Review-Tony Moly Lip Tint Minis

Tony Moly Lip Tint Cherry Red

I am in awe of the sweet and natural looking beauty of Korean "Ulzzang" girls.  Ulzzang means "best face" in Korean and is a term used for both girls and guys who gain fame due to their physical attractiveness and cute style. 

Ulzzangs often use lip stains to achieve a gradient pink effect that is beautiful on them.  I found some Korean-style lip tint by Tony Moly on ebay.  It cost about $3.50 for two mini bottles of the lip stain, including shipping from South Korea, and they even threw in 2 small sample packets of Korean skincare products.  Since the price was so low, I decided I had to try it for myself.  

The first time I applied the product, I thought I liked it.  I applied it only on the inner part of my lips, ulzzang style. Even though on me it didn't look the slightest bit like the pictures, I thought the way it added a little bit of reddish color looked pretty good.  I like the red lips that are popular right now, but I think dark red lipstick makes my small thin lips look sort of mean. I thought the lip stain was a cuter fresher take on red that could actually work for me.

The second time I tried out the Tony Moly Lip stain, I was out with my sister when she said, "Your lip is bleeding!" LOL. Not the look I was going for...

At that point, rather than give up my quest for ulzzang beauty, I decided to consult some makeup tutorials for help.  There were plenty of tutorials from beautiful Asian girls who used tons of products such as concealer, matte lipstick, gloss, and balm along with the lip tint in order to mimic the lip look I desired.  In the end their actual results weren't much different from my "bloody" lips, except for the fact that the bloggers were beautiful ulzzang-esque girls with pillowy popsicle-stained pouts, and I was, er...just regular old me with bloody-looking lips!

 I couldn't be bothered with the zillion steps the makeup gurus suggested.  So, I decided maybe I could make it work if I just added a pinkish gloss on top.  I used this Innisfree gloss I got as a gift from my coworker in Korea.

This gloss appears really bright, but the color is almost clear with a slightly pink tinge.  That helped, but the glossiness doesn't really capture the look I was going for.  

I wore the lip stain and gloss combo out to dinner last night.  No one told me my lip was bleeding, which was a good sign.

I think it might take awhile to get the hang of using lip stain, and the results seem to be kind of unpredictable.  I will probably continue to experiment with this product, but as of now, I feel that it just isn't for me.  I believe I can make it work, but I won't ever achieve a look similar to the pictures.  As much as I had hoped that this product would transform me into a gorgeous ulzzang girl...it didn't happen! hahaha. 

For $3.50, I guess it was worth a try.