Hello and welcome to a new episode of Permanent Rangers!
Today, I'm reviewing essence's pigment in 04 Broadway Starlet.Take a look:
essence has had a range of pigments for about 18 months now (if I'm not very much mistaken) and they regularly switch it up a bit, sometimes by adding pigments to their LEs and sometimes, like this Fall, in their permanent collection.
Broadway Starlet gets 3 out of 4 possible diamond rings because while it is a banging glitter, it's not what it claims to be: a pigment.
NB: essence has quite a few "pigments" which are actually glitters. Some of them, like 01 Studio 54 (light antique gold) or 10 Fairy Dust (silvery white) seem suspended in a pigment base but turn out to really only be very, very finely milled glitter with a base that disappears upon application. As such, it's always best to use the tester tube and see if it's really the kind of pigment or glitter you are looking for.
But back to Broadway Starlet. This is a true glitter, not suspended in any kind of base and about the same size of particles as Lit Cosmetics glitters (a tad bigger than the other essence glitters).
It's a beautiful rainbow colour with some silver thrown in, giving it a holographic colouring I absolutely love. A little goes a long way and you get 2,9g for 2,49€ (sometimes 2,45€). It is definitely up there with Lit Cosmetics glitters in terms of colour originality and feel. It's the only such glitter essence currently has available.
As I said above, I didn't give it that final diamond ring because of the "misleading advertisement" nature of this "pigment" which is actually glitter, but there is another reason as well. Since it is a true, loose glitter, it doesn't just stick on the lid or on an eyeshadow primer the way a pigment does. essence has an "eye base" that is supposed to make it stick, but it doesn't. I'm not sure if that thing is supposed to be a shadow primer, a glitter base or what, but it's not working as any of that. You can create a glittery paste with it and Broadway Starlet and apply it, but it never dries down properly and it slides around. Thumbs down!
I've used my Clearly Liquid Glitter Base from Lit Cosmetics with it and it performed wonderfully. So if you have a glitter base you trust, you'll love this product!
Because Broadway Starlet is thus not available with a medium that will lock it down and you have to use something else entirely, I felt like the product couldn't get the highest mark possible.
It's a beautiful, complex, cheap (in the best way possible!) glitter but it's not easy to use if you don't have a good glitter base and it's not the pigment it says it is. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that essence has gifted us with a glitter this great, but don't mislead uneducated buyers like that!
Speaking of glitter: my Lit Cosmetics giveaway is still open until tomorrow, midnight! If you want to enter you still can, all it takes is a comment telling me what makes your life sparkle! It's open to continental Europe and Switzerland!
Stay beautiful, inside and out,
Anna
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