Mwah mwah mwah! If Marilyn Monroe were Korean, maybe this would have been her go-to product hahaha.
This review is in Etude House’s Kissful Tint Choux. I know it’s for the lips and all, but honestly, I don’t know what it is. It’s most definitely not a lipstick, it does not provide softening to the lips so it’s not a lip balm either, it’s not as pigmented as a lip tar, it’s glossy and it’s most definitely not a matte lip cream, but it’s also too thin and watery to be considered a traditional lip gloss. It’s somewhere in between everything I think.
I think I could phrase this as a color changing lip tint/ lip gloss/ lip color.
I actually like the packaging a lot because it’s so pink and so cute.
I had quite a difficult time deciding on which shade to get because the internet in general was very inconclusive with shades. I initially thought that this was like NYX’s butter gloss, or as in it was like a traditional lip gloss, and didn’t know that it was actually color changing.
The shades to choose from were a reddish and a pinkish choux, and this was the strawberry milk shade. I got this thinking that I needed a near nude color opaque lip gloss in my collection as my current collection mostly has transparent and translucent glosses.
This is shade 3 or the strawberry milk colored one or #PK002, depending on which website you’re looking at. Here in the Philippines, the Etude House website calls it PK002 but BDJ Box website calls it #3, and I have tried googling the product and some other product descriptions call this Strawberry Milk Pink.
The packaging is like a foil packaging, not like the traditional plastic tube. It feels mushier to the touch, and somewhat like a thinner toothpaste tube.
This is how it looks like once opened. I actually expected it to be like a horse’s foot or like a flat slanted surface with a hole in the middle, but it looks like a lip tar’s tip.
And this is an illustration of what first comes out of the tube, before any of the changes. It looks like strawberry milk, just as what its name implies. But it smells like banana essence, as in like the thing you put in your black gulaman. The moment you open the tube a smell of banana essence wafts through the air.
This is the swatch right after applied to the arm. It still looks like the strawberry milk color as the previous color.
But once it is left to react with the skin (not sure if it’s the warmth or the chemicals it reacts with), it changes color and turns into this sheer pink with touches of hot pink.
To illustrate, here’s the lip swatches. This is right after I put a stripe of it on my lips. You can see that my lips are pale here and that the product is still strawberry milk colored. (and sorry for the giant watermark I didn’t mean to!)
The moment after you spread it onto your lips, this is how it looks like. It comes with lots of whitish blotches, and is still strawberry milk colored.
However, 30 seconds after application, you can notice that somehow, the color is getting pinker, more translucent, and less milky in appearance.
And after about a minute, with some occasional smacks…
It reaches this sheer cool pink color, with some opacity on the cracks of the lips.
In general, these kinds of colors help to make an illusion of whiter teeth due to the cool tone and the bluish touches to the pink.
And yehey this is me with it. In general, it feels really runny on the lips, as in do not expect this to be the usual sticky and/or tacky lip gloss. It feels very slippery, and is relatively comfortable, but it may feel oily or greasy to some people though. I honestly like the banana essence scent, but some people may be disturbed though as it may feel weird, especially those who don’t like fragrances.
As for this product, if you want it to be your lip gloss, you’d have to reapply about every hour as it’s so runny and thin that it dries up super easily.
Color wise, I really like the shade and the overall finish. It’s an ideal product for girls starting out with makeup as it’s a no brainer to use and apply but gives this nice and healthy glow. The color is bright enough to improve the overall look, but the texture is so far from lipstick that it doesn’t feel dramatic to use for everyday purposes. The finish is at the right balance of sheer and opaque, which is why the finish is that you can still see the lips and all, without seeing darker discoloration spots which may be on the lips.
And for those people with okay lips (as in not as dry and flaky as mine), you needn’t reapply often as it leaves a nice stain on the lips once dried or wiped off. You can recall that my lips before applying this was pale in color, and only now after the tint has been wiped off that it’s more tinted.
This is probably the reason why they call the product Kissful Tint Choux. I don’t think that this was 100% intended to be applied then wiped off or dried off, but they probably took into account the stain that it left on the lips. Or also because it acted like a light tint on the lips. At this rate, it’s not impossible for this to be a cheek tint if you’re out of blush, but I won’t really preach it as I don’t have any company information that this is okay or is targeted for the cheeks. Ideally I try to not immediately apply lip stuff to the cheeks as the product may be too oily for the skin on the cheeks and try to get cream blush…
I don’t really have an estimation as to how this will react with people of other skintones because I’m not really certain if the color change is relative to temperature, chemical reaction, or color of the lips. I have yet to use this on my friends and clients to see what happens. But if you are fair skinned and with dry lips, you can more or less be certain that these are the effects you’ll be seeing.
I got this from BDJ Box Shop for Php 278. The site describes this as a product that’s supposed to tint, moisturize and plump up the lips. I think it indeed does help to make an illusion of plump lips, and is able to tint as what I’ve shown. But as for the moisturize part, maybe for people with normal lips, people with super dry and flaky lips like me will not be able to solve dryness problems with this.
As for value for money, since this is an affordable product, I’m not complaining about the not moisturizing part and instead I’m looking at how it gives a nice and healthy glow to the overall look and makes the lips look poutier. Given its low price, too, it makes this even more suitable for girls starting out with makeup. In my makeup kit, I also think that it’s a helpful addition in case someone wants me to do a gradient lip or wants nicely colored lips without a product visible on the lips.
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This reminds me of Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint. The swatches are the same. ๐
Although this might be more translucent? I haven't tried Cherry tint yet, but I want to try it soon.