Lip tints have been properly big in the makeup community for a while now. Also called lip stains, they’re basically lipsticks that leave colour on your lips without actually leaving much lipstick on them – drying up like a watercolour, well, stain, on top of your skin.
Just like a lot – and I mean that – of makeup trends, lip tints first got popularised in South Korea, but they’ve been popular in the West for quite some time.
There are different kinds, all of varying pigmentation, thickness and texture, and being a huge lip tints aficionado, I’m here to dish out all the advice that I possibly can.
Lip tints have a number of benefits over other kinds of lip products, the colour staying on for longer and not smudging as soon as you bite into your food once being one of the most popular pros, really.
However, a lot of people also claim that they’re better for your lips – kind of unsurprisingly, considering the fact that almost all Korean makeup is always packed with beneficial, natural ingredients like aloe vera and such.
Liquid: Really watery, liquid lip tints dry up almost immediately as you apply them to your lips. Seen as they’re really, really non-viscous, they’re also incredibly easy to layer, allowing you to achieve colour mixtues and depth that you wish for.
Peel-off: This type of lip tints leaves mixed opinions and makes a lot of people feel weird. They’re like a peel-off mask for your lips that leaves colour on them once it dries.
The main benefit seems to be the fact that they’re the most long-lasting. Well, that and the fun procedure of application. However, they also seem to be damaging – if your lips are especially dry and flaky you can get hurt, so this is definitely not for the drier side.
Tint sticks: The most habitual type of lip tints for us Westerners, these just look and feel like regular lipsticks, and kind of act like tinted lip balm – so compared to the abovelisted option, this is perfect for dry lips.
Gel tints: Somewhere in-between a liquid stain and a lip gloss, these have a slightly heavier texture, but are more pigmented and more moisturising, while still staying on for a while.
There really isn’t that much to now in terms of general usage. The one big advice, though, is to exfoliate and moisturise your lips properly – lip tints, especially the liquid ones, tend to stick more pigment onto the drier patches, making the colour uneven.
Other then that it’s the same as any other lipstick – apply it and go – except you don’t even have to worry about fixing it as often as you normally would.
In addition, you can go with one layer – making it just slightly coloured – or top it off with several more, making it deeply pigmented. Lip tints are, in general, slightly more versatile than other kinds of lipsticks.
And now, finally, for the recommendations!
Buildable, easy to apply, quite inexpensive – usually – and with a lot of staying power, liquid lip tints must be my favourite. Here are some I have used and found fantastic, personally:
Etude House Dear Darling Water Tint: Watery, pigmented, incredibly well-lasting and hilariously inexpensive for the volume (remember, you really only need to touch it up a couple of times throughout the day) this stain was my first exposure to lip tints and I still adore it and use it regularly to this day. Out of the cons, the colour range is abysmal.
Get it here:
Clarins Water Lip Stain: The same concept, the same raving reviews, almost the same colours, slightly more expensive (!!!) but, at the same time, more easily attainable for most of us because Clarins is more widespread in the West, this lip tint holds up the watery tint tradition and looks fab, alone or in combo.
Get it here:
Benefit Lip And Cheek Stain: Offerring all of the same benefits (ha!) of all watery lip tints, Benefit‘s take on this makeup item offers its own, additional perk: it can be used both as a lipstick and as a blush, and what’s not to love about that?
Get it here:
Berrisom Chu My Lip Tint Pack: The market for this kind of lip tints is not, strictly speaking, gigantic, because people get turned off by novelty and they don’t suit extremely dry lips. Still, Berrisom has proven itself worthy to be part of the competition, and is beloved by many for how long-lasting these lip tints are.
Get it here:
Laneige Two-Toned Lip Bars: an incredibly infamous Korean makeup item, these lip tints – precisely tint sticks – have been long beloved in the makeup community. Allowing to recreate the Korean trend of gradient lips (concentrated colour closer to the mouth that fades out the further you get) with incredible ease, Laneige have secured a large part of the market with these.
Get it here:
Innisfree Vivid Shine Tint: Innisfree, being one of the faves of the Korean beauty aficionados along with Laneige, Etude House and a few others, didn’t miss out on the lip tints area either. Not only is this product long-lasting, it also has a shiny, glossy finish, as if you put lipgloss on top, which is always incredibly juicy.
Get it here:
YSL Water Stain: Ding-ding-ding! We’ve reached my current absolute fave amongst lip tints! YSL, offering a fantastic formula that gives an incredible amount of pigment that actually lasts, while still allowing it to have a gorgeous, glossy finish, also bypass the limitation most Korean lip tints have, which is… the colour range.
Aimed mostly at Westerners who like their lips to be really bright and/or deep colours, YSL’s water stain line is a gorgeous addition to anybody’s makeup bag. In addition, while being glossy, it’s not at all annoying to have on your lips. God, I’m in love with this tint, can’t you tell?!
Get it here:
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