Catrice and Essence Cosmetics Get-together

Yesterday I got to hang out with cool chicks like Lauren from DearHeart Beauty and Leigh from Lipgloss is my Life while Cindy Nell hosted a grown-up playdate for Cape Town's Beauty Editors and Bloggers. Cindy Nell's company, Cosmetix, imports Catrice and Essence products. Both are exceptionally well priced, with Catrice being the slightly more sophisticated older sister to Essence - think 25+, but with no lack of funky, edgy colours and products to choose from.

Hostess Cindy Nell and the gorgeous Ilse Nel, who is
currently in the top 10 of Masterchef SA. What 
you can't see is that Cindy is wearing leather pants, 
and she was pulling.it.off.

As Cindy was chatting to us re Catrice, she explained that women want more than one blusher/eye liner/mascara to experiment with, and they want to have makeup items to suit specific occasions. I do remember a time where I had one 'staple' item of each, and that seemed to be the norm. Like if a peach coloured blush suited you, you wouldn't dream of trying a pink one in summer. And once you got the hang of an eye pencil, liquid liner was a no-go. Those days are long gone, though.

The price point of Catrice allows you to dabble in more experimental products without having to sacrifice your basic items. To give you an idea - mascaras, blushers and eye shadows are all between R40-R60, and nail polishes are R35. She went on to say that the products are made in Europe, which eliminate the made-in-china quality issues associated with many budget cosmetic products - so just because it costs R50, doesn't mean it's crap.

I fell in love with this limited edition vintage shimmering powder
from the Catrice Welcome to Las Vegas collection.

Essence is clearly aimed at a much younger market, but the teenager packaging isn't going to stop me from trying it out. There is a massive variety of colours and speciality products - think nail art stencils, magnetic nail polish, volumising lash powder, and beauty tools and brushes. The products are even priced a tad lower than Catrice - Single eye shadows come in at R20 each, for example.

So Essence Vampire's Love was clearly aimed at a much younger
market, but @lipglossgirl discovered that the lip stain (far left) is
amazing, and we're queueing to try it now.

I also quite liked the bohemian vibe of the Catrice
Nymphelia Limited Edition collection. 

I'll be reviewing a whopload of Essence and Catrice products over the coming months, so keep an eye out for them. Essence products are available from Clicks and DisChem, and Catrice is exclusive to DisChem.

C xx