After seeing many bloggers post photos on instagram recently of the new Essence Dark Romance collection, I decided to check the collection out myself yesterday.

The collection is described as ‘Gothic glamour’, but my first thought was ‘vampire’! It reminds me a bit of Essence’s previous Twilight: Breaking Dawn collection, except this collection is a bit darker.

Essence Dark Romance collection consists of 2x eye shadow quads, 2x eye pencils, 2x lipsticks, 2x lip gloss ‘effects’, cream highlighter, 2x Velvet mousse blushes, 4x Nail polishes, nail art decorating kit and some body tattoos.

I picked up 4 products from the collection, including Velvet mouse blush in ’01 Painted Love’, Lip gloss effects in ’01 Black Shadow’, lipsticks in ’01 Red Romance’ and ’02 Painted Love’.

 Velvet Mousse blush in ’01 Painted Love’

It looks quite scary in the jar, but I promise you it does blend out a lot! (see swatches below)

Left: unblended. Right: blended (sorry it doesn’t photograph well, but you get the idea)
I think this would be a great blush to apply under foundation, for a natural flush of colour on your cheeks.

 Lip gloss effects in ’01 Black Shadow’

I am looking forward to trying this gloss out, it looks interesting! (swatch at the end)

Lipstick in ’01 Red Romance’
A beautiful berry shade, perfect for winter!

Lipstick in ’02 Painted Love’

 I already own so many reds and this is most likely a dupe for one I already own. At first I thought it was a blue based red, but it is actually more of a coral-red. (maybe I don’t have one the same! lol)

Top to bottom: Lipstick in ’01 Red Romance’, Lipstick in ’02 Painted Love’, Lip Gloss effects in ’01 Black shadow’

Have you checked out the Essence Dark Romance collection yet? The collection is available at Priceline stores (not sure if it’s available at Target also)

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