Review: Essence Bloom Me Up! Limited Edition Collection

Delicate lace with floral patterns combined with fresh colours consisting of pink, apricot and lavender, Spring is going to be playful and romantic – and at the same time, it’s self-confident and totally cool, with these fashionable beauty-pieces. Your eyes, lips, face, and nails are sure to turn into absolute eye-catchers. 

As soon as I saw this collection I knew I needed to own most of it, if not all of it. I pretty much cleared out the display when I found it at Shoppers Drug Mart. I was interested in the pink lipstick, however, my stores didn't have it. I also wanted the lace nail decals, however, upon inspection realized that they wouldn't fit my nail shape.

There were 3 nail polishes in this collection, and I picked up all of them. Bright, fresh colours consisting of mint, lavender, and apricot are about to make a statement. The effects – sometimes pearly, sometimes plain – are sure to put you the mood for new nail styles. Long-lasting and with a high coverage, these pretty polishes will make your nails stand out from the crowd. 

All three polishes were opaque in 2 coats. They went on evenly, streak free, and there was no bubbling. Like other Essence polishes these were fast drying, and so beautiful on the nail! Lovely Lavender and Blooming Tender had a pearl finish, and Blow My Mint was a pure creme polish. All of these colours are perfect for Spring, and I cant wait to wear them all season long

Lovely Lavender

Blow My Mint

Blooming Tender

Rose It Up

The delicately pigmented powder in light beige gives your face and neckline a touch of shimmer. And thanks to the elaborate floral design on the surface, this powder is beautiful to look at too! 

I love Essence's Limited Edition Face Powders! They are always such high quality, and beautiful to look at. This Shimmer Powder has an embossed floral pattern that will eventually wear away. I almost don't want to use it because of how pretty it is. This gives a light pink/white sheer wash of shimmer to the face. I definitely wouldn't use this all over my face, but as a highlight on the cheekbones, it is gorgeous. 

Chasing Lacey

The blush stick offers fresh accents in pink and feels lovely and powdery on your skin. The twistable blush stick guarantees a simple and practical application and the colour becomes more intense with each layer. 

I am not normally one for cream cheek products,  mostly because I can never find a good application method that doesn't have me looking like a clown. This coral-pink blush goes on quite sheer so I'm pretty sure I will be able to make it work. The colour is so pretty and it blends easily onto the skin. The only downside I find to this product is that it is quite greasy, and it doesn't dry to a powder finish.

Bloomylicious

One end of the pen is especially for use on the inner lid to create a wide awake, open look. Applied underneath the eyebrow, this other end usually lifts the brow. 

This is the product I really wanted from this collection. This helps make my eyes look open and awake. The salmon/pink colour of the liner pencil looks less harsh and obvious as white. I haven't used the eyebrow pencil yet, as I normally don't use a pencil to highlight, but I cant wait to experiment with it.

L-R: Eyebrow Pencil, Eyeliner Pencil, Blush, Shimmer Powder

Swatched: NYX - The Crimson Amulet Collection

I first saw this NYX collection on GoldieStarling's YouTube Channel when she was part of the NYX Face Awards. I fell in love with this palette and thought that the colours just looked gorgeous. A few months later after I had cancelled Glossybox for the first time, I saw that us Canadian girls were getting this makeup collection as part of the September Box. I quickly re-signed up because I thought $15 for this palette plus 4 other samples was a great deal. I was so excited to receive this palette, but since September it has sat with my other palettes unswatched and unused.

I finally broke this palette out last week and have been using it everyday since. Now I haven't used the glosses so I can't give a review on those, but the powder products and eyeshadow base I love love love.

The mini HD High Definition Eyeshadow Base reminds me of the Urban Decay Primer Potion in look, feel, and how it makes my eyeshadows last. I will definitely be buying a full size of this primer once I use up what I have.

The highlighter is beautiful. It is perfect for my skin tone and gives my skin a wonderful glow. I use it on my cheekbones, down my nose, and on my cupids bow and it just brings a very nautral looking light to my skin.

The blushes in this palette are highly pigmented. I like using the shimmer ones on light makeup days because it eliminates me having to put on a highlighter. I haven't used the red shade yet, cause in all honesty, it scares the crap out of me. It is so pigmented and bold and I just don't think that it is a colour I can pull off. I like that they included both matte and shimmer blushes in this palette.










There are 24 eyeshadows included in this palette that range from matte neutral shades to shimmery bronze, dark green, navy blue, and yellow gold. You could create endless looks with the colours you are given. I find that the shimmer shades are very pigmented and have great colour payoff. Some of the neutral shades I find are a bit chalky and don't show up that good when swatched or on the eye. One of the shades you can barely see when I swatched it because it is pretty much my skin tone.

Compared to the NYX trio palettes and individual eyeshadows I feel like these are lacking a bit in quality. And I am sure there individual blushes are of better quality, but for what I paid for this palette I am getting great value for my money.

All swatches were done over Hard Candy Eyeshadow Primer. The eyeshadows were swatched from left to right, top to bottom, row by row. Please be warned, this post is very picture heavy!

1) Dark grey/brown almost black
2) Very light pink shimmer. Reminds me of MAC Kitchmas.
3) Eggplant purple with purple and gold glitter.
4) Orange based bronze shimmer.

5) Lilac shimmer
6) Taupe shimmer
7) Gold peach shimmer. Swatch looks more gold but in the pan there is a noticeable hint of peach.
8) Navy blue/black with blue glitter.

9) Navy Blue
10) Forest green with gold shimmer
11) Medium brown with gold shimmer
12) Dark purple with brown undertones

13) Matte cream. Pretty much my skin tone.
14) Matte taupe
15) Matte light brown
16) White shimmer

17) Champagne

18) Matte dark brown

19) Pale pink with shimmer. Looks closer to white.

20) Matte dark grey

21) Pink shimmer
22) Shimmery taupe
23) Brown toned bronze shimmer
24) Yellow gold



1) Matte red. Looks kinda orange in this swatch.
2) Matte light pink.

3) Shimmery pink

4) Shimmery peach

5) Slightly darker peach shimmer.

 

 

 

Have you tried this palette before? If so what do you like or not like about it? What are some other NYX products you think I should check out?