Review: Etude House, Sugar Tint Balm: Cranberry Pie

In my hunt for the perfect lipstick, I decided to look into Asian beauty products as they tend to be made for long-wearing…

Following the rise of Summer, I did some research and found out that Etude House had decided to create their own ‘version' of the Fresh Sugar Tint lip balms.

Sadly, there wasn't many swatches nor comparisons out there, so I was limited mainly to guesswork from the pictures posted by online shops.

My skin shade is best described as pale neutral (i.e. somewhere in the middle of pink and yellow toned) so I figured the pink-red shades were probably my best bet.

After a long time to decide which one to get, I finally settled on Cranberry Pie.

Best guess from what I had to go on, I'd say that this is a true red that's just slightly on the pink side.

In a bid to compare it to Western beauty products, I decided that the Revlon lip butters were probably my best bet.

Where the Revlon lip butters and lip crayons are more lip balms with lipstick added, I reckon that these Etude House ones are Lipstick with lip balms added.

One of the best features of this product is just how pigmented it is!

As you can see from the photos, it's really difficult to tell which is the 1-2-3 swipes.

Another added benefit to this is that whilst it's not too drying - it stays on a pretty long time. 

One feature I like about Asian tints is that they tend to be more of a ‘stain' as it does leave a nice red-pink layer on your lips - despite transferring like crazy!

Longevity is something I find difficult to judge as I'm something of a chronic tea drinker - but I can say that light transferring aside, it did last through one large mug of tea. With a noticeable colour still on my lips at the end of it. Sadly...it was all off by the end of cup 2...

Shade comparison wise, I'd say it's closer in tone to Revlon Cherry Tart than Wild Watermelon Lip butter.

Price wise, it's a really affordable $13 (including p&p)

Overall, I'd say it’s really worth giving these a go, although it does come in only 8 shades - especially given how easily they are to track down on ebay!

Ulta3 Lipsticks Review and Swatches: Rosa, Plum Purple, Deep Red Rose Matte, Sahara Rose

Like Max Black (Kat Dennings) of the show 2 Broke Girls, I’m crazy about lipsticks and all lip products. Also like her, I’m on a tight budget, so much as I love to play around with beauty products, I really can’t afford to unless it’s the sales.

On the plus side, after playing around in my local MyChemist, I think I’ve finally found a collection of lipsticks worthy of Max’s approval: lipsticks by Ulta3.

Anyone who has been in Australia for a while would have noticed how easy it is to find Ulta3 nail varnishes in various chemists, so it is quite interesting to note that the brand has branched out into various other types of make-up too.

Being a huge fan of the red lip look, I couldn’t resist getting hold of Deep Red Rose (matte) as my first purchase for $3.95. On my lips, it kinda felt the way all matte lipsticks do: sits ok, with deep colour and just a little on the dry side. Given that I tend to prefer my lip stuff to be a little more on the moisturizing side, I found myself picking up another one in Plum Purple a week later for $2.95. This one is shade that is really similar to Deep Red Rose but is a tad more moisturizing as it is a standard lipstick. So, obviously my lips has to be well moisturized already when wearing them, as otherwise they pick up on the flakiness like crazy, but luckily don’t seem to ‘bleed’ on me…

Later, after having to throw out my beloved Revlon lip butters, I decided to buy two more lipsticks that felt a tad closer in colour to the two that I had to throw away. Enter Rosa and Sahara Rose. At $2.95 each.

All of the lipsticks have a good deep colour and sits and feels like other lipsticks I’ve swatched from higher-ended brands like Max Factor, so it kinda makes me wonder just what it is that makes them so cheap? I haven’t been able to find the ingredients for Ulta3 lipsticks anywhere but I figure that they are pretty similar to the ingredients of other lipsticks in general…

Well, at least they’re really great for lipstick collectors as Ulta3 has a huge range of lipstick colours, has all the features of high-end lipsticks, and are at very purse-happy prices.