Essence Colour Correcting Stick - 05 say no to tired skin

Stick versions come in 5 different shades. There's a pink, yellow, orange, green and purple. I chose the purple shade called 05 say no to tired skin. 

It comes in a plastic purple pen packaging. You don't need to sharpen it, you just swirl the bottom and it comes out. 

In it is 3.2 grams of product and it costs 2.79€.

Catrice Camouflage Cream - Wake Up Effect

I have their regular colored Camouflage Cream concealers and those are great. Well pigmented and they remind me of MAC Studio Finish concealers. Recently they've added 3 shades as a color correcting concealers. You can choose among salmon, yellow or green shade. 

It comes in a black plastic pot with transparent lid. It has a screw on top. In it is 3 grams of product and it costs 3.29€.

Wake Up Effect is a salmon shade. To me this is the perfect mix of pink and peach. It will work perfectly to neutralize blue or green under eye are. The formula is creamy and almost feels a bit greasy, but it's quite well pigmented. As with all the other products, you can also sheer it out, if you like. Compared to Essence stick version, this one is more pigmented and stickier, which means it also sticks better to the skin. The shade is white based and really acts as a brightening shade. 

I apply the tiniest amount under my eyes and it neutralizes my skin in instant and covers any imperfections as well. It has the best coverage out of all the three products that I mentioned in this post.

The finish is matte with just a bit of sheen. This is very long lasting and you can easily wear it on its own, but it works great under the concealer to just make under eyes brighter and less colorful. 

Here are swatches of all the shades. These are all very light and more appropriate for light skin tones. Purple one is the only one that's a bit darker.

I wanted to show you the difference that it makes if I use these for color correction or no. On the left side of the photo is my skin with all three products and on the right side is my natural skin with a bit of moisturizer. I hope you can see that my under eye is a lot brighter, my cheeks are less red, as it's the skin around the nose and that yellow ring around the mouth is totally neutralized. I think the difference is even more noticeable in person. 

My all time favorite formula and product of these is the Catrice Camouflage Cream in Wake Up Effect. It covers darkness under the eyes so well and it's also really nicely pigmented. It can be used on its own or under concealer. Essence Colour Correcting Stick is for you, if you want a lighter version in a more useful pen packaging. I would still recommend this one to be used under the foundation, as it can leave a bit of obvious coloring. It also means that it neutralizes well. Essence Colour Correcting Liquid Concealer is for lighter imperfections and almost works more as primer or a base product on its own. You'll still get a bit of green color on the skin, but it can be blended out into a really sheer coverage.

It turns out that color correcting comes quite useful when you have certain areas on the face that need something to neutralize different color tones in it. These kind of product work great under foundations as it prevents you from piling on tons and tons of concealer or heavy foundation to cover discoloration. Some can even be worn on their own, as the formula can be sheered out. If you have areas that really bother you, I highly recommend you to try out color correcting technique and this products are a good place to start at. 

It's a cream product in a stick form. One half is for highlighting and other half is for contouring. Application is easy as long as you use both sides. You just lay it against your cheeks and swipe it on. The problem begins when you use one side more than the other. Then the side that you don't use a lot starts to interfere in the other side. This way you'll also get some highlight on the face when you just want to swipe on contour, like I did. I initially wanted this for the contouring and I didn't use highlighter as much.  

Texture is creamy and it applies smoothly. It's not too greasy, but it definitely isn't matte. The finish is a bit shiny and hair sticks to it, which means you'll need to powder it. 

I always apply it straight from the bullet and then blend it with brush, makeup sponge or just fingers. For a quick on the go application, you can definitely blend this with fingers. It blends with ease. Makeup sponge tends to "eat" a lot of product and you get a very light wash of product. Brush works great with it, because it blends, but doesn't take too much product off the skin.

I got the lightest shade, 01 Light. Contour color is a lighter brown with grey undertone. There's just enough grey in it to give you a natural shade effect, but won't make you look dead. Highlight is just slightly warm toned beige. It doesn't have any prominent yellow undertone, but it's definitely not cool toned. It's lighter than my skin tone and it does highlight selected areas, although it's really subtle. Contour gives you bigger effect than highlight does. 

One layer gives you a very natural effect, almost not visible, if you blend it too much. You can build it up, but it blends so quickly, that you can't make it look too done. This might be a blessing for those that tend to overdue their contour application. 

It's in general a very natural effect. I bought it for those almost no makeup days, when I love to wear cream products. This gives me just a light definition. You can also use it as a base for powder products. 

