When I first got into Korean Beauty and Skincare, these lip tints was some of my first purchases. I had to see what the hype was about, and I had to test them. I’ve read everywhere these are super pigmented tints that are well known among Korean women. Might because of the low price? Or just might because of its ability to do a quick, radiant lip or a super bold bright stain. I had to try it!
btw, this post was created in 2017 – it did not see daylight before the end of 2019.
Etude House Dear Darling Tints apply smoothly like a gel that gives a perfect, vibrant colour. While lasting for hours when used, they also contain hydrating extracts, vitamins, and minerals to keep lips from drying out. They also come with a sweet berry scent, and honestly – it’s a dupe for the Benefit Benetint. The difference might be the lower price and the colour range! (We’re talking about 12 maybe?) The colour range goes from bright, peachy hues to cheeky pinks, and let’s not forget the deep ones.
Now, when it comes to how you are supposed to use these, there are multiple options. You can dot the tint along the inner part of the lip and blend it out with a gentle pat for that natural look or swipe the wand across lips for a bold and pigmented look. What you also can do, is to actually use them on the cheeks as a natural blush colour. The most important thing is, you do have to be quick – the pigment sets fast! The tints will last the whole day, though it might be a subtle hue during the end of the day. They don’t sit heavily on the lips, in fact, they’re quite watery upon application, which makes them not sticky at all, and they won’t dry up on the lips.
To be honest, it is a bit hard to tell the colour of the packaging and illustration pictures when ordering. There might be two main reasons here, one – there is so much pigment in the little tub, so the colour gets pretty intensified. Second, they might edit their pictures a little bit – these are watery tints after all. Not matte lipsticks.
But, let’s cut the crap and actually look at the products. Now, I don’t have all of the different colours, but I do have a few of them. I didn’t just buy some colours, I ended up considering all of them, at the end – I had to figure out which ones that I might end up using and buy those. Honest to god, it was a pretty hard process. I tried to get colours that are subtle, but yet buildable for a more dramatic look.
So, from left to right you have the options I ended up buying this time. Starting with OR201 – Kumquat Red, OR203 – Grapefruit Red, BK801 – Vampire Red, PK001 – Berry Red, PK002 – Plum Red, and RD305 Jujube Red. I was gonna rant about why we set them up in this order, and honestly. We might be colour blind.
In this case, I’m gonna show you the swatches in four different ways. The original swatches from Etude House, swatches on a piece of glass, and lastly on my hand! (pssst, if you click on the images, you’ll be able to see them in a bigger size)
These are the swatches for OR201 – Kumquat Red. As you probably can see, the images from Etude House are highly edited. From the looks of it, the product looks more like a sheer coral tint, quite subtle. But when taking a look at the swatches it’s clear that it’s a lot more pigmented than expected and so much more orange! Quite a bummer, now – it’s still usable and its so similar to one of my favourite Mac Mineralize (?) lipsticks. But it’s nothing like what I expected it to be from looking at the images from Etude House.
The second lip tint is OR203 – Grapefruit Red. When ordering this one I actually expected it to be more orange than OR201. But in real life, the red in “Grapefruit Red” is so much more there compared to the orange pigments in the swatches from Etude. However, the product difference from Etude House pictures to real life doesn’t have that much of a difference in this case.
BK801 – Vampire Red, is actually more purple than pink comparing it to the product images from Etude House. I really liked the look of the natural lip in this case and bought it for using it more daily. This colour came as a newer addition to the product line with more darker autumn like colours. When comparing the real colour to the swatches from Etude House it does look a bit redder than expected. But…
My fourth colour from the Dear Darling Tints is PK001 – Berry Red. As I’m writing this review I’m slowly realizing that I actually ordered a lot of similar colours. As you can see, the difference in this one and the one above isn’t that much, to be honest. This one is a bit more pinkish, fully going for that famous berry tone. When looking at the swatch on the glass it honestly does look more purple than pink. Comparing the glass to the real swatch on my hand its…
PK002 – Plum Red has the appearances of a darker red tone.
Lastly, RD305 – Jujube Red has a more matte look to it when looking at the actual product container compared to the other ones. This is actually a bit obvious when looking at the swatches from Etude House, but the image of the container is yet again edited to not look what the product actually looks like. In this case, I do think that the main reason is to make the product look a lot better because trust me – it doesn’t look that delicate when looking at the container.
Honestly, as you can see from the swatches. Actually figuring out what you are ending up with is pretty hard. Like, I haven’t used these tints as much as I was looking forward to. The main reason for it might be the fact that the tints are so different from the swatches and although all of the colours are fully usable they weren’t what I expected. While writing this review, I truly can admit that I should start using them more often and figure out how these colours work with my makeup routine due to the reason that makeup should be used. Not thrown away.
The moral of the review is that the colour does stay entirely intact. The colour stays on the lips and doesn’t rub off on, e.g. cups, etc. They are pretty comfortable to wear, and as they do fade a bit but that isn’t a problem honestly, and oh – the best might be that they don’t settle into fine lines or the outline. So you won’t look like a clown. However, they might not be as easy as you think to use, and it does take time to actually manage to apply them nicely if you are as clumsy as me. Now, I’m not a makeup artist or anything, but what I know is mostly self-taught (Thanks YouTube), but after a few tries, I do manage to use them in a way that I actually want.
So, if you are looking for some multi-purpose products that cost less then what, a beer? You really should try the Etude House Dear Darling Water tints out.
ggooltip. 