Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint Review & Swatches

Etude House Fresh Cherry Tints in #1 Red and #2 Pink
(6,000 won each = approximately $4.75)

Tint promotes moist & shiny cherry lips with a creamy, smooth texture.

[Directions] Use tip to father and apply tint. Apply extra layer for added coverage.

Etude House’s Fresh Cherry Lip Tints are easily my favorite purchase from Korea–and probably amongst my cheapest too! While I am enjoying playing around with the Asia-exclusive high end products that I picked up (check out my Korea haul HERE), there’s just something so satisfying about finding a cheap product that’s absolutely amazing and cute to boot.

Etude House has consistently impressed me with its low-priced, high-quality products; most recently I’ve been loving the Plumping Lip Tint (review HERE) and Speedy Total Mineral Base (which I picked up during my Korea trip as well–mini review HERE).

I tend to be very picky when it comes to lip tints/stains, and with good reason. I love a good, long-lasting lip stain in theory, but they never work out too well for me in practice. Maybe I don’t keep my lips as well moisturized as I should, maybe they’re just not as smooth as they should be, or maybe I just have weird lips–regardless, stains always give me a dark ring of color on the inner portion of my lower lips that’s far from attractive.

Close-up of Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint in #2 Pink on the applicator.
Milky creamy goodness!

My first shopping day in Korea I picked up a lip stain that ended up being a bit of a disaster, so of course I hesitated over these, but I just couldn’t resist the star-embellished plump little bottles.

What Makes These So Great? Well unlike most tints that I’ve seen, the Fresh Cherry Tints are very milky and creamy, rather than runny and watery, giving you a lot more control when it comes to application and making them a lot easier to work with. There’s no funky taste (just a very light, yummy cherry flavor from the sweet cherry fruit extract) and no Kool-Aid mouth – just beautifully stained lips that last and last. I didn’t expect great lasting power from this stain given its milky quality, but believe me once it’s on it isn’t going anywhere!

The #2 Pink is reminiscent of Benefit’s Posietint (but a million times cheaper), and while I tend to veer away from reds, the #1 Red is just perfect. The stains left behind are bright and clear, like the skin of a perfectly ripe cherry, and your lips are left looking lush and moist, a difficult feat for most stains which leave my lips looking rather dry.

Swatches of #2 Pink and #1 Red

Not So Much: Well, as is the case with all stains, if you use your fingers to apply this, things can get a wee bit messy. But on the bright side, it’s actually the easiest-to-use stain that I’ve tried, and therefore the least messy as well. And of course there’s the fact that it’s hard to find outside of Korea, at least for a decent price.

So in the swatch above you’ll see what I mean about staying power. The two ‘stains’ you see in the bottom half of the photo are the swatches from the photo above. I dabbed it on, quickly took a photo then went to blend, but the color had already absorbed into my skin, staining it, and pretty much refused to budge or blend and an inch. Above the colors you can see what the Tints look like when blended right away ~ a gorgeous sheer wash of color that looks amazing on both lips and cheeks.

Lip Swatch of Fresh Cherry Tint in #1 Red

Have I mentioned that I love these tints? Sooooo so so so so so so much! To the point where I’m feeling the need to ferret away random tubes of Fresh Cherry Lip Tint in every available nook and cranny of my room on the off-chance that I might lose one of my two precious tubes. I say we petition Etude House and demand that they open a US location for the sake of my sanity :).

RATING: 5/5