Essence You Better Work Tinted Day Cream

Now that it’s summer I like switching up my base to something more lightweight and airy. So when Essence released a new tinted day cream last winter as part of their spring/ summer 2019 collection, I knew I would bust it out come summer time. I love bb creams, but tinted moisturizers are quite new to me. So I was stoked to try this out. Here are my final thoughts.

Essence You Better Work Tinted Day Cream 10 Light

By now, I have been using this tinted moisturizer for just over 2 weeks. So I have been able to give it a good try. One thing this definitely has going for it is its pricepoint: this retails for €3.89. For a base product this is very affordable indeed and if this works well it would be an absolute steal. Sadly my experience with this product hasn’t been the best.

The Packaging

Let’s start on a positive note! The packaging is super practical and easy to use. This product comes in a squeezy tube and that makes it easy to dispense this product. I like squeezing this on the back of my hand and then dot it around my face before blending it in with a sponge. I find I need to use quite a bit of product as this is sheer and the sponge absorbs lots of product.

The Swatch

So let’s get to the not so great things about this product. No. 1 it is much too dark. It is quite runny too as the texture is very thin. Once you blend it out it looks quite glowy, but once you finish that process, it looks quite matte. It definitely has a tint to it, but it isn’t too pretty. That swatch doesn’t look too promising.

In any case, this product also boasts a couple of promises. It should mattify, have a light coverage, waterproof and be the perfect base to wear to the gym as it should stay put, be moisturizing and have an SPF. It does look quite matte at first, but I found this looks very oily throughout the day. I don’t feel it moisturizes my skin and it doesn’t stay put.

The Shade Match

When I look at this in the mirror or in the view finder of my camera whenever I’ve worn this product it never looks super duper dark on me. However, once you look at this more close up around my neckline you can see how orange this looks on. It just doesn’t match at all and this is the lightest shade available. Perhaps if you want to fake a sunkissed look this could work, but to me it is too oompa loompa.

The Application

This is definitely a light coverage product which I also wanted it to be. It does even out my skin tone and I find it looks quite nice at first. However, as this starts to wear down throughout it makes me feel gross. It starts to feel very greasy and it starts to break up very easily. I don’t have oily skin at all so I usually don’t have this issue. That being said, I don’t think this is as mattifying and longwearing as it promises to be. I wore this to dance class and after one of those and a full day of wear, this looked atrocious. I tried taking pictures of an after, but for some reason cameras make this product look 10x better than it looks in real life.

The Conclusion

I can be short and sweet about the Essence You Better Work Tinted Day Cream. It does not do what I was hoping it would do and therefore I would not recommend. It breaks up, does not last, is too dark and it just doesn’t look great after a few hours of wear. Especially because this product promises to be water and gymproof, I had high hopes that this would be a great summer time base, but I find this product lacking on all fronts.

What is your favorite tinted moisturizer?