It fades through the day. If you set it with powder products, it has a better staying power, but still fades though the day.

The product is creamy enough and blends well, almost too well. It gives you a very natural effect and you can't really build it up to an intense look. It's definitely for those of you that are afraid of contour, because it looks very natural. I love the colors. They are nice for fair skin tones. Contour has just enough grey in it and highlight is also lighter than my skin tone, but it doesn't leave as much impact on the skin.

For those of you who want some more definition, I wouldn't recommend this. My problem is also with the half and half product sides. If you plan to use only one side, don't bother getting this one. There's not a lot of product in it. If you'll be using it every day, you'll go through this quickly. I like the effect for my personal preference, but would probably only buy a contour stick in the future. Since there is so many other brands coming out with these, I wouldn't buy this one again.

The full name of this product is Kiko Long Lasting Stick 8 Hour No-Transfer Eyeshadow. It comes in the range of 32 shades. I'm sure there's a shade for everyone. 

It comes in a matte plastic stick packaging. In the bottom you can see the shade of the stick. The packaging is very convenient and it closes really well. You just swirl it for the product to come out. 

Each costs 6.90€ and you get 1.64 grams of product.

I decided to pick up two shades, 21 Passion Fruit and 06 Golden Brown. You can see how other shades like 38 Golden Taupe look like on Mateja and swatches from Sandra. I also love the shade 05 Rosy Brown that Sara reviewed. 

Kiko Long Lasting Stick in 21 Passion Fruit

Shade 21 is pink peach shade with gold shimmer. It's a rather interesting shade. I figure this will look different on different skin tones. On my skin it looks more like a peach shade, although you can definitely spot the very pink undertone in it. The yellow gold shimmer also gives it a yellow sheen. I guess I wasn't expecting this shade to be so bright (it almost looks neon on my eyes), but the shade is what I expected it to be.

Kiko Long Lasting Stick in 06 Golden Brown

Shade 06 is a chocolate brown taupe shade. It has silver shimmer in it, which is bigger or rather more noticeable than in 21.  

The texture of this is creamy, but they set pretty quickly. I find Maybelline Color Tattoos a bit thinner in consistency and also pigmentation. Kiko sticks are more pigmented, so you get a really good payoff with one swipe and they are a bit thicker. If you start to blend them, the color gets weaker, so you have to gradually build it up, but it's not that big of a deal.

As far as creasing goes, I find in my experience that they creased a little in my socket just when I applied them. That's also because I have slightly hooded eyes and I think when I put on a lot the product, it gets into a line a little and then it dries that way. I'm sure if you blend it and gradually build it up it won't give you any problems. It doesn't crease when it sets. I think that if your eyelids are a little more oily this might crease a little after some hours.

Shade 06 is very similar to Maybelline Color Tattoo in 35 On and On Bronze. I actually had a hard time noticing the differences. I guess Tattoo is more metallic. It has smaller shimmer but gives more of a metallic shine. Kiko 06 has bigger silver shimmer, but doesn't reflect the light in a metallic manner. Tattoo is also a bit more grey toned than Kiko 06. Kiko 06 has a bit warmer yellow undertone to it. It's very slight difference, so you many not even notice it. I guess Kiko is just a way more convenient travel product. I love the stick form, so easy and quick to use.

With Kiko sticks you get about a minute of play time, because it sets pretty quickly. However, I find that Maybelline Tattoos set even quicker, around half a minute of play time. 

Kiko sticks are also very long lasting. More than Color Tattoos. You can see how hard it was for me to remove the swatches with a makeup cleaner. The Maybelline Tattoos broke down quicker then Kiko stick. I had to rub like a crazy person. So this 8 hour no-transfer performance claim is definitely true. I believe it would be even longer lasting on some people. 

I also wanted to show you how the shades look like combined. I think 21 is a bit too peachy and bright to be worn on its own, but it's great as a complimentary shade to other eyeshadows. I also like to wear it on my lower lash line to brighten my eyes a little.

To sum it up, Kiko sticks are creamy eyeshadows in a stick form, very long lasting, don't crease and have great pigmentation. I highly recommend these to you. I love my Maybelline Color Tattoos and have 6 shades of them (yes I know!), but these Kiko sticks are just so much more convenient because of the stick form and are crazy pigmented. I'm sure I'll be adding to the collection, if I'll have a chance. I would definitely like to get 04 Golden Chocolate, 07 Golden Beige, 36 Golden Mauve and 37 Burgundy. Not much, ha? :)