Automatic Lip Liner

Essence In the Bloom’light Matte Lipliner [01 - Live In Full Bloom] Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - December 14, 2024

Eh, since the lipstick is a bust, I guess I will just review the matching lip liner... this is the Essence In the Bloom’light Matte Lipliner, in the shade 01/Live In Full Bloom (the only shade available)!
 
 
Okay, let me be real, the lipstick being rancid has really tilted me. I was so looking forward to having a deep berry/wine coloured lip set... now I’m left with just the lip liner. Sigh. Well, this lip liner (and lipstick) were two things from this LE that I wanted the most; as soon as I saw this LE in shops and how dark and dramatic the lip set is, I immediately bought it! I loooove a good vampy dark red lip, and this lip liner seems to be just that! Plus, it’s matte, which is always better in my opinion! I’m just wondering whether it’s the same colour or darker than the lipstick. I guess I’ll see soon! Essence lip liners have been incredible in the past, so I have high hopes for this little liner! Also, ‘Live In Full Bloom’ is some good life advice, in general. I hope I will be as happy as a blooming flower at the end of this journey with this lip liner!
 
 
 
Packaging: unlike the lipstick, this is plastic. This is not a wooden lip liner; it’s an automatic one, instead. I love the purple all over the liner! It’s so mysterious and pretty! There’s 3 different shades of purple here: the lightest is the body of the liner, which is a faded berry kind of purple, followed by the dark berry cap. The text is very vibrant magenta and it’s metallic; this finish absolutely makes it stand out, but it also has the downside of making it hard to read. 
 
 
 
And it makes it harder to see the lovely floral motifs. There isn’t quite as many florals here compared to the eyeliner, and they aren’t as intricate, but it still adds a very nice touch to the liner. The cap closes very tightly, with a click once it is securely closed. The lead is inside a retracting mechanism that honestly feels quite robust! It feels high quality, even though the rest of the liner feels super light. I really like this design, this entire LE is just so intricately designed, wow!
 
 
 
Source: www.essence.eu
Ingredients: nothing nourishing and no parabens. The scent is... peculiar. This isn’t the first dark Essence lip product that smells weird; remember, the matching lipstick had gone rancid before I was even able to use it, and the dark Hydra Matte lipstick had that same rancidness issue. It seems that Essence struggles to make dark lip pigments without them going rancid too soon. Indeed, this lip liner is freshly made and opened, and it already smells waxy and like rancid grease. I just don’t get it... is this how it’s supposed to smell? Because if so, that’s really bad. It literally stinks. Or it might have already gone bad, like the lipstick, who knows anymore. The expiration date is ostensibly 12 months, but given the smell, who knows what it actually is.
 
 
 
Colour: oh dear... motherquacker. So, let me get this straight: the lip liner in a matching set is like 5 shades lighter than the lipstick? What the...??? What happened to ‘dark plum’? Forget about being in the same neighbourhood, this isn’t even on the same continent! This is a dark rose red/magenta red, or something similar to Telemagenta, but more red. Not nearly purple enough to be considered plum. Although, it is quite similar in colour to the colour of fresh plum juice when it splatters on clothing. 
 
 
 
It’s a very dull colour, not even muted, just dull, like it’s lacking pigment. Look, on its own, this is actually a pretty berry colour, but it’s nowhere close to what was advertised, which is a huge problem. And it’s not something Essence lip liners usually struggle with; usually, the colour that is advertised is very close to what you actually get (with slight changes depending on your skintone and undertones of course). So, say that the lipstick wasn’t rancid, how would I be able to use this together with it, hmm??? The only saving grace is that this particular berry colour looks good on my pale skin and it doesn’t have a horrible demarcation line in the middle... is this just the tip of the iceberg of problems? I am so angry...
 
 
It looks far more vibrant in photos - trust me, IRL it's very drab
What the sh*t??? Excuse my French, but I am beyond pissed right now. Where’s the pigmentation???? No matter how many layers I apply, it is still pale and looks drab. It’s not at all deep and dramatic like the lipstick so how in the hell can those two be used together?? It really looks more like a lip stain than anything else, which is NOT something I want with a matte lip liner. For Christ’s sake...well, we’re off on the wrong foot. And it’s really surprising that it’s this dull because Essence lip pencils have always been super pigmented, even if said pigment was light! What happened here?? Where did it all go wrong??
 
 
As for how it applies, well, it applies well enough, given the weird formula. The lip liner glides across lips and never tugs at them, which is good, but it also doesn’t apply too evenly, which is bad. It doesn’t take long to fill in the entire lips due to how smooth the formula is, but you do need half a dozen layers to make it look decently even. And even then, it will look messy. Plus, it is not at all sharp on the edges, but I will get to that in a second.
 
 
 
This lip liner is pretty precise, but it really struggles to draw sharp lines. In fact, it’s almost impossible to make lips sharply defined. And this is one of the key features a lip pencil must have. What good is it if the edges are smudgy as if they had been applied straight from the bullet? Useless... although, it is an automatic liner, so it is quite easy to fill in the lips and draw a precise shape around the edges and the cupid’s bow. Shame it will be hella smudgy. And because it is so smudgy, it is not too easy to fix mistakes, as it will all just turn into a smudgy mess... just wonderful.
 
 

Wait... is this a gel lip pencil??? Oh god, it is. I thought this would be a more waxy formula, but it is quite smooth, to the point of feeling almost gelly. While this formula is easier to use because it never skips over any part of the lips, it is horribly smudgy, no matter how hard you try to make the edges sharp. And it is so uneven, I need like 4-5 layers until it is even enough, but it never is truly perfectly even. The formula is just too soft and gelly. It takes maybe half a minute for it to dry, and then it changes from being gelly silky into being slightly dry. 
 
