Have you already seen a post where I rave about Essence coming up with new and better affordable products? This might be another one.
Before everything in the world went down, I managed to get my hands on some of the new items from Essence. I am not really into liquid lipsticks that much right now, especially since I am self-quarantining it's not the most comfortable lip product to wear around the appartment. But these looked very nice and I really liked the colors so I decided to pick two of these up. The Essence Stay 8h Matte Liquid Lipstick costs 85 Crowns and you get 3ml of product. I've never gone through a whole liquid lipstick personally, so I don't think the amount matters that much.
It comes in 9 shades, but I'm not sure if all of them are available in Czechia. Drugstore liquid lipsticks and lipsticks in general tend to lean more pink and into undertones that don't suit me at all. So I decided to go for shades which looked the most interesting to me and the least usual for a drugstore lipstick. I got the shade 02 Duck Face and 03 Down to Earth.
They come in a plastic colored tube, so you roughly know the shade of the lipstick and the wand is pretty interesting. It's one if the narrow long ones, which I don't really prefer, but it's alright. It smells a little sweet but nothing too overwhelming. It's supposed to be longwearing, non-transfer and highly pigmented and it also has a matte finish, as the name suggests.
Now when it comes to liquid lipstick I prefer two types. Type one is the absolutelly bulletproof, longlasting, nothing will take it off, it will last through 5 meals lipstick. That's the kind of lipstick I wear to events and when I really need my lips to stay poppin' for the whole day and night. The other type is the comfortable one which can be taken off with a little bit of effort. If I'm not going to wear the lipstick for the whole day, I want to be able to take it off because it probably won't last through the whole day of drinking and eating. And I prefer if it doesn't dry out my lips in this case.
The shade 02 Duck Face is well named for sure. But it's a very nice medium brown warm-neutral nude, which is my favorite type of brown lip. The shade 03 Down To Earth was the most orange-y one in the selection. It's like a dusty muted orange terracota. It's not red and it's not leaning pink at all, which I really like. But it does have that muted element which makes it very flattering and not like a neon in your face. In the photos is looks a lot more pink than in person thought.
Wear time
I didn't document a whole wear test because I couldn't get around to taking pictures of myself while wearing the lipstick. However, it's quite clear how it lasts after you wear it a couple times.
It's not very thin in texture so you can feel it on your lips once it dries down. It lasts well once it dries down and you don't really drink or eat. Once you start drinking a bit or eating, the lipstick starts to crumble. After a couple hours it really dries out the lips and starts to feel a little uncomfortable. It really depends how you wear your lipsticks. For a lipstick like this, I would probably keep it on till lunch and then after lunch I would take it off with a lipbalm because it will be half off anyway because of the food. It's not really a lipstick you want to keep on for 10 hours because it will limit you in drinking and eating and it will also become very dry in about 2-3 hours.
It's not a dealbreaker because majority of liquid lipstick I have act the same. These lipstick are very unique shades though so the chances are that I will be wearing them a lot more even though the formula isn't my favorite because they look very nice and I don't usually wear a lipstick for longer than 3-4 hours before I either re-do it or take it off.
Final thoughts
So, should you get it? I would say that for the price it's a very fair competititor in the drugstore liquid lipstick department. There aren't many brands with matte liquid lipsticks in the drugstore and they are very similar in formula. The formula is a little thick, a little drying and doesn't last through 3 glasses of water or one meal. But if you avoid that, it will stay on.
I like the shade selection, so that's another plus together with the cost. Overall, I would rather buy this lipstick than Dermacol or Rimmel liquid lipsticks for example. All of these are very similar in texture and the price of the other two I mentioned are way higher than price of this very affordable Essence lipstick. So if you like any of these shades, I would say go get them.
Have you tried these? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!