Dark berry and plum shades seem to be all the rage this season. I've seen countless of post and videos about lipsticks like Rebel by Mac and Rimmel's new matte shade 107 by Kate Moss. We don't have either of the two brands here, but I found a nice alternative where I least expected. Quite accidentally I stumbled across Essence's latest trend edition for November called Home Sweet Home when I was in Müller. In my experience with Essence lipsticks, which are more like tinted moisturisers, I honestly didn't expect something as pigmented as the two lipsticks in this collection.
02 Berry Me Home is a dark berry shade, an extremely pigmented and longlasting lipstick. It's not as soft as their regular lipsticks, it's more waxy and not the easiest to apply, especially since it's a darker shade. After I put it on at noon, it survived lunch and drinking with almost no visible fading. The colour stayed intense for more than five hours and faded very evenly into a nice stain. For only 2€ this is brilliant quality and if you feel like having a nice berry shade, give it a go. If you are too intimidated to wear it full on, you can wear it as a nice berry stain.
There is another shade of lipstick in this collection and it's a very pretty bright red with maybe just a hint of pink (I swatched it in the shop, you can't really be certain with those lights). The formula looked the same. I hope essence brings this longlasting formula into their regular line. They've proved that they can make excellent quality lipstick for a very reasonable price. I give them two thumbs up.
Thanks for reading!