Brand Spotlight: Essence Cosmetics

Hey everyone!

Today I wanted to do a brand spotlight on Essence Cosmetics! I've done Brand Spotlights in the past where I've talked about Circle lens companies, but I thought it'd be great to incorporate some posts about various makeup brands as well. So, let's get started!

Essence Cosmetics is a brand that is fairly new to me. It was recently brought to Canada and is exclusive to Shoppers Drug Mart but I believe it's been available in the United States through Target for a while now. The brand is not expensive at all, especially for a drugstore brand and delivers a variety of products ranging from eyeshadows to mascara to blush and false eyelashes.  I personally haven't tried many of the products, minus the Stay With Me Longlasting Lipglosses. If you're interested, you can click here to see my first impressions on the product.

Essence Cosmetics is European company which launched in 2002. For such inexpensive products, all their products are made in Poland, versus the usual Made In China, which is awesome! They also do not test on animals as well! 

All in all, Essence Cosmetics is an awesome brand and I think it has lots of potential. I can't wait to try more products. 

PS! The above picture is the display in the US but in Canada, we don't have that wide of a variety. I think we have half of what's pictured!

For more information, please visit their website at http://www.essence.eu/home.html

Any additional questions can be put in the comment section below!

xo. Olivia

Lenscircle.com Review: Part 2: GEO Super Size Angel Brown Lens Review (XCM-214)

Hi there! 




I'm back again to do part 2 of my review on the lenses that I received from www.lenscircle.com. For this review, I decided to choose the GEO Super Size Angel Brown lenses and I've had my eyes set on these for a while now. I've always loved the GEO Angel series and they were the first series I've ever tried in terms of circle lenses. This is also the first time I'm trying lenses from the "Super Size" series that GEO has recently come out with.


To start off, I'll give you some info on the lenses themselves:


Diameter: 14.8mm 
Water Content: 38%
Base Curve: 8.6

I've been wearing theses lenses for a few days now and they are amazing. They make my eyes look dolly without looking scary and despite being so large, they are great for every day use. They are a little bit bigger than the standard circle lens (14mm) but the comfort level is still the exact same. 


Generally speaking, I tend to have the standard 8 hours of wear with GEO lenses and they aren't the most comfortable lenses I've ever worn but I think that these are pretty much everything I expected from the lenses.


Overall recap !
Design: ★★★★★
Personally I love the design of Angel lenses so naturally I would love the design of the Super Size ones as well. If you haven't been a fan of Angel lenses, I'm not so sure you'd be a fan of these lenses.
Comfort: ★★★★
Theses lenses are nothing short of comfortable and I have quite normal eyes in the sense that I don't seem to experience too much discomfort and I don't have extremely sensitive eyes either. For others it might be a little bit too uncomfortable but I can't guarantee. 
Enlargement: ★★★★
Definitely enlarges but isn't the largest lenses that you can find on the market. I guess enlargement is subjective so it really all depends on what you're looking for!

And here is an upclose image of the lens and the design!

All pictures were taken indoors with natural lighting

To purchase these lenses and more, please visit www.lenscircle.com

Hope you guys enjoyed the review! There will be definitely a lot more reviews coming up so stay tuned!


xo. Olivia


Disclaimer:
Lenses were supplied for review by www.lenscircle.com

Lenscircle.com Review: Part 1: Packaging/Service

Hi!

Recently I received a pair of circle lenses from lenscircle.com. I was so excited to receive the lenses that the post was going to be a little picture heavy so I decided to split it up into two parts. I'll be talking about their packaging and service here and then I'll be uploading the review on the lenses that I chose right after

First off, even before I had been sent the lenses to review, lenscircle.com was amazing. Their replies were quick and the process could not have been better. Within a day of choosing the lenses, I got a tracking number for my package and within 5 business days, it arrived at my door. The service was phenomenal and I could not have been happier. I believe their lenses are all in stock, and despite me having a prescription, there was no wait time. Since I've only ordered with people who did batch orders, I was extremely surprised to see the lenses sent out so quickly!This is amazing for people who don't want to have to wait an overly long time for lenses.

