The Ho! Ho! Ho! Holiday collection by Essence has been causing quite a buzz lately. For good reasons though, it is a gorgeous Christmas / winter collection with adorable items. In today's review, I will show you swatches and write about the way the collection performs. There are a lot of photos to go through, so let's start!
Essence Ho! Ho! Ho! limited edition - Holiday 2018
I managed to buy mine almost 4 weeks ago at Müller, but it is already available both at Rossmann and DM. You can also try to find it at the kosmetik4less webshop if you can't find them in store.
Essence Ho! Ho! Ho! brush - 01 Santa's Little Helper
The most exciting -and my favourite- piece of the entire collection is the brush. THE JOLLIEST BRUSH EVER! The handle has liquid in it, and there are silver glitter and plastic candy cane pieces floating around. How awesome is that? It totally blew my mind when I saw it. As you can see, I purchased two of them, I just love this idea so much.
Please let me know if the embedded instagram video above is showing up properly or not, it doesn't seem to work on my devices. It's a video of the brush.
Essence highlighter brush with floating candy canes
Ho Ho Ho collection
Ho Ho Ho collection
I remember that a lot of Korean cosmetic brands have similar products with this snow globe kind of idea, but somehow I always missed out on those items. As far as I know, Etude House also has similar brushes this year with glitter floating around in them, but Essence's candy canes are cooler in my opinion.
The jolliest brushes ever!
The bristles of the brush are synthetic and have average softness. They are great for applying powder under the eyes, but are big enough to apply brush and bronzer.
Essence Santa's Little Helper brush
I'd love if Essence came out with similar brushes for eyery season: autumn leaves floating around in a fall collection, and flowers swimming in the brush handle as part of a spring collection. I would buy the hell out of them.
Essence Ho! Ho! Ho! tinted lip balm - 01 Let it snow!
Let's move on to the Ho! Ho! Ho! red tinted lipbalm. Yet again, the best part about it is the presentation: it comes in a Christmas ball ornament-type of packaging that you can hang on the tree. I 100% bought it because of the packaging since I need another tinted lipbalm like I need a third boob.
Essence Let it snow! lip balm - Christmas ornament packaging
The balm itself is nothing extra, it has a thin consistency that is similar to the classic blue Blistex lipbalms. It is not too waxy or too slippery like vaseline, it's right in the middle. This little ornament guy has a medium-buildable coverage that looks juicy on the lips, you'll see on the lipswatch. The shade name is 01 Let it snow!, which is quite nice, I like the shade names of the collection.
Essence Let It Snow berry scented lip balm
Essence Ho Ho Ho lipbalm swatch on the lips
Essence Ho! Ho! Ho! eyeshadow palette
A 9-pan eyeshadow palette is also part of the Essence Ho Ho Ho collection, featuring a stunning selection of warm berry, rust and twinkling gold colours. It also includes a multi-coloured pressed glitter, which is 95% the reason why I purchased the palette.
Negative things to say about the palette:
The packaging of the palette is really disappointing to me, especially the colour of the cardboard. They could have at least created a purple or red cardboard packaging for that money, would have been a lot more presentable. This natural cardboard type of packaging does not match the beauty of the shades inside, and it also collects dirt like a magnet. You can easily stamp eyeshadow on it with your fingers, and you won't be able to remove it, because the paper would bubble up and flake off.
Essence Ho! Ho! Ho! eyeshadow palette - 01 Jingle All The Way
(with flash)
(with flash)
The good things:
The palette has 3 matte, 1 satin, 4 foiled metallic and a pressed glitter shade, that is a great selection of different finishes. The colours, however, aren't that versatile; you will get the same kind of rusty, warm make-up looks, no matter how you combine the colours. There are a ton of warm eyeshadow palettes out there, especially this last couple of years, so colour-wise it's not groundbreaking.
Essence Ho! Ho! Ho! eyeshadow palette
(no flash, indoors)
(no flash, indoors)
There are 2 reasons, however, why this palette is still worth buying, even if one's fed up with shades like these. The texture of the foiled metallic eyeshadows is unique to Essence, they don't have any palette or eyeshadow that is even remotely similar. They are very creamy, much like a Colourpop supershock shadow, but not as squishy as those ones. They apply excellently with fingertips, and poorly with a brush, so definitely use your fingers with the metallic colours.
The mattes go on like butter and blend easily when used with a brush, they are also very soft to the touch.
Essence Jingle All The Way palette for Christmas
The second reason I bought the Essence Ho! Ho! Ho! palette is the pressed glitter. First of all, the colour combination is very festive and gorgeous, it has a mixture of bronze, old gold, green and reddish pink glitter. I've also never tried a pressed glitter like this, even though it has been quite popular lately, so I thought I'd try it now.
Essence Ho Ho Ho pressed glitter
When applying the pressed glitter, I'd recommend to use a sticky base, even though it is already suspended in a creamy base. Instead of swiping, tap the product on the eye, or else it will scratch the skin, and also will have a decent amount of fallout. You don't want glitter fallout on your face, it is hell to remove.
I'd recommend not to use it on the lower lashline, it will get in the eye and feel very uncomfortable. I made that mistake, it's better to avoid it.
When removing, use multiple cotton rounds and toss them after each swipe, otherwise it will get in the eye once again. It also scratched my eye area pretty badly, even though I removed it carefully.
Essence Jingle All The Way palette swatches - one swipe each!
The rest of the palette swatches and performs beautifully, my favourites are the foiled colours.
I will upload a separate post featuring several eye looks that I created with the Essence Jingle All The Way palette, so please look forward to it. I did not want to flood this review with even more photos, that's why I decided to write a separate post for the eye looks.
All in all:
The Essence Ho Ho Ho collection is adorable, they hit the nail on the head with the packaging. I would advise you to pick up the brush, it's the greatest looking tool ever. I also really like the new, super creamy formula of the foiled metallic eyeshadows in the palette. You can check out the rest of the collection on Essence's website.
All in all:
The Essence Ho Ho Ho collection is adorable, they hit the nail on the head with the packaging. I would advise you to pick up the brush, it's the greatest looking tool ever. I also really like the new, super creamy formula of the foiled metallic eyeshadows in the palette. You can check out the rest of the collection on Essence's website.
What do you think of the collection? Did something catch your eye?
~ Evinde
I bought the products with my own money.
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