5 new Essence lipsticks

In their new collection for spring/ summer 2018, Essence naturally came out with a bunch of new lipsticks and lipglosses. I decided to try a few! By now I have been able to put these on my lips to see how they feel, look and wear. For this review, I have grouped all 5 lipsticks together as I felt the individual lipsticks didn’t warrant their individual reviews. Since we have quite a few things to talk about, let’s dive straight in. 

Essence Colourboost Vinylicious liquid lipstick Barbie’s Favorite
Essence Holo Wow Dewy Lip Shine Butterfly Flap
Essence Colour Up Shine On 06 Strawberry Popsicle & 14 Leather Vamp
Essence This is Me Nude Lipstick Retro Macaron

The price of these lipstick is all under €3. The Colour Up Shine On lipsticks are the most affordable at €2.39 a piece. The other lip products are all €2.89 each. In short, these are all super affordable and who doesn’t love an affordable lipstick?

Essence Colourboost Vinylicious liquid lipstick Barbie’s Favorite

Our first contestant is a liquid lipstick according to Essence. It certainly looks like one. The tube looks fun and playful and has the color of the lipstick inside. Easy to recognize in a makeup collection, that’s for sure. This is applied with an hourglass shaped applicator that is quite easy to use. I don’t find there to be a lot of product on it though and so you have to dip in a few times to get an opaque application.

Essence Holo Wow Dewy Lip Shine Butterfly Flap

Next in line is this lipgloss. Essence likes to call it a dewy lip shine. I was intrigued by the color in the tube more so than the product itself. I am not a fan of lipgloss as it does nothing for my lips and I don’t like the sticky feeling. Again, we have a doe foot applicator here but this is more short and stubby. The product smells quite sickly sweet, which isn’t my favorite.

Essence Colour Up Shine On 14 Leather Vamp

The packaging of this looks quite chic, but once you touch it, it sadly feels incredibly cheap. Very plasticy and lightweight. But then again, what can you expect for a mere €2.39? The shade looks very intimidating in the tube: navy blue lipstick anyone? This is a sheer formula though so it will definitely not go on super opaque.

Essence Colour Up Shine On 06 Strawberry Popsicle

The red version looks a little less sophisticated as the cap is semi-transparent. The shade looks like it could be a fun shade for the summer time. I love a good juicy looking shade and this is definitely that. These feel quite stiff at first, but once they warm up on your skin, you will have no trouble getting the color to transfer to your lips.

Essence This is Me Nude Lipstick Retro Macaron

Nude shades are so hard to find. It can be difficult to find something that suits you as it all depends on your skin tone and the undertone whether a shade will be flattering. That is why Essence has released a full range of nude lipsticks: it should have a shade for everyone. I like the packaging: it has a tear drop shape which makes it easy to apply and the pen isn’t clickable but twists up and down.

The Swatches

Essence Colourboost Vinylicious liquid lipstick Barbie’s Favorite
Essence Holo Wow Dewy Lip Shine Butterfly Flap
Essence Colour Up Shine On 06 Strawberry Popsicle & 14 Leather Vamp
Essence This is Me Nude Lipstick Retro Macaron

As you can see there is nothing wrong with the pigmentation on these. Even the sheer formulas still pack a bit of a punch to it. Everything here has shine though and I am not a lover of shiny lips. While I think it looks good in the spring/ summer time, it also means that that wear time isn’t stellar and that goes for all of these products. These lipsticks will only last 2 – 3 hours on your lips, which isn’t the longest wear time.

The Application

Essence Colourboost Vinylicious liquid lipstick Barbie’s Favorite

While I love the pink shade of this lipstick, this is not a liquid lipstick. A highly pigmented lipgloss, yes, but not a lipstick. Why? It is quite sticky in texture and while it looks pretty on the lips after freshly applying it, this does not dry down. In short, this has tendency to move around and with a bright shade like this, that is tricky. It is comfortable, so if you don’t mind reapplying lipstick this can be a good one to try.

Essence Holo Wow Dewy Lip Shine Butterfly Flap

What happened to that pretty orange/ pink duochrome hue? Well on my lips that completely disappears. So you can understand my disappointment with this lipgloss. When I apply this to my lips all that is still visible is the purple shimmer that makes this pop, but the base color is pretty much non-existent. So much for having naturally pigmented lips. If your lips are naturally lighter than this may work, but I will be skipping this.

Essence Colour Up Shine On 14 Leather Vamp

The cap looks blue, the lipstick looks blue, but on my lips Leather Vamp turns into a patchy plum shade. For some reason this still looks quite appealing to me, but the shade just won’t go on evenly. Since this is a sheer lipstick, I did not expect full opacity, but that almost bald patch in the middle of my lower lip isn’t all that flattering. I’m surprised at how much color payoff this still has though. The pretty shine in the swatch is sadly nowhere to be seen anymore.

Essence Colour Up Shine On 06 Strawberry Popsicle

That red shade looked very appealing to me and on the lips I quite like how it looks. It pulls more like a dark pink on my lips though. Again, I blame have naturally pigmented lips. It’s why I don’t like wearing sheer lipsticks as the color just goes on completely different from what it is supposed to look like. This also experienced some feathering as it wore down and with a shade like this, that isn’t a great look.

Essence This is Me Nude Lipstick Retro Macaron

Last but not least we’re going to end this blog post on a high note. This is me Nude lipstick in Retro Macaron is one that I actually quite like. It is quite a warm toned nude, but I like how this looks on me. It adds enough color without being too in your face. The formula is nice and creamy and this has a satin finish. If this would last longer, I would definitely have loved it even more, but that is only a minor downside to this lipstick.

The Conclusion

The new 2018 Essence lipstick update was a bit hit or miss for me. I truly liked only one of the 5 lipsticks shone. While there was one surprising shade in the bunch, I am not sure how much I’d wear that. Essence does some great lipsticks though. Their Matt Matt Matt range is sublime and well worth checking out. Out of these I would only recommend looking into the This Is Me Nude lipsticks.

What lipstick formulas are your favorite?