I first received the package in the mail and the lenses were packaged in a nice bubble wrap envelope. I was surprised they used such a big envelope for such a tiny package!

 Opening it up I saw this adorable leopard print pouch

Opening that up, I saw the lenses (woohoo)! And they're wrapped in more bubble wrap! Definitely a bonus in my opinion.

 Here's the inside of the package and it has the lenses, lens case, and lens care instructions. There's also the instruction sheet that comes with all GEO circle lenses. The contents of the package are amazing.

 Overall, I think that lenscircle.com is an amazing site. There's no wait time and the process of ordering, getting the order and all that was so quick that I was pleasantly surprised. I definitely think that if you want lenses quick, lenscircle.com is a great website for you and I highly highly recommend them!

To purchase lenses, please visit www.lenscircle.com

Be sure to stay tuned for the review in Part 2!

xo. Olivia

Lens Review: GEO OL-105/ Ash Wing Lenses

Hi Everyone!

I'm back again to do a review on some circle lenses! I haven't done a post/review on circle lenses in a while so I thought I'd share with you guys my thoughts on the GEO Olive lenses in gray. If any of you have seen this lens before, that's because it used to be called the Ash Wing lenses until GEO Medical decided to rename them and add three more colors to the series. Personally, I much preferred the name Ash Wing as Olive lenses just sounds.. not as beautiful! But that's just my opinion!

Anyway, the lenses come in the glass jars, which are the same as all the other GEO lenses. The lenses have:
- Diameter of 14.00mm, which is the standard for regular circle lenses
- Base Curve of 8.6
- Water Content of 38-42%

These lenses I find to be quite comfortable. This definitely isn`t my first time wearing circle lenses and they manage to last me a good 8 hours, which is the recommended wear time that GEO Medical advises all people to wear them for. I can usually get to the 8 hour mark without having to use eye drops just yet. In terms of comfort, they score pretty high in my books.

The next is the color. The color itself is quite nice and looks quite natural without looking overly dolly. At first, I was scared that it would look too gray and make my eyes look odd but surprisingly they blended with my eye color quite nicely.

Here are some photos I took with artificial lighting and with flash!

Natural/Artificial Lighting:

And with flash!

Please ignore the brows.. LOL

As you can see, in the natural light, the color looks quite nice and not too grey. If you're looking for some lenses that won't give you as much of a dolly effect as black lenses seem to but you don't want to go to bright, gray lenses are definitely the perfect match for you! I absolutely adore these and these have become one of the lenses that I'm comfortable wearing to school/for every day purposes.

Overall, I think these lenses are very very nice. They're also quite popular as well so if you're looking for some safe first time lenses, these are going to be great!

If you guys have any questions or comments, be sure to leave me a question in the comment section below

xo. Olivia

Attention!

Hello!

I'm back again to show you guys a quick notice that GEO Medical, who makes GEO circle lenses has put out. Please be wary about fake circle lenses especially when buying in Asia! Please be informed and do not be afraid to ask the sellers questions. If ever you are unsure about the authenticity of your circle lenses, do not hesitate to email me at twinklebeautyy@gmail.com! I will get back to you in 24 hours.

Click to enlarge!

xo. Olivia

First Impression: Essence Cosmetics Stay With Me Longlasting Lipgloss

Hi everyone!

I'm back again and I finally picked up a new laptop! Woohoo! This means there will definitely be no excuses when it comes to writing more posts! Today I'm back again to show you guys my first impressions on a few lipglosses from Essence Cosmetics. Essence Cosmetics is quite new to me and these glosses are the first products I've ever tried from this company. I believe it recently came to Canada and is now exclusively available at all Shoppers Drug Marts, however, I'm pretty sure it has been available in the United States for some time now and was exclusive to Target. I haven't seen many reviews of this particular product online so I decided to give my two cents on the lipglosses. I picked up the Stay With Me Longlasting Lipglosses and they were fairly inexpensive, retailing at $2.99 CAD. I picked up three shades: #1 - Me&My Icecream, #2- My Favorite Milkshake and #7 - Kiss Kiss Kiss.

