Eversince I've tried the Colourpop Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick, I wanted to try other affordable ones from other brands too. So when I found out that Essence has their own line of matte lipgloss I was eager to try them as well. I bought this for P150 (original price is P229) last month when they were having a sale. I picked up the shade 05 Velvet Rose. I was supposed to buy the other shade which is a slightly brown nude shade (I forgot the name) that looks very nice on swatches I found online but it was already out of stock. This specific color was the only one left so I thought that this lipgloss range might be really good. I still wanted to give this shade a chance although I already had an inkling that this wouldn't be good base on other reviews online.

This has a mousse-like texture when you apply it on your lips. I didn't really like the feel and quality of this "matte" lipgloss as soon as I used it. Although it doesn't say liquid lipstick on the tube, it still says "THE MATT" on it so I was somehow expecting this lipgloss to really dry matte. 

This product has a doe foot applicator that is flat and larger compared to other lipglosses' in the market. The applicator is similar with their regular lipglosses' and I really like it. The applicator is really soft and works pretty well in applying the gloss itself. However, I didn't really like this product. This gloss goes on patchy when applied. I also didn't like how it emphasized dry patches on my lips and it didn't sit very well on it either. This shade also didn't suit me and was not flattering on my skintone even though it looks very pretty. It's more of a pink shade that has a yellow undertone to it. It didn't last very well on the lips and didn't dry down to a matte finish although it says on the tube that it is matte. 

I swatched this shade below and you can see that it really didn't dry into a matte finish even after a few minutes of application.