Essence Lip Liner Review & Swatches!

Are you sick of seeing Essence products yet? Because I'm not sick of talking about them! For the past several months I've had the opportunity to try out many of the products in the Essence Cosmetics line. For those of you who don't know, Essence Cosmetics is a very affordable drugstore brand of makeup available at Shoppers Drug Mart here in Canada, Ulta in the United States and other various stores overseas. Generally, products range from about $2 - $5 and products vary from eyeshadows to lipsticks and everything in between. One of the products I've had the pleasure of testing out and trying are the famous Lip Liners that the brand offers. If you've watched a YouTube video dedicated to drugstore products you have heard about these amazing little products. My review might not be any different from those but I still wanted to share it with you all today.

Swatches (left to right): In The Nude, Cute Pink, Honey Berry, Femme Fatal & Red Blush

Product Information: ** Direct from Essence Cosmetics website!
Price: $1.49 (USD) "Intensify those lips! Define lips beautifully with this smudge-proof and long-lasting lip liner. Available in 6 defining shades."
Packaging: Just like many other lip liners on the market these one's from Essence are your traditional wooden pencil that you do sadly have to sharpen. As for the wooden pencil trend that everyone seems to dislike, I actually find this packaging much more usable compared to automatic pencils. Sometimes when you get a creamy lip products or eye product in pencil form without a wooden exterior the pencil inside can actually break, therefore leaving your automatic pencil destroyed and hard to use. At least with a wooden pencil I'm safe (to an extent) from it breaking. This way I can use more of the product for longer. I also find having the pencil inside of the wooden exterior makes it much more sanitary for use in makeup artistry kits and so forth. 
Product: As someone who buys and try's a lot of products out there on the beauty market its really hard to find the perfect anything, even lip liners. With saying that I do think these are some of the best that I have tried from the drugstore (Rimmel is a close second). I give these lipliners a big thumbs up just for the super affordable price point at around $2 here in Canada. But of course, the main thing that everyone looks for in a lipliner is the formula and the longevity of the product. As for the formula, I think for a really inexpensive product you can't expect the quality of $30 lip liners but I think by far Essence Cosmetics has hit the nail on the head with formula. The formula is creamy, soft and comfortable. Of course, after testing out each lipliner I do feel like some are more creamy than others, but all together I don't feel like there is that much difference. You can definitely tell which shades are creamy when swatching them, but when applying to the lips the difference is so slight its hard to tell. As for longevity, its really hard for me to tell since I don't tend to wear lipstick all day every day. I love wearing lipsticks in the morning until they fade and look gross and then I'm all about throwing on a tinted lip balm. I do have to say that these bad boys do last a decent amount of time on the lips and they do help my lipstick to stay on. Like I said since I don't reapply that often it's really hard for me to give a solid time. I would generally say that you should touch up lip products anyway no matter if they still look perfect after 8 hours. You can also do a little refresh. Not to mention these are super small and durable products to keep in your purse.
Overall: I think the biggest thing for me is the price point. Why would you spent $10 and up on a lipliner when Essence has such affordable ones and they are easy to get your hands on. Of course Essence does have a limited selection of colors, which is the only downside. But I feel like they have 5-6 really different colors and you could rock them with many lipsticks shades. I am upset they don't have a true purple shade. I also was a big fan of the packaging despite the craze around the beauty community with having to sharpen products. Overall, I'm really impressed that the quality, longevity and price point are as amazing as they are. I do hope in the future Essence continues to grow there shade range of these products because they would be perfect for a makeup artist kit, since they are affordable and great quality.