I got this palette in my essence DIY advent calendar and now I had a few days to play around with it. It’s a palette that was released at the beginning of the year, if I’m not mistaken as part of a limited edition focused on the main elements that govern the zodiac signs. It says it’s the 04 Dance With The Waves! shade, but that doesn’t mean anything because essence tends to name their products different names even if there are no other products in the same line. It’s a 9-pan pocket-sized eyeshadow palette that contains matte and shimmery shades, as well as a pressed glitter which is a shame because I hate pressed glitters and the color would have been a nice marine blue with some golden particles in it.

Packaging:

The packaging is hard cardboard with magnetic closure and it gives some information about the water element, which governs the cancer, scorpio and pisces zodiac signs. It also says that those born under these signs are emphatic, intuitive and creative. the colors used are blue and white, with golden writing and I think it looks really nice and it reflects the inside of the palette. It contains 7.2 grams.

Texture:

Like I said above, there are eyeshadows with different finishes in here, mattes, shimmers and a pressed glitter.

Ingredients:

Mica, synthetic fluorphlogopite, talc, caprylic/capric triglyceride, dimethicone, boron nitride, magnesium stereate, ethylhexyglycerin, phenoxyethanol, may contain (+/-): CI 16035 (red 40 lake), CI 42090 (blue 1 lake), CI 77007 (ultramarines), CI 77742 (manganese violet), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (iron oxides) and ingredients: talc, mica, synthetic fluorphlogopite, caprylic/capric triglyceride, dimethicone, boron nitride, magnesium stereate, ethylhexyglycerin, phenoxyethanol, may contain (+/-): CI 42090 (blue 1 lake), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (iron oxides), CI 77891 (titanium dioxide), and ingredients: polyethylene terephthalate, synthetic fluorphlogopite, caprilyc/capric triglyceride, dimethicone, magnesium stereate, acrylates copolymer, ozokerite, ethylhexyglycerin, phenoxyethanol, CI 42090 (blue 1 lake), CI 77007 (ultramarines), CI 77491, CI 77492 (iron oxides).

This is a vegan formula (yay!) and it’s also cruelty free, like all essence products.

Swatches:

The shades have no name, so I’m going to show them to like they are arranged in the palette, starting from the top row, from left to right. So we have a marine blue with shimmery finish, a royal blue with shimmery finish, a violet with shimmery finish, a marine green with matte finish, a turquoise with shimmery finish, a light blue pressed glitter, a gold with shimmery finish, a light brown with matte finish and an orange brown with shimmery finish.

Price and accessibility:

Since this eyeshadow palette is already discontinued because essence brings out new products all the time, I found it only on some Romanian online shops at the price of around 6 euros. I think that this is more decent considering the quality. essence products are very affordable and the quality is usually very nice, so I think that’s more than fair.

My overall opinion:

I really like the color story of this palette because I like blue shades but most palettes tend to have only some dark blue shades in there and that’s it. This one has also lighter blue shades and the shimmery finish makes them even nicer. Some shades do look a little bit muted on the eyes and not as vivid as in the pan.

The pressed glitter is a big no-no, even the swatch doesn’t look great and it’s fall out city on the lid if I would try to use it. The violet shade is very nice as it has some pinky undertones and I also like the turquoise, the gold, the marine green and the marine blue shades the most. the two brown shades are a little bit too warm for my liking, but I think that the shades do go well with all the blues.

Considering the low price and the nice quality of the eyeshadows (they feel very soft and they don’t have a lot of kick-back), I think this eyeshadow palette is a nice addition to my collection. I know it was a limited edition but since essence products do pop up in online stores even if they are from older collections, I thought it was worth doing a short review on it and to tell you that I do recommend it as a nice drugstore palette.