ESSENCE Foundation Stick
20
Texture: thick, but very creamy.
Coverage: light-medium.
Finish: Moderately glowy, eventually more flat matte.
Staying power: This doesn’t set and it easily wipes off when you touch it.
Shade: 20 is a very light cool toned shade. Too light for me.
Essence describes the finish as natural matte, but this is more of a greasy formula that doesn’t set, so the finish more on the glowy side when freshly applied and it time it just looks flat matte.
Coverage is lighter than I expected, maybe light-medium, I can see my pale freckles still shine through.
Staying power is bad, as this just wipes off in contact hours after application. I never tried setting this with powder, as it looks enough of a disaster on its own on my skin. Essentially, my dry skin doesn’t like this at all and it’s a formula I’m a bit embarrassed to me seen with in public, but I saw plenty of people praise it on Tik Tok, so it works for some people.
CATRICE Instant Bright Serum Concealer
002N
Texture: creamy, medium thick for a concealer
Coverage: medium-high
Finish: Glowy at application, but turns very matte on dry skin.
Staying power: Very long-lasting
Shade: 002N isn’t the lightest compared to some other brands. It’s not neutral, but yellow.
(picture of freshly applied concealer. I didn’t take the picture of how dry it looks later)
While this looks ok freshly applied, which is when I took my before/after pictures, by the end of the day this looks terrible. I don’t remember a concealer ruining my day quite so much as this one, nor one that would make me run to buy a bunch of anti-ageing skin care, but this concealer makes me look so old. It emphasizes every small wrinkle I had no idea I had. It looks so dry under my eyes and it cracks. I don’t love it freshly applied either, as it’s an odd formula somehow looks glowy, but at the same time drying, flat and obvious under my eyes. It doesn’t feel hydrating on my skin.
Staying power is really good even without powder. Most of it was on my skin at the end of the day, just very dry, flat and unlikeable on my dry skin.
Shade 002N looks yellow on me and obviously off, but it was the lightest shade on the stand.
This is just another formula from Catrice that doesn’t suit me. Sadly my skin I just doesn’t get along with their base products.
ESSENCE Line’n Stain Tattoo Lip Liner
01 Everyone’s Nude Pink
This is meant to be a type of lipliner and Essence shows it in their pictures are applied on its own just on the edges of the lips, but I dislike this 90’s trend and I got it as an all-over colour. They mention this shade being a muted pink tone, which on me is far from it and that it leaves a natural looking stain, which on me looks bright magenta.
The colour of the packaging has nothing to do with the actual shade of this. It’s much darker on the lips, a medium-deep berry on me. The formula is as they describe watery and it feels feather light on lips. Essentially it’s like using a sharpie that’s very pigmented and the tip allows you to be very precise. However, I never got an even application with this. It tints the dry parts of the lips darker, just like stains normally do.
It sets very quickly and if you made a mistake, this can’t be easily wiped off. Staying power is great and there is no transfer (except on paper straws). As the colour is wearing off, the lips and skin under it get stained with pH reacting tint that Essence puts in a lot of their products. That tint on me always looks the same, a strong cool magenta. The swatch I had on my hands did not come off for three days, but I think on the lips it lasted about a day, longer on dry parts, so you have to wear a lipstick the next day to cover the uneven lips. Since it’s just a lightweight product, this isn’t at all moisturising, but you can easily put a gloss or a lip balm over it.
If you enjoy that pH reacting tint and don’t mind this looking uneven, you might like it, especially since it’s very long lasting, but bare in my that if you slip during application, this won’t come off easy.
ESSENCE Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm
03 – Time To Pitaya
Just to warn you so you don’t make the same mistake as me – this is not a retractable balm (due to the very soft formula). This is super glossy, close to a proper lip gloss. It’s nicely nourishing and feels very comfortable.
Shade Pitaya is very pigmented with one swipe, you get a semi-opaque look that doesn’t need much building up. It’s a medium neutral-cool pink, I think it doesn’t suit my skin tone best. In typical Essence style I think they added their trademark pH reacting tint to it, as when the lip balm disappears from the lips, my lips are still tinted pink. I wish they stopped doing that so often, but at least the tint is far more even than at the line n’ stain, since it’s so moisturising. I tried this on the cheeks too and it looks quite nice.
CATRICE Gel Affair Nail Lacquer
004 – Rosy Bowtastic and 031 Electric Turquoise
Shade 004 needs at least two coats to look even, but you may need three. It’s a very pale off-white peach shade.
031 is almost opaque with one coat with a smooth formula, but it’s best to apply two. Electric Turquoise is a “Tiffany” green-blue and it stains the nails like crazy, so a base is needed.
ESSENCE Express Dry Top Coat
ESSENCE Lip Care Jelly Sleeping Mask
This is quite good. Thicker than Laneige lip mask, which sometimes I prefer because it sticks on the lips better and for longer. It’s nicely nourishing for very dry lips and it has the scent of Kiki candy (soft taffy candy scent). It’s tinted and gives the lips a nice light shade of pink. I use the silicone applicator from the Laneige mask, I think this product is missing such a tool, I don’t like dipping my fingers into lip balm pots.
