Essence Sheer & Shine Lipstick Review & Swatches!*

Like everyone else in the beauty community, I've been loving the matte lipstick trend but I'm starting to get over it pretty quick. Wearing matte lipsticks both in liquid lipstick formula and simple matte lipsticks require more maintenance for me then I'm wanting to struggle with in the upcoming warm months. As many of you know in the past, the Revlon Lip Butters have been my holy grail products and will continue to be a huge staple in my makeup collection. But there is a new product quickly taking over as my favorite tinted lip balm type of product.

Over the past couple of months, Essence Cosmetics has really dominated the drugstore market with brand new products, formulas, and colors. One of the stand out products from the new product releases is the Sheer & Shine Lipsticks*. The description on the Essence Cosmetics website says:

" This new smooth and lightweight lipstick provides a moisturizing wash of color and shine. Buildable color with every swipe. "

The first claims in this statement are that these produce a smooth and lightweight feel and these are the first things I thought about when I tried out the products. Some of these products include some small shimmer particles (not glitter) and even with this inside the lip product, I still noticed they were extremely smooth when applied on the lips. As for lightweight, I barely noticed these were even on my lips after application.

Another great aspect of these products is how moisturizing they are once they are on the lips. In the past, I've thought products like the Maybelline Baby Lips and the Revlon Lip Butters were hydrating but after trying these I now certainly think differently. The Essence Sheer & Shine Lipsticks* pack a punch like no others. They also deliver a beautiful wash of color that can be built up to a medium coverage on the lips. I own a variety of lighter shades and darker shades and I definitely think the lighter shades are perfect to top matte lipsticks with and also good on their own for every day. Whereas the darker shades work perfectly on their own and provide a beautiful fresh look.

Here is a closer look at the shades I've had a chance to try:

Frosted* reminded me a lot of the Bite Beauty Opal Creme Lipstick (even though I have tried this) when I first opened it up. Frosted has a beautiful pastel light pink shade to it but when swatched it has blue and lavender undertones with very tiny micro shimmer that catch the light beautifully on the lips. I love this shade on its own but I also love putting this in the center of my lips when I wear matte lipsticks.

Candy Love is a shade that I purchased all on my own and is a deep mauve shade with some red undertones. However when applied on the lips, this comes off as a beautiful bright pink shade but is completely wearable for every day. I do want to mention that I was shocked at just how baby pink this shade got on my lips and how long it stayed for. I felt like after this shade had worn off I still had a pink stain on my lips which I never noticed with the other colors.

Cute Nude is another shade that I purchased myself and it is a brown toned pink shade in the tube. When applied to my lips this is the perfect my lips but better color with a little hint of pink. This is the shade I have worn the most because it's super easy to apply without a mirror and works well with any type of makeup look.

Glamour Queen* looks like a deep brick red in the tube, which to me was very intimidating because I don't generally reach for a shade like this. One of the other things I noticed about this shade was the amount of shimmer that it had just sitting in the tube. Once applied to the lips I noticed that this was much more of a muted red shade and that there was far less sparkle and much more of a nice glossy sheen. This is probably my second favorite color out of all the ones I own because it compliments my skin more than I thought it would.

Be Happy* is probably the shade that I'm the most scared of because in the tubes its a try strawberry red. In the past, red's have just not looked good on me and aren't something I fuss a lot about. However, when swatched and applied to the lips I find this shade to be the sheerest formula of the ones I have. I also find this to be much more of a berry based shade which I'm completely happy to wear, just not on an every day basis.

So can you tell I'm in love? Yes, that's right I said, love. It's been a really long time since I've come across a lip product that I've completely fallen in love with. Honestly, I think the last one was the Essence Long Lasting Lipsticks* which are still a staple in my collection. These lipsticks are everything they claim to be and that is a huge bonus in my books. I love when a company truly puts out a product that does what it says it does. There is nothing worse than a disappointing product because the company marketed it wrong. I highly recommend the Essence Sheer & Shine Lipsticks* if you are in the market for something fresh, fun, smooth, moisturizing and lightweight on the lips.

Have you tried the Shine & Sheer Lipsticks?
What is your favorite product from Essence Cosmetics?


*** Products in this post were sent to me for consideration on the blog!