Essence - Lip Glosses

When I first laid my eyes on the Essence Collection, I was blown away with the low prices on all of their products, from lip liners and glosses to nail varnish and eye-shadow, but I have to admit that it also made me a little skeptical of how good the products would be. As someone who is a sucker for finding a good price I thought I would test out their range here on my blog one product at a time.

I would also like to mention they are a brand who do not test on animals.

You can find the range at your local Wilko's or the Essence Cosmetics online store.

Essence Cosmetics is also available in the USA ; you can find it at Ulta and Walgreen's

- & Canada ; you can find it at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Glosses - retail price of £1.80. / $2.49.

(34 - Poppy Red)

(06 - Soft Almond)

(33 - Fabulous Fuchsia)

(08 - Glamour To Go)

For lip glosses these Essence XXXL Shine & XXXL Nudes are so opaque that you really could wear them alone without them being sheer or almost unnoticeable on the lips, although, I found the more you rub your lips together the more you do lose that intense colour you get when first applied. But I did find that if put straight to both the top and bottom lip and I just do one quick kiss of the lips, I didn't have too much of a problem.

Of course, they are glosses, so I found I could definitely feel them a little on the lips, but nothing too heavy, and they were just a tad sticky, but again nothing that I personally couldn't deal with. For me, the colour pay-off is worth it!

The Soft Almond nude really is the perfect colour to make any nude lipstick pop. And it just the right tone when wore alone. It get another massive plus from me also, as it matches almost all of the nude lipsticks and lip liners that I own.

Poppy Red was not what I was expecting at all. If I'm honest, when I picked it up in store I didn't even look at what the colour was called, I just saw it, loved it, brought it... you know how it goes ladies! So when I got home and tried it on, I was surprised to find it wasn't orange like I had expected or like it had looked. However, I was surprised by how much I did love the colour considering I was a little disappointed about picking up a colour I hadn't intended to. It is quickly becoming a go-to 'center of lip' gloss.

Then of course, Fabulous Fuchsia, such a dark, rich colour that has a slight purple undertone to it. This colour seriously is so gorgeous and I am becoming obsessed, haha! It is definitely the most opaque out of the four that I own, but putting it over a dark lip honestly does something for me, it really pulls together any look.

Last but not least, Glamour To Go. This is probably the colour I least like worn alone, but swatched on the skin is my favorite. Personally I think the colour is too light for my skin tone, but when used as a 'highlight' for the lips over the top of a lipstick this is honestly gorgeous.

As for the wear time, when wore alone I had to reapply 3/4 times in about a 7/8 hour period, and an extra time for the colour Soft Almond. When worn over a lipstick I reapplied about 2/3 times, again in about 7/8 hours, so it definitely wears that tiny bit longer with a base, but really nothing too dramatic and magical. I have not yet eaten a meal with it on, but I would definitely say there is a very high chance you will need to reapply afterward, but that doesn't take a genius to work out!