I think that all girls that are pale like me know the struggle when it comes to too dark foundation. Even the lightest shade of a foundation can be way, way too dark for me and that always bums me out. I want to be able to wear any foundation I can possibly want, but until now that just wasn’t an option. I know that these foundation lightening products have been on the market for quite some time, but I never really believed in them. When I heard that Essence was coming out with a collection that included a tube of lightening drops I finally decided to just go for it and see what it’s like. Today I’m going to review them and tell you guys all about this little tube. So, if you’re interested in finding out whether this is going to be a miracle for pale girls or not, make sure you continue reading!
Let’s start off by discussing the packaging. The Essence Coast ‘n Chill Keep Calm & Make Me Lighter Lightening Drops (what a mouth full) come in this really cute little tube. The tube has a creamy colour and has a cute little design on it. It says the name of the collection and it obviously says that it is. Overall I think that the tube looks really cute and girly. It’s quite young looking, but I don’t mind. I actually kind of like that. The only downside to the tube is that it’s very small, it only comes with 15 ml of product. If you compare that to the lightening drops from The Body Shop for example, which come with with only 15 ml as well, it isn’t a ridiculously little amount, but it’s still not a lot either.
These Essence Coast ‘n Chill Lightening Drops are from their Coast ‘n Chill limited edition, which means they won’t be around forever. For me that was a reason to get myself multiple tubes because, even though I know other budget brands have products like this as well (for example Catrice), I just really wanted this specific one since it really works for me.
Essence Coast ‘n Chill Keep Calm & Make Me Lighter Lightening Drops – €2,99
One thing I do want to mention before I’m going to talk in depth about this product is that in this same collection there are also darkening drops, so if you struggle with finding foundations that are dark enough for you, you might want to check that out!
Having said that, let’s get into the review. In general I’ve heard a lot of mixed things about lightening drops and especially about budget proof lightening drops. Because of that I was a little skeptical about this product at first. The main problem with them is that they just aren’t that effective. That you need a lot of product to get your foundation one shade lighter. Another problem I’ve heard about is that product like this can alter the texture of your foundation, which could be a negative thing.
When it comes to claims Essence keeps it very simple. In fact all they say about this product is that it’s going to adjust the shade of your foundation which is ideal for when the seasons change and you start to lose your tan. Aside from that they don’t claim anything.
So, since we don’t have any claims to hold on to, let’s just start talking about this product and go from there. The first thing I want to talk about is the colour of these lightening drops. Because it comes in a creamy coloured tube I expected the product to be a similar colour and I was right about that. When I hadn’t seen the tube yet I actually thought the product was going to be white, so when I found out it wasn’t I was quite surprised and a little more unsure about it since I thought white would be way more effective than a beige/creamy colour.
The product itself has a very nice texture. It’s just a very smooth formula and it is very easy to blend. It goes really well with the foundation. It doesn’t cause any strange reactions or changes in the way the texture and I actually feel like the formula of the foundation you mix it with stays pretty much the same. That’s a big plus for me since there are foundations I love mainly because of their formula’s, so if that would change in a negative way that would just be really bad.
Dior Forever Foundation in 010 – Essence Lightening Drops – Dior Forever + Essence Lightening
Moving on to the most important part of the review, let’s see if these drops are actually effective. I have to say that overall I’m very impressed by how effective they are. I didn’t expect it to work this well. To test it I used the Dior Forever foundation in 010 because it’s -obviously- way too dark for me and way too orange. I added one small drop, even smaller than the amount of product I put in the middle to show the colour, and that’s already enough to make the foundation light enough for my skin tone. Isn’t that just extremely impressive? I was very surprised by how well that worked and I’m also incredibly happy about it since that means I can wear my too dark foundations again.
The only thing that could be negative about this product is that it’s an extra step and that you probably won’t always get the exact same shade of foundation out of it since a tiny bit more product can make all the difference. But to be honest you can’t blame those things on the lightening drops. That’s the fault of the too dark foundations.
Overall I’m just really happy I found these lightening drops and I’m actually so glad they were this affordable because it allowed me to buy multiple tubes without going completely broke. But in all seriousness, I’m just really thankful that Essence decided to add these tubes to their limited edition because it’s an awesome product. It’s super effective and it doesn’t alter the texture of the foundation or the way it wears. It’s just an essential in any super-pale girls’ collection! I highly recommend getting it while you still can!
And that’s everything for today’s review. I hope you enjoyed reading it and be sure to let me know how you deal with too dark foundations, do you pass them, do you continue wearing them or do you use products like this?
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