Review and Swatches: Essence Shape Your Face Ready, Set, Peach! Contouring Palette

For this year, Essence prepared a bunch of new interesting products that are already sold in some Müller stores in Slovenia (the last time I checked our Műller in Murska Sobota didn't have new products yet, but now it probably already has). Last month I came across a full stand Try It Love It trend edition collection, which is actually a preview of new products. The product that interested me the most is Shape Your Face contouring palette in Ready, Set, Peach! which actually looks a lot like Sleek's Face Form kit in Fair. First I'm going to review Essence contouring palette and then I'll show it side by side with Sleek's contouring palette and let you know which one I think is better.

Review: Essence Shape Your face contouring palette

Essence contouring palette is packed in a plastic packaging with a transparent lid, which is a standard for Essence. It looks cheap, but I think it's sturdy enough that it won't break quickly. The palette contains a bronzer, a highlighter and a blush. I paid 4,39 € for 14 g. 

The bronzer is my favourite in this palette. It's nicely pigmented and it's easy to work with it, but, on the other hand, the shade is not the best, because it's a brown with an orange undertone. It's matte, so it's perfect for contouring and I have to say that when I blend it, the orange undertone isn't that noticeable and it works great for my skin. Its texture is very silky and smooth.

The highlighter is nothing special. I wouldn't miss it if this palette would be without it. It's a beigy matte highlighter, quite dusty and with not that great colour payoff. All it does is mattifies the skin, because when I apply it on the highest point of my cheeks it doesn't give my skin any shine I expect from a highlighter. I'm far from being impressed by it.

The blush is a peachy shade with a lot of golden glitter. The blush is something that I have a love-hate relationship with, which is surprising because peachy shades are amazing shades for cheeks and I also like the glitter, but this combination in this blush just doesn't work the best for me. The colour payoff is medium, but the blush is buildable. The same as the highlighter is also dusty, but the main problem I have with it is that I find it harder to blend. I feel like the base itself blends okay, but the glitter sticks in one place and it doesn't want to move on the skin nicely. Maybe this is just my feeling because on photos it looks good, but I feel like in some places there is just too much glitter. And when I upgrade it, I just add more and more glitter. Don't get me wrong, I love shimmery blushes but I feel like the glitter in this blush is just a bit too much for me. I don't know maybe I'll change my mind in the summer when I'll be tanned because maybe the blush will look better on tanned skin, we'll see. It's just a personal preference. I'd rather see that blush would have a bit less glitter and the highlighter would have it a bit more because now highlighter is totally useless to me.

I applied all products in few layers for this swatch. I can not complain about the duration time, but have in mind that I like a lot of colour on my cheeks and I always apply few layers so that they look intense, which means that these products lasted quite a long time on my cheeks.

Comparison with Sleek Face For Kit in Fair

I haven't reviewed Sleek Face For Kit on my blog yet, and I don't know why because I love it since the first day I got it. Sleek has much fancier packaging than Essence. Sleek's packaging is a matte black plastic packaging, much sturdier and it has a mirror inside, which is always handy. When it comes to packaging, Sleek is definitely a winner.

The texture of products in both palettes in quite similar, but Sleek's palette is much better pigmented. There's also a difference in the shades. Sleek also has a matte brown bronzer, but it doesn't have such a strong orange undertone as Essence. The shades of highlighters are similar, maybe Essence one is a bit whither, but there's a difference in the texture. Sleek's highlighter has a metallic finish, which makes it look pretty on cheeks. Sleek's Face Form kit contains blush Rose Gold, which is a coral metallic blush with golden glitter. Unlike Essence's blush Sleek one is easier to blend on cheeks and the glitter is less overwhelming. Probably because Sleek's blush gives a golden metallic sheen to the cheeks and not just a lot of glitter as Essence blush. When it comes to duration time, I like to apply my products heavily on cheeks, so both of these lasted a long time.

I decided to compare bronzers from Sleek and Essence contouring palettes with bronzer from Catrice Prime and Fine contouring palette. I can say that the definite winner here is Catrice's bronzer because it has the most taupe undertone, which makes it the perfect shade for contouring even for paler girls. 

I don't think that Essence palette is that bad, I read many positive reviews about it and some people adore it. However, there are some things that bother me and my first choice would always be Sleek Face Form kit in Fair. The complete palette works better for me. Sleek Face For Kit contains 20 g and it costs around  16 € (Ličila.si, Moja drogerija).

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Have you tried Essence Shape Your Face palette? How do you like it? Do you prefer Sleek or Essence palette? Thank you for reading!

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