Essence: Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette Review


I hadn't bought any eyeshadows from Essence for a pretty long time. My last eyeshadow purchase from the Trend Editions (i.e. limited editions) was the much sought-after Vampire's Love Eyeshadow Palette back in November last year. The pans may have been tiny but the eyeshadows were fab.


The Ready For Boarding trend edition collection has been in stores here for several weeks now (and not selling well, I must add). Against my better judgement, I bought the eyeshadow palette, called 01 Beauty On Tour. I'm not a huge fan of light/pastel eyeshadow shades but after swatching the testers in the store, I convinced myself that I needed some lighter eyeshadow colours to balance out the abundance of medium-dark ones in my drawer.

[slaps face]

I regret getting this palette. I really do. Okay, I didn't spend a fortune on this - only €3.49 - but it's still a waste of money. Cosnova (the company behind Essence and Catrice) knows how to make quality eyeshadows and selling them at very affordable prices but this palette is, ppffff, sub-standard.


The Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette does look cute with its postcard/stamp-like design. It's small (approx. 3.5" x 2.5") and it shuts with a magnet. You get six mostly pastel shades for the price but to be honest, I thought the only respectable one of the lot was the brown eyeshadow on the far right. All the shades have a satin finish.


The swatches:

L-R: Light taupe grey, pale yellow, mint green, pale cornflower blue, pale beige, medium brown


They look quite all right in the swatches, don't they? Decent.

Well, the problem I have with the five light eyeshadows is that once I've blended them out, they all look pretty much the same. The grey and the blue end up looking ashy. Faded out, the mint green and the pale yellow would resemble the pale beige. I can hardly tell the difference! Ashy and beige become one!

The brown shade is the only one able to hold its own. It's not unique but at least, it's a lovely bronzy brown.

I've worn these eyeshadows numerous times but I won't bother to show you a couple of the eye looks. They were just, yes, ashy and/or beige.

However, the following eye looks were okay (not wow), I thought, but that's only because in one, I had used predominantly the brown shade and in the other, I used the orange Exotica (one of the Catrice Coolibri Eye Shadow Pens) as a base.

Note: For all the swatches and the first eye look, I've used the Etos Eyeshadow Underbase as my eyeshadow primer.

Products used:
Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette - pale yellow and brown
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Metallic Brass
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green



Products used:
Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette - pale yellow, pale blue and brown
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Metallic Brass
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green

For this second eye look, I applied the pale cornflower blue on the orange of Exotica.

"Where is the blue?" I hear you ask.

My point exactly! It just 'ashened' the orange.

Perhaps it's worth pointing out that this Essence palette was made in China. Many of the Essence/Catrice products that I've purchased were made in countries like Italy, Poland, France, Germany and Luxembourg, so seeing 'Made in China' here is unusual. Oh, I don't know.........

Enough said!


Essence website

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the packaging and the swatches look gorgeous. Pity it didn't work out with blending. Take care, Nicole x

Witoxicity said...

@Nicole
I've come to have pretty high expectations of Essence/Catrice as they often deliver. So, what a pity it was a disappointing palette. Anyway, it's a good thing it was an inexpensive palette. Next!! :)

Tina said...

what a beautiful eye shadow

Nikki said...

Leuk doosje en de kleuren zijn op het eerste gezicht best mooi. Jammer dat de kwaliteit minder is. De laatste tijd zie ik dat de limited edition collectie's niet zo goed worden verkocht. Groetjes!

Anonymous said...

Lovely shades and I like the satin finish. cool palette and I love the price. Downside seems to be the blending. Is it too bright for you to use them on their own, so you can still use them? "KTee"xx

Witoxicity said...

@tina
They do look beautiful, don't they? :)

@Nikki
Ja, dat heb ik ook gemerkt. Misschien zijn mensen de limited editions al een beetje zat of zijn ze gewoon niet speciaal genoeg (of zou het door de economische crisis komen?). Groetjes! :)

@KTee
Hi, KTee! Well, it will be more or less the same story if I used them individually. The shadow may maintain its 'integrity' better if I just patted it on and not fade it out at all but really, that only points to its poor pigmentation, right? And if I faded that out just a bit, it'll look ashy already. So, however you see it, it's back to square one. :P