REVIEW: Essence All About Nude

by - August 26, 2014

Yesterday, I posted about the new Essence All About Sunrise palette, and now it's time to post about the other palette in the collection that was my (and I suspect many, many other people's) must have from the new fall 2014 releases from the company: All About Nude. As you can tell from the photos, I couldn't resist swatching and trying this out before I had a chance to photograph it... I was really excited. Obviously, I'm going to be repeating a lot of the things I said in the Sunrise palette post in this one... so excuse me while I get real lazy and do cutting and pasting. These 6 pan palettes retail for $4.99 CAD, which I think is really reasonable for pretty much any drugstore eyeshadow palette, and are available at Shopper's Drug Mart.

For a closer look, keep reading...

From the Essence website:
all about… beautiful eyes: a gorgeous look is guaranteed by the eyeshadow palettes with six trendy colors each. the smooth texture of the eyeshadows contains shimmering, matt and metallic effects – for endless looks.
There is no description for this particular palette, but instead just one that encompasses the collection. This collection contains 4 different palettes - All About Sunrise, All About Nude, All About Candies, and All About Paradise. According to the Essence.eu website, overseas they've just released a fifth called All About Chocolates, and I'm sincerely hoping that they will bring that one here as well because it looks gorgeous!

My description of this palette would be that it is a collection of cool toned, rosy neutral shadows in various finishes, from nearly matte to satin to shimmery verging on metallic.I would actually say that I find the different finishes in this palette to be a little more interestingly varied than in the All About Sunrise palette, though I can't say that I like either one better than the other on that front. 

Here's the part where I straight up cut and paste...

You know we're gonna talk about the packaging first. These shadows are packaged in a pretty sturdy clear plastic that reminds me quite a bit of the blush packaging from this summer's Beach Cruisers trend edition. The closure on the packaging clicks into place firmly and I have no fears about it popping open if I toss this in my purse. Generally, this isn't my favorite type of packaging, but I like that I can clearly see the shadows and I like that it doesn't feel cheap or flimsy. The pans seem to be a good size, with a generous amount of product, and the simplicity of the packaging allows for ease of use. Overall, I would give the packaging a solid Satisfactory.


At first, I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about the mix of shades in this palette, but I've officially decided that I really like them after using them a little bit. They aren't quite as bang on with texture and pigmentation as the All About Sunrise palette, but I don't necessarily feel like that's a bad thing, particularly because the finishes are quite different on these shades than in the other palette - which was predominantly really shimmery/metallic shades.
 

Let's take a look at each shade....

1 - A pinky/silvery white shade. I wouldn't say that this shade is particularly pigmented, but I don't feel like that's a terrible thing. I find that rather than being a swipe of shimmer white when you apply, it's more of a glowy type look that is very, very pretty. I feel like this shade's pigmentation actually makes it a lot easier to work with and more difficult to go overboard with.
2 - A soft, irridescent baby pink shade. This one, I think, has one of the most interesting finishes in the palette. It's a really pretty irridescent that reminds me a little bit of a pink pearl. It also sheers out really beautifully and I actually find that I really like a wash of it on my lids to give a little bit of dimension to a no-makeup makeup look. 
3 - A slightly dusty pale grey/pink shade. This is the shade that I referred to as being near matte. In fact, it's the closest to matte that I've seen in these palettes. It's also absolutely gorgeous. The texture is smooth, buttery, and pigmented and it has the absolute most subtle sheen to it (hence being near matte.) Beautiful as a lid shade.
4 - A cool, mid toned taupe with a satin finish. This is also a favorite in this palette. It's got incredible, smooth texture and really nice pigmentation. I also feel like there's something subtly very unique about this shade, almost as though it has a bright pink hidden somewhere in the formula. It's hard to explain, but it's gorgeous and makes a really lovely one-shadow eye look.
5 - A silvery mauve shade. This definitely has a metallic finish, but the pigmentation isn't as punchy as the metallics in the other palette. This one definitely comes off softer and easily sheers to a pretty, wintery kind of shade. I think this shade would suit someone a little younger than me, for some reason, but it's very pretty.
6 - I would call this shade Aubergine. It's a deep eggplant shade that actually skews almost to a chocolatey brown depending on the light, which makes me think that the base is brown and the sheen is a vibrant kind of pink. The finish is a really beauty sheen satin finish. The pigmentation is just right for the shade, I think, to keep it from being too dark or difficult to work with. It packs solid punch without being over the top. Definitely a favorite.


To be perfectly honest, I wasn't quite sure what my final verdict was going to be on this palette until I really sat down and thought about each shade. The differences in finish and pigmentation threw me off a little bit, but I've definitely decided that I like those differences. I've actually created a few very different looks with this palette and also used it for a subtle wash of colour over the lid when I didn't want to wear much makeup. I think it's more versatile than it might loo. The two deeper shades on the bottom row make really great one-shadow looks, because they have enough sheen to give some dimension but not so much that they can't easily be blended into the crease. 

Overall, I officially love this palette and I think it'll get a lot of use in my makeup bag going forward. Also, I'm looking forward to playing with the more unique shades to see what they can do.

Essence Cosmetics are available in Canada at Shopper's Drug Mart and I highly recommend checking them out!

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