 
However, it is never tacky, it stays silky smooth the entire time. But that doesn’t cover for the fact that it’s so uneven and looks messy. One thing that is good, though, is how it doesn’t tend to pile up on the lower lip, so your lips don’t have to be in perfect condition in order to use this lip liner. Even if your lips are slightly chapped or dry, this liner will still look okay. Additionally, it doesn’t exaggerate the fine lines of the lips at all; in fact, it seems to smooth them over slightly, which is not very common when it comes to matte lip liners. However, this is not really matte. At least, not how you’d expect it. I cannot express how frustrated I was by this point, and then it turned out that this isn’t that rich sort of matte, but a messy, lip stain-like kind of finish. It doesn’t look good at all. It just looks messy and unkempt. Ugh... why can’t anything in this damn LE be good...
 
 

Sigh, things don’t improve when it comes to comfort. This lip liner quickly dries down into a weirdly dry but slightly greasy finish that isn’t too comfortable. It’s super lightweight and not at all tacky, but it feels dry. And it becomes more uneven with time, as it starts to dry out excessively on the lower lip. It creates a sort of crust on the lower lip, but it isn’t as bad as with other matte lip liners. Still, it is uncomfortable and makes me want to lick my lips constantly because of how dry it feels. So, yes, it does dry out lips. It doesn’t dry them out extremely, but it is still quite noticeable how drier lips are after you remove this damn thing. And it also starts to emphasise fine lines much more after as little as 30 minutes of wearing it! Horrible...
 
 
 
Oh, and if you thought that that’s where the horrible stuff ends, you would be mistaken! Because this lip liner is so goddamn atrocious that it cannot even last 30 minutes before it starts to fade! You know, the thing that should be a reliable base under lipsticks? And it cannot survive a damn hour??? And that’s before you decide to eat or drink anything... it fades from... just existing, I guess??? I noticed that it was noticeably more faded on the corner of my lips, where the two lips meet, and it is patchy and messily faded all over. This is like 30 minutes after applying, mind you! (Un)Fortunately, it stays this way most of the day, if you stay away from any kind of food or drinks. It doesn’t fade much more, but it does become even more uneven and messy on the edges. It might look okay from a distance, but it really doesn’t look good from up close. And don’t even get me started on how poorly it tolerates food and drinks!!! It is garbage! The food you eat doesn’t even have to be greasy, anything and everything will make this lip liner smudge and fade from the centre. Just a single touch will make it fade, let alone eating! It cannot survive anything, you will most definitely have to reapply it after eating or drinking, because it will be completely faded. It’s fortunate that the formula glides this easily, but it’s still extremely annoying and very, very bad. This is already the third of probably 3 things that a lip liner should have, and this liner has none of them! No pigmentation, no sharpness, no longevity... pure rubbish.
 
 
 
Removing this liner is extremely easy... since the formula flat-out refuses to stay anyways. You could literally just swipe it off with your finger and it would be completely gone without too much rubbing. Now isn’t that just great?? That also means that it takes all of 5 seconds to remove it with micellar water or a specialised remover. And, despite looking like a stain, it doesn’t actually stain lips red, thank god.
 
 
Sharpening this pencil isn’t needed since it is an automatic liner. However, if you happen to have one of those tiny automatic liner sharpeners you could theoretically sharpen this liner, but no guarantees that it won’t break. In fact, it likely will, given how soft the formula is. 
 

 
In conclusion, let me just sum this up real quick: read everything that Essence claims this lip liner is and then just take the opposite of that. Pretty much. Because nothing they say is true. Dark plum colour? Uh-huh, suuure. This is bloody typical berry shade, nothing even close to plum, for crying out loud! It’s literally half a dozen shades lighter than its matching lipstick!! And it’s a dull, faded colour and no amount of layers will help deepen it. It just looks worn and faded and just trash. Lucky that I like berry colours, I guess. Next, forget about defining your lips. This garbage is so fricking smudgy and messy that there is no way to actually sharply define your lips... you know, like a lip liner ought to do! It honestly looks way more like a lip stain than anything else. And I don’t like that. Just like I don’t like its poor longevity; it can literally be swiped off with a finger! How this is supposed to last a whole day and support a lipstick over it is anybody’s guess. And contrary to anything Essence claims, it is not comfortable to wear because it just feels so damn dry. And it does dry out lips. So, like... what’s the point with this lip liner? It is failing at every single thing a lip liner should be. And it also stinks, which is not the first time Essence has had a darkly pigmented lip product that smells rancid. It just seems like they struggle to produce a good dark lip product, which is a shame. Because you shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money just to get a good red wine coloured lip pencil. And another thing I really dislike about this liner is that it’s actually a gel lip liner; now, I don’t hate gel lip liners by any means, but this wasn’t advertised as being that. So you are lead to believe it’s a ‘normal’ automatic liner... when it’s actually super gelly and rubbish and just a pain overall. Sorry, but I am quite honestly pissed with this lip liner. It is making me angry and I just feel exasperated, because nothing about it is okay. It’s just rubbish. The only reason it’s not getting a lower score is because I do like the colour all by itself, but everything else is just so bad that it is hard to even explain. And it feels doubly bad because Essence lip liners are usually bangin’, so I am used to a much higher level of quality... but it seems that this LE was a rush job, devoid of any quality control. That’s now 3/3 products from this LE that are a bust. Just amazing, truly, really fricking amazing... oh my god. Well, suffice to say, this little piece of garbage isn’t getting any recommendations, I would have to be out of my mind to recommend it. Good riddance.
 
 
 
Rating: 2.5/10
 
 
Would buy again? NO
 

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