It’s been a hot second since I’ve posted, but here I am! I’ve been sick for about a week or so, and then it was topped off by an eye infection – so you know that made testing makeup really hard having that. Luckily I had some things saved up to post, and I have some nail posts coming up as well! Spring collections are dropping so it’s about to get busy in the nail world!

But for today, we have a review of a new drugstore highlighter that’s sweeping the beauty nation! It’s the Essence ‘Pure Nude’ Highlighter, and I’ve heard so many good things about it, so of course I wanted to try it out for myself.

This retails for $4.49 at Ulta. So let’s just get on into it.

As you can see it’s more of a golden champagne color. As for the powder itself, it’s super smooth to the touch, and picks up product and pigment easily. It almost feels like a baked product, but it’s not dry at all. Absolutely lovely.

It shows up as a subtle champagne, with golden undertones on my pale skin.

As you can see from the swatch, 2 things. 1: it’s a very subtle sheen. You’re not going to be seeing this from space. Maybe from like a street corner. And 2: it is almost a tad dark on my skin. So think about that if you’re a fair lady like me, or even paler.

But even though it’s subtle, it’s honestly beautiful. It’s so smooth, and so easy to apply to the skin. I do honestly love this for a nice golden glow. And I can understand the true hype around it – because it’s for good reason.

I love it for a subtle glow on my cheeks – however, I don’t use it on my nose or cupid’s bow, because since it’s a darker tone and more golden, it shows up fairly noticeably on my nose. There will just be a little gold spot amidst the rest of my foundation. So I stick to just my cheeks. Just something to keep in mind with this product.

But with it’s affordable price, and large pan size, I can honestly say there’s no reason to not buy this highlighter. 100% approval from me. If you’re super fair, fairer than I am, it might be a tad dark, so think about your own skin tone when buying. I can only speak for myself.

Do you plan on picking this up?