Essence Eyeshadow Base Comparison With The Velvets Swatches

Essence Eyeshadow Base Comparison With The Velvets Eyeshadows Swatches

Essence recently released a new paler version named I Heart Colour Intensifying eyeshadow base and I tried it out to see if it lives up to the original I Heart Stage base without the orange colour.  Since I have some of the new shades of The Velvets range, I thought I would swatch them for you to compare the two Essence eyeshadow bases.

Essence Eyeshadow Base Comparison With The Velvets Eyeshadows

Essence’s I Heart Stage eyeshadow base has been a makeup bag staple for me for as long as it was available in Canada.  I love it and while I still use a primer under it to help with a dry patch, it does really help make colours pop and last.  The only downside of it for me is the colour.  With pale skin, it always seems too orange on me and I have to really work to cover edges of it, especially with paler shadows.

Essence I Love Stage Eyeshadow Base Comparison I Love Colour Intensifying Eyeshadow Base

As you can see, the colour intensifying base on the right is pretty close to my skintone where the original is much darker and orangey on me.  On darker skintones, I imagine you would see the new one much better, but it still helps the colour pop.

Essence The Velvets - Coral Me Maybe - Fluffy Clouds - Almost Peachy -  Swatches and Review

The first three of The Velvets I am using are

  • Coral Me Maybe? A pinky coral with great opacity, for a sweet girly look
  • Fluffy Clouds An off white that benefits from a damp applicator for full opacity
  • Almost Peachy A pale peach that is almost skin-toned on me but makes a good base for other colours that do not blend well.

Essence The Velvets You Better Mauve - Bahama Mama - Taupe Secret Swatches and Review

The rest of my collection of The Velvets are

  • You Better Mauve A plum-mauve matte that is amazing in the crease for us paler girls
  • Bahama Mama A light baby blue with a slight sheen that is more for summer but amazing opacity
  • Taupe Secret A beautiful matte taupe brown that works alone or blended with most colours

As you can see, The Velvets You Better Mauve gets a fair bit of use and I didn’t have a fresh one for the photos.  I also use Taupe Secret often but have a backup.

Comparing Essence Eyeshadow Bases with Swatches of The Velvets

Essence Eyeshadow Base Comparison With The Velvets Swatches

Essence The Velvets: Fluffy Clouds ~ Almost Peachy ~ Coral Me Maybe? ~ Bahama Mama ~ Taupe Secret ~ You Better Mauve

I Love Stage Eyeshadow Base (top row) unprimed skin (centre) I Love Colour Intensifying Eyeshadow Base

As I mentioned in my previous post, not all of The Velvets are created equally and the deeper shades seem to do better while the mid range shades are best if you are not using a primer or base.

Fluffy Clouds and Almost Peachy are a bit patchy, this is more true for Almost Peachy which shows best over the original Stage base.  It does make a great skin coloured base for me to put shadows that tend to stain over.  Fluffy Clouds is also better over the Stage base.  Fluffy Clouds is much more opaque when applied with a damp brush too as is true for the other shades in The Velvets range (and most shadows) but helps the white pop if you do want to wear it.

While I do not really like blues, Bahama Mama is great over both and shows well even without one of the Essence eyeshadow bases as is Coral Me Maybe? Both have great opacity, blend well and although they show brightly over the Stage base, I prefer them over Essence Colour Intensifying base as I prefer they look less shimmery and I found they lasted longer.  For full colour payoff though, I do find they show best over the Stage base.

On to the darker The Velvets shades in my collection and the ones that get a lot of use.  Both Taupe Secret and You Better Mauve tend to be patchy without a base and show much better when using one of the Essence bases.  Like the mid tones, they lasted longer over the colour intensifying base.  They also need a few swipes of the brush to fully cover the orange so I prefer them over the colour intensifying base even though I feel that Stage shows them better (perhaps because there is more shadow on my lid).

Overall, both the I Love Stage and I Love Colour Intensifying bases are good and work better than no base, especially given their very wallet friendly pricing but I have found myself reaching for the paler one mostly due to my skin tone.

The bases can be found at Shoppers Drug Mart while many of the newer shades of The Velvets are Loblaws or Online exclusives.  The bases are regularly priced at 3.99 and last a long time while the shadows are $2.49 each.  There are three other shades of The Velvets not shown here too.

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4 Replies to “Essence Eyeshadow Base Comparison With The Velvets Swatches”

  1. I really like that coral shadow, and the two darker ones. Once I start to run out of primer, maybe I’ll pick up this new one to try out. I had an issue with the orange colour of the old one too.

    1. I wear the two darker ones a lot, they are both beautiful on. There is an even darker brown one I want to try too

  2. Oooh I love these eyeshadow bases. I use them all the time and love the price!

  3. Thanks for the comparison! I’ve been wondering how the new, lighter one compares. I have the same problem, the original is super orange on my skin.

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