New Essence My Must Haves 8 Pan Palette & Refills | Review

Lately, there are so many brands releasing their own empty palettes with matching pans to create your own custom palettes. I, for one, am a huge fan of this concept since it allows me to create my own perfect palette without having to pay for an eyeshadow palette that has shades in it I would never wear. Most of those brands are either high-end or only available online, I haven’t seen this concept at the drugstore before. Essence decided to chance this when they released their own empty palettes for Spring & Summer 2017, which you can fill with eyeshadows, lip powders & face powders. That is why I adore Essence so much, they definitely pay attention to what’s trending in the makeup industry and try to come up with their own affordable versions. Of course, I decided to create my own little palette, which you can read all about in today’s review!

Currently, there are two empty palettes available, a 4-pan and also an 8-pan My Must Haves Palette, which you can customize yourself. You can choose between 20 eyeshadows, 5 blushes, 3 lip powders, a pink lip base, a highlighter, a bronzer & a fixing powder.

The single pans come in small cardboard sleeves and have a transparent lid, which you have to remove before popping these pans into your empty palette. The palettes aren’t magnetic, you just have to click the pans in and you’re good to go! The palette itself looks and feels very basic and simple, but I definitely think it doesn’t look or feel cheap at all. The transparent lid clicks open and shut easily and I love how this packaging isn’t too bulky or heavy. The little inserts also make it super easy to pop the pans out, switch out the shades or see which shades you’re using.

The difference between the empty 4-pan and 8-pan palettes is only 40 cents, which is actually crazy, right?! So if you can find 8 pans you love and you have the room to store it, I would totally suggest going for the biggest palette and get the most bang for you buck.

Brand’s description:

4-colour and 8-colour palettes are waiting to be personalized. There are 20 eyeshadows, five blushes and three lip powders to choose from – with various effects. Also included: a pink lip base for the lip powder, a highlighter and a bronzer as well as fixing powder. Simply select your favorite products and use the special click-mechanism to place them in the multifunctional palette.

❤ Go Goldie (eyeshadow): a warm pale gold champagne with a shimmery finish.
❤ Apricotta (eyeshadow): a cool pearly champagne with a shimmery finish.
❤ Brownie’licious (eyeshadow): a medium to deep warm brown with a satin matte finish.
❤ Peach-Party (eyeshadow): a warm peachy rose-gold with a metallic finish.

Go Goldie and Apricotta were quite powdery and definitely had to be build up and used with a damp brush to look intense on the eyelids. Brownie’licious applied really easily, wasn’t too powdery and had amazing color pay-off. Peach-Party looked quite intense and the pigmentation is definitely decent! 

❤ Rosy Glow (satin blush): a warm and soft pinky nude with a satin finish.
❤ Let It Glow (highlighter): a subtle pale peachy gold with a sheen.
❤ Fix It, Baby (fixing powder): a subtle brightening white with a matte finish.

Hello Sunshine is a stunning warm bronzer that works great as a transition shade in the crease. Rosy Glow is a beautiful blush that adds a nice flush to the cheeks and has great pigmentation. Let It Glow is a toned down highlighter that isn’t very intense or pigmented. Fix It, Baby has a soft texture and does an amazing job of setting and brightening the under-eyes without being too bright or have a flashback. 

Once all of the pans are popped into the palette it looks so beautiful! The pans are definitely secure and there’s no way they would ever fall out of this palette. I’m so happy with most of the shades I picked up, I definitely adore the eyeshadows Brownie’licious and Peach-Party and the blush, bronzer and setting powder are also amazing! The highlighter is a little bit too subtle for my liking and the first two eyeshadows were a little too powdery in my opinion.

When using an eyeshadow primer, the lasting-power of the eyeshadows is great and they stay in place all day long. The face products also stay on my face for quite a long time, but I definitely notice I could use a little touch-up after about 6 hours of wear, especially when it comes to the blush and bronzer.

The size of the pans (1,7 g) is comparable to Makeup Geek eyeshadow pans (1,8 g), only slightly bigger with less product. I personally think it’s a great size for eyeshadows, but considering I also added face powders to my palette, the pans are a little bit small in my opinion. If you’re using bigger face brushes, these pans are definitely on the small side and your brush wouldn’t fit in there.

This is such a cool concept & I adore that Essence finally introduced it to the drugstore! I adore the overall look of the empty palettes but the individual pans are definitely hit and miss. Some of the face powders are great, but others weren’t the best and the same goes for the eyeshadow pans. I would definitely suggest swatching everything when creating and purchasing your own palette.

The Essence My Must Haves empty palettes with their matching pans are now available at your local Essence retailer. The 4-pan palette retails for €1,59 while the 8-pan palette will cost you only 40 cents extra, €1,99. The eyeshadow, lip and face refill pans retail for €1,59 each and contain 1,7 g of product.