Essence Say No

Everyone has them, those little skin ‘problems’ that keep on resurfacing every once and a while. Puffy eyes, dark cirkles, redness (veins, blemishes,..) just to name a few. Luckily, there are some clever tricks to get rid of them, and the magic word here is; “colour correcting“. The idea is simple: balance the bad colour out by adding one that is on the other side of the spectrum, meaning it won’t contain more of the ‘bad colours’ you’re trying to get rid of.

The first thing they teach you in art class, is that every colour comes from 3 basic colours (yellow, blue and red). So for example in order to cancel out red, you’d have to use blue and yellow = green. Because the colour also needs to blend in with the skin tone, the type of green will usually be a light, minty type. The same goes for the dark circles underneath your eyes, which will often have a purplish blue tone, so you’ll need a soft red (= peachy pink) to cancel it out and brighten the area at the same time.  Today I’ll be reviewing 2 of the new Say No crayons from Essence  that were designed for those purposes.

Both the Essence Say No to Dark Circles and Say No To Redness sticks come in a twistable pen format. The packaging looks simple, yet cute and tiny, in other words perfect to put in your handbag. The bullet is big, but the pointed tip makes it easy to apply on tiny areas such as blemishes or the inner corner of the eye.

The texture feels rather waxy and a little too dry imo for under the eye. It tends to cling on to dry patches, so make sure to moisturize well before applying these. Also make sure not to apply too much in order to avoid creasing. I find they cover problem areas pretty well without looking too cakey. The tricky part however is to add your foundation on top without the colour correcting products budging. And that doesn’t always work for me.

Above I applied the Say No to Dark Circles pen in 10 pastel green in the inner corner of my eye as well as underneath (2). Then, I added the Guerlain Lingerie De Peau compact powder foundation on top (3). I’m happy with the result as far as the colour correcting goes, but the dry texture of the product just doesn’t help in regards to making my eye area look fresh. And no, even a liquid foundation doesn’t help at this point. The base is just too dry.

 

The Say No to Redness pen in 30 bright rose does a slightly better job for me. It cancels out the redness completely, but unlike the Say No to Dark Circles pen, you can’t stop here because the green is just too bright to wear without foundation on top. I don’t always succeed in keeping the redness completely hidden after applying foundation, but when I do it stays put. Out of the two pens, this is the one I use the most. It’s an okay product for its price, but there are definitely better options on the market.

The Essence Say No sticks are now available at the drugstore for € 2.

Do you use any colour correcting bases?

Disclaimer: The products in this post were purchased.