I was invited along with lots of other lovely bloggers to the Essence Makeup launch in Manchester & to say I was excited was an understatement. I’d read a few posts about their London launch and that looked like it was a lot of fun so I was looking forward to hearing all about the brand & meeting up with other bloggers (doesn’t happen often enough).

I met up with Natalie from Your Almost Alice & we managed to find The Studio without too much trouble, the room was really nice, it was lovely & bright with plenty of space. We were each given cute name badges – very handy when you only know peoples Twitter Handles. There were lots of tables laid out with all kinds of makeup on them, we were encouraged to try out the makeup & have a play – there was so many lovely products & people on hand to colour match us to the bases & give us advice on what best suited skin types. I have tried a few Essence products & I was so excited to see just how big the range actually was. I was lucky enough to have my nails painted by the Pamper Puff Girls & almost a week on my nails are still looking great.

They had a full size makeup stand, like the ones you see in a shop full to the brim with their whole range & we were given an overview to the brand by their German Team. they spoke of how Essence is sold in over 70 countries & that Britain will be getting the range Nationwide in Wilkinson Stores, so keep your eyes open for that in mid July. Also quite excitingly The Manchester Arndale & London Westfield will boast a huge 3 meter standalone Essence Booth, which will carry all of the limited edition products and a whole selection of exciting Essence Products so if you live near either location you need to pop in & have a look.

Essence is a fun budget friendly brand that is focused on quality & they excel at being on trend with their range. Although their packaging is quite fun & youthful looking their brand is aimed at people who are young at heart (thats me for sure). They are proud to be manufactured in Germany & even though they have purse friendly prices they don’t compromise on quality. Of the few products I have tried I can honestly say this is something I have found, the nail polishes are long wearing & very pigmented, also the eyeshadows are buttery and blendable so they get a thumbs up from me. Essence prices start from as little as 99p & only go as high as £6.99 so very affordable. Another plus point is they are proud to be Cruelty Free.

We had hours to spend chatting to the Essence Team who came over from Germany, they were lovely enough to tell us about their favourite products and spoke with a real passion for their brand. Also we were given free reign to test, try and get excited about the products, Heidi from Flipside PR was excited for us to really take the products that caught our eye & for a beauty addict that was dangerous, although I was very restrained & was already overwhelmed at how incredible the Goody Bags were.

Its safe to say that we all had so much fun – nails were painted (by the lovely Pamper Puff Girls), beauty secrets were shared, food & drink were consumed & we all welcomed Essence to the UK & think they will be a huge success. They will be tough competition for other budget brands to compete with as their quality and product range it HUGE. I have quite a few Essence products to try out so expect a few reviews coming your way.

Let me know if you’ve tried any products from them & if so what you’d recommend.