I have never dwell around Korean beauty brands. I’ve always been skeptical about them. With the whole K-Pop and K-dramas going insanely popular, it’s natural that the beauty brands got into the spotlight as well. But yeah, I haven’t succumbed into the whole hype yet. I just find most of them to be too gimmicky *sorry!*

The first Korean brand that I tried was actually Innisfree. I went for a sleepover with my cousin and she gave me this Innisfree mask as a care package. She also got me a body lotion, green tea I think, from the same brand. I’ve never used it because I’m a complete lazy-bum for body care products.

Anyway, that was a couple years ago and that was that. One day, this friend of mine, Attika, brought this product during our regular meetups and I was wowed by it. Needless to say, she’s such an enabler.

Innisfree Vivid Tint Rouge #1

The design is not gimmicky like I’ve seen from others. It’s simple and to-the-point. There’s a small window there to show the color inside. Convenient. Just turn the cap and pop the applicator out. No fuss. And it’s lightweight. I have no complaints here. I would gladly throw this around my purse and I won’t have to worry that I might ruin the packaging.

What wowed me in the very beginning was the fact that when I open that cap to see the color, it lit up. Mind you, we were in a minimum, yellow lighting-environment. And it still managed to caught my eye.

It has this yummy, sweet fruity scent; reminds me of one of those juice boxes. It actually made me want to apply it right away ;)

And when I swatched it on my hand.. Holy sjdsfkj#!

Just under five minutes later, I was left with this:

I mean… That was unprecedented. I didn’t expect this at all. That stain remained on my hand for a couple of days. By the time it hit the second day, the stain had faded greatly, but I can see the remnant was still there.

Because I’m a nut-head when it comes to lip products, I want to see how much I can build this up. So, I applied 4 good layers or so and here’s the result:

It doesn’t need explanation that it’s definitely possible to build this up to a full coverage with a delicious glossy, jelly finish. Honestly, I could layer this to no end. It’s very indulging. And I could wear it on top of my lip balm. You know, there are similar (liquid lip) products out there that won’t adhere well when you don’t blot your lip balm first. It could go patchy and all kinds of wrong and in the end, you just want to wipe the whole thing off and wear something else. This doesn’t have that issue.

Innisfree Vivid Tint Rouge #1 is a bright pink red. It looks a little more on the red side on this photo, but believe me, it’s pinker in real life. It’s HOT! The hard-to-get-off stain comes down to a fuchsia pink shade. On my lips:

My lower lip seems to absorb the color better than on my upper lip. And in general, I feel it stains more on my hand than on my lips. But, that could also because my natural lip color is quite prominent already so it doesn’t show as much. To get an even stain, I have to apply the product evenly as well. Say, had I just applied this in a slapdash motion, the stain wouldn’t look as good as this.

Does the color last through meals? I’d say no, because of the wet, jelly finish. It will transfer anyway. The amount of stain left would be depended on what I eat. I gave my first tryout by eating a hefty ramen and the color faded significantly and the stain surely wasn’t as strong as the photo above. I didn’t encounter any issue in reapplying, which is good.

OK. Here’s the breakdown. It’s drying and it’s not for everyday use. Hitting the 3rd hour mark, I could feel my lips started to long for some moisture. I could feel my lips looking more and more like a dried prune throughout the wear time. And if I wear it too long, my lips would peel. Not a good look. I could literally peel the dry bits off and these bits would be pink in shade from the stain. And that’s with lip balm underneath. I bet I wouldn’t last 2 hours if I hadn’t used one.

Between the smacking hot shade, the drying issue and the affordable price, I can’t fault it, really. I’d still wear this, no doubt. I just have to count the amount of time I’ll be spending outside before deciding whether to wear this or not :p

 

P.S. I got another shade as well, stay tuned ;)