Kiss Kiss Kiss, Me&My Icecream, My Favorite Milkshake

I haven't been able to give all three colors a good test run yet but I have been able to wear Kiss Kiss Kiss out and it's quite a nice color. It's a standard red and the gloss itself is definitely not sticky. It's a very low maintenance red so if you are the type of person to not want to have to care too much about your red lips bleeding etc, then this is probably the product for you! It has an interesting shaped applicator and is different from the standard doe foot applicator. 

The applicator seems to curve sort of like an hourglass shape. The only downside that I have noticed so far is that the product seems to bunch up in the middle, making it  little bit awkward to apply the gloss to the upper lip. Application on the lower lip, though, is a breeze! 

I guess now is the time we talk a little bit about the cons, and thankfully, there aren't too many! I guess the only thing I really don't like, and it's a minor detail, is that the color name is not on the packaging itself. Instead, it's on the little white sticker/barcode, which I almost threw away before realizing that if I didn't keep it, I wouldn't know what color I was putting on my lips! 

The next thing would be that it's not quite longlasting. I think it's not a bad gloss and for $2.99 it's actually quite a good product but the longlasting claim doesn't quite hold up. But hey, for $2.99, what more could I ask for? I should probably say though, I have a bad time with lip products in general just because I have a habit of licking my lips. For this gloss though, I resisted the urge to lick my lips just to test out the wear and they lasted me until I started to eat!

All in all though, I really do enjoy these lipglosses and although they aren't the longest wearing lipglosses out there, they're not bad! They're actually one of the few lipglosses that I love playing with!

Before I finish off the post, I'll leave with a few swatches on the back of my hand and on some white paper.

Ignore the black dot :( Sorry!

Hope you guys found this review informative ! Leave comments and questions down below! I plan on doing a few product spotlights etc so if you guys want to see anything, let me know.

xo. Olivia

DISCLAIMER

All products were bought with my own money and were not provided. All opinions are my own and are always honest. 

Product Review: MAC Matte Primer

Hi everyone1


Before I start on this post, I want to let you know that I'm going to be moving some posts from an old blog to here! I'm not stealing from another blog, I swear! So with that said, ignore the watermark and enjoy the review!

Today I'm reviewing the MAC Matte silicone based primer. I was in the market for a new primer since I had recently just ran out so I ran out to MAC and picked up the MAC Matte primer. I had heard so many good things about it on oily skinned people and since I have normal skin, with minimal oil, I thought it'd be even better for me!

So far, I've been using it for quite some time.. I want to say 6 months and I absolutely adore the primer. It applies so smoothly and it makes my skin feel amazing! I have to say though, it does remind me of any standard silicone based primer. I find that it does make my makeup last quite long without rubbing off. I use it almost every morning and I still have so much ! I understand what a little goes a long way means now! :D

Overall I really love it! I highly highly recommend it to people with normal skin and people with oily skin too! Not sure how it'll work for people with dry skin though! Is it HG (holy grail) potential? Maybe, but it doesn't wow me that much!

Have any of you tried it? Tell me what you think! :)

DISCLAIMER
This product was purchased with my own money and was not provided for review. All thoughts are my own and are always honest.

xo. Olivia

Oh the irony + FOTD

Hey everyone!

It's so ironic that once I announce my new found dedication to this blog that my computer decides to die on me. I haven't had it for long either and that's what really makes me sad. The repairs aren't covered by the warranty either so it would cost me $450 to repair. No repairs for me I guess! :(

Anyway, to keep my mind off of that and to let you know I'm still alive, here's a face of the day!

This look is from Bubzbeauty's latest turorial - Kpop Inspired Everyday Makeup

Makeup Used:

Face:
- Guerlain L'or Primer
- Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer in Medium
- MAC Select Sheer Powder in NC25
- NARS Sex Appeal Blush

Eyes:
- Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original
- Eyeshadows from Too Faced Natural Eye Palette : Heaven on brow bone, Silk Teddy all over lid
- Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper
- Too Faced Lash Injection

Lips
- Benefit Benetint

Enjoy !

xo. Olivia