer Palette

by - January 27, 2017


Last year, one of the most surprising and exciting products that I found in the drugstore was the essence Pure Nude Highlighter, which I still use consistently and you may recall got featured in my 2016 Favorite Cheek Products. When I saw that they had released the essence Light Up Your Face Luminizer Palette, I was 100% on board to get it into my hot little hand and ordered it with my big Cyber Monday Haul. I've finally been putting it to the test and I'm ready to review it for you guys, so keep reading to see how it worked out for me!



About: 
These three highlighter powders with light-reflecting pigments accentuate your features with a glowing finish. Use individually or blend together to create natural dimension.
  • Nude: Contour along the temples, hollows of the cheeks and jawline for a sublte glow 
  • Rose: Apply to the high points of the face - tops of cheeks, bridge of your nose, brow bone and Cupid's bow to brighten
  • Golden: Layer on the apples of the cheeks for soft warm finish.
Nude, Rose, Golden

How pretty is this palette, you guys? I swear, essence packaging just keeps getting prettier and prettier and I feel like the clear acrylic packaging combined with the embossing on the powers themselves just makes everything look much more expensive than it actually is. LOVE it. 

I think, when you look at this palette, you can see where it kind of mimics the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette in the different tones of the powders, so I want to get this out of the way off the bat... This is not a dupe. I repeat, not a dupe.


As you can see, you definitely have three very specific tones in this palette and they are intended to all be used at the same time. The first shade, Nude, is a sort of light bronzing shade with a slight satin sheen and I've found that for sculpting my face this actually works really beautifully. I don't know how well it would show up in this way on skin any deeper in tone than mine, but on my fair skin it works really beautifully and I actually really love that it isn't matte because I feel like it gives a healthy look to the skin without being outright glowy.

The second shade, Rose, is your traditional highlighter shade and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. When I swatched it, I felt like I really wasn't going to like it because it does have some microglitters in it and I personally prefer more of a sheen on the skin that a shimmer personally. However, when I applied to my cheekbones I really loved the look that it gave on the skin. I looked glowy without looking too golden or too pink and I couldn't really see the micro glitters on the skin. However, throughout the day, I did find that I was starting to really notice those little glitters on my skin and I felt like they were spotlighting texture there. I feel like this will probably work really well for some people - particularly a younger customer - and really be a no go for others, but it's really all about preference.

Finally, the last shade in the palette is Golden and it's my least favorite shade in the palette because I just find it to be way too orangey gold for my skintone. I think the texture is really nice and this could work well for someone with a more tan or deep skintone who really wants to bring the glow, but on me this just doesn't work. I might be able to use it in the summer as a light blush topper, but overall I just don't think this is going to be a shade that I personally reach for much.


Overall, I think that for the price this is a really decent highlighter palette, but I do think that it might work better for someone younger who doesn't have as much texture on their skin and can pull off those little glitters a little bit more. I think that deeper skin tones will probably be able to get use out of the Golden shade but will likely find the Rose shade too ashy and the Nude shade too light, while a fair skin will probably be the opposite. Really, I think this is going to be a matter of personal preference, but for the price I do think it's worth trying out if it interests you and I'm not sad that I have it. I actually have a feeling that Nude shade is going to end up hitting pan.

I hope this was helpful, even though it was a little bit wishy washy. Thanks for reading!

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