As you know, Catrice came out with the Absolute Rose palette, a year ago. I wrote about it here.
But in October, I got this Essence palette - All about Roses. The colors seemed similar so, after months of testing them both, I can finally tell you more about them.
How do they compare?
Essence's All about ROSES palette contains 8 eyeshadows and the price (if I am not mistaken) is about 4,40€.
Catrice's Absolute Rose palette contains 6 eyeshadows and you can get it for 5,30€.
But does the price really matter when it comes to sister brands?
I got the idea to compare them both once I realized that some colors are really similar. Like the light pink, taupe and the purple one. But are they really?
I decided to take a swatch picture.
(excuse the yellow hues, rather check the lower pictures)
There are some shades that look fairly similar, but have a different undertone, so most of them aren't the same. But on the eye, they honestly look the same...
First I swatched the Essence palette. All on bare skin, no eye primer needed.
The eyeshadows are buttery, nicely pigmented and were extremely easy to swatch. I was impressed because I didn't use this palette all that much, ... you know, I was biased before the swatch. Somehow sentimentally involved with the Rose palette. Not anymore!
The Catrice swatch was also made without any eye primer.
The Catrice palette - As I told in my review of it (here), I miss more shadows in it. Like a medium shadow, maybe another dark one. But the shadows are OK. Not as great as the Essence ones, but OK. They do however have quite a bit of fallout and aren't as pigmented as the other palette.
The ultimate test was to create a makeup (my standard, daily makeup) using both palettes. Each on each eye. The only difference from my normal makeup, the fact that instead of an eye primer, I used the Essence eyeshadow in a pen from the Valentine - Who Cares TE. And that thing is really like glue, but more about it in another post.
On the eye, the Essence makeup looked better and well put together. While the Catrice makeup looked way better on photos. But I noticed that the Catrice's eyeshadows had quite some fallout and the lighter shadow (pink) wasn't as pigmented as Essence's. I found it interesting since I had in mind that Essence doesn't have good eyeshadows. But they must have fixed it and now this palette is even better than Catrice's!
Which one do I reccomend?
Essence's, definitely. If we think about why it's superior to the Catrice's, here some points:
1. It's cheaper (running at 4.40€ compared to 5.30€)
2. Contains more eyeshadows - 8 compared to 6 (all the ones that are missing in Catrice's)
3. Better pigmented
4. No fallout
5. Buttery eyeshadows (sooo soft)
6. Longer lasting
I must say that now that I have tested them both, I am a bit sad. Why? Because even if I wasn't all that found of Catrice's palette, I was using it daily. It grew on me. Made me love it. The colors work really well for my green eyes, so I learned to love it. Now that it's younger and better sister came in the picture, I feel.. a bit you know, too emotionally involved. Hahah. Okay, I know when I must let go of a product. :P
From now on, I won't be on the lookout for only Catrice's eyeshadows, but will look at the Essence's display, too. No more neglecting their shadows :).
And you, which one do you prefer?
