Gradient Lips with Tony Moly Milky Tint in Milky Peach and Cat Chu Wink Tony Tint in Orange Cha Cha

Hey guys! I'm glad I received a lot of positive feedback from my highlighting and contouring post a few days ago! And since I featured some of my all-time products from Etude in that post, I thought I should send some love to Tony Moly, a recent fave that I've had since my not-so-recent haul.

Gradient lips have been a trend for quite some time in an effort to get that snow-kissed 'I just ate a Popsicle, but not really' look on your lips. I'm a huge fan of the trend but the usual pink, red or red-violet has never really suit my skin tone. Thus I've been having difficulty getting into the trend as much as I would like to.

At the same time, I have the dilemma of my skin being of a yellow undertone and yet my lips being having a blue undertone and being very dark and pigmented. I know. It's weird. And also a bit sad since it makes achieving that perfect gradient lip more difficult. Why do Koreans have to have such nice pale pink lips? D:

To try to solve the problem I went on the hunt for the perfect Orange Tints and laid my eyes on two particular ones from Tony Moly.

First up is their Milky Tint in #2 Milky Peach.

I mentioned before that one thing that Tony Moly doesn't really have down is making their packaging English-friendly. The description and ingredients are all in Hangeul TT_TT That being said, the swatch of the product was enough to sell me on the product.

The applicator that you see when you try to swatch the product is a bit deceptive. It'll make you think that the product is a bright neon pink and will make your lips look that way when applied. This is especially true when the product tester is almost out and there's very little product on the applicator. Good thing the sales lady was nice enough to sort of shake the bottle around to get some product on the tip.

Up close, the product is actually a very pale orange color that's more yellow toned than red. It's a color that reminds me more of melon milk or a peach milk parfait. The texture is also thicker and creamier than a normal liquid tint, but it's still pretty runny.

When swatched on my hand, the color appears as a slightly more orange tone on my skin - very subtle and muted but still visible. It also felt less drying than what I usually get with tints, so despite the subtle color, I went ahead and got it :)

You can see the subtle orange-y tint it gives better on my finger where it absorbs more and has less pigmentation.

One thing to note about this product is that, like a lot of Tony Moly's other product, it has a perfume-y type scent to it. Tony Moly's products always have scented undertones that match their products (Milky Peach has a very very very subtle peach scent) but the overall scent is very perfume-ish and may sometime leave your lips a bit bitter, so make sure to let the product settle lest you let the smell get to you.

The next up Tony Moly's Cat Chu Wink Tony Tint in #3 Orange Cha Cha. It's one of their best sellers and it's really hard to chance upon them in stock, but I luckily got the last one in the color that I wanted.

The packaging is a revamped version of their original Tony Tint and has the signature cat head from the line. It's not overly cute and instead has a cute chic feel to it. You can see the product clearly from the packaging it it looks like a serum-y blood orange liquid. Almost like from a lava lamp haha.

The applicator has two flat sides meeting to create this sort of triangle tip. I find that this allows me to better control the amount of product I apply because liquid tints, especially if they're as pigmented as this one, can be a disaster if over applied on the lips.

The texture of this tint is characteristic to most liquid tints and is very runny while still being pigmented. One small dot leaves a vibrant layer of color and the depth of shade is alterable by building it up or being as frugal with it as possible.

Like the Milky Tint, this one also has a perfume-y scent, but this time it has more of a citrus touch to it. It smells nice, but it doesn't taste nice haha so be careful!

So on to the lips!

When I saw Tony Moly's Milky Tint in #2 Milky Peach and swatched it on my hand I immediately thought it had such a nice pale orange color and a wonderful liquid-cream texture to it. I was doubtful as to whether or not it would do much on my lips.

The Cat Chu Wink Tint however, was the complete opposite and I was worried about how pigmented it was. It had the potential to make my lips look like a very off tangerine if not used right. So I tried solving those problems with the process highlighted below.

1) I always start out with lips that have been pre-moisturized 15 minutes before. This is so that the balm can settle into the skin. Applying balm right before you apply the tint makes it less likely to adhere to the lips and thus the tint will just peel off or fade with the balm instead of staining the lips. The Milky Tint is supposed to be more moisturizing and you can skip this step if you want, but I still recommend it to avoid drying throughout the day, since the Cat Chu Wink may still dry out lips.

2) The next step is optional. If you have dark lips like mine, you can always opt to conceal your lips. You don't need an expensive lip concealer. I just use a runny consistency BB Cream or Concealer. Make sure you choose one that doesn't have a texture that's too creamy and instead seeps into the skin. I used my Aqua Tinted BB Cream for this picture. If you have naturally pale pink lips, then good for you! Skip this step haha.

3) Next, to correct the blue undertone of my lips. I use the Milky Tint in Milky Peach. The effect doesn't change the color or shade of the lips, but rather the undertone. So it can make darker blue-toned lips look warmer and more vibrant without looking too unnatural. The Milky Tint takes longer to settle than most tints because of its cream infused texture so be patient and rub it in slightly to let it seep into the lip to stain it.

4) Next, apply just a dot or two onto the center of the lips and blend very lightly. For a more obvious gradient, you can always build it up. It's always good to start off lightly because it's much easier to build the color of stains than to remove it. For a very subtle gradient I only need one dot and blending to spread it out on my lips.

5)You can definitely leave it this way for a very natural looking gradient,but if you want a more polished look and really want the colors to pop, top your lips off with a clear gloss. This adds dimension to the lips and resolves the colors better because of the varying amounts of reflected light.

These gradient lips last me 4-6 hours. The gloss might wear off but after drinks and food the orange tint is definitely still there :)

Other important tips:
A huge thing when using lip tints is that your lips have to be properly cared for - moisturized, exfoliated and evenly aged. The last part is particularly important. What do I mean by evenly aged? Well, the lips is one of the parts of our body that has the fastest epithelial cell regeneration rate and thus there's always new layers of cells as well as dead cells popping up everyday. Chapped, dry lips have the tendency to have cells of both types, dead skin cells in the dry parts and new young cells exposed before they're ready.

Stains permeate or enter these types of cells with varying efficiency. Because the integrity of cell membranes of dead or old cells is compromised, they are more easily permeable to the tint (sometimes less permeable, depending on the ingredient used for staining in the product) than younger cells, resulting in uneven staining and a very unflattering look.

To avoid this, drink lots of water, keep yourself hydrated and be religious when moisturizing and exfoliating to better even out the age of your lips!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Comments and suggestions? Leave them for me to read in the comments below :) I most definitely want to hear your experiences with these products if you've tried them, or with gradient lips if you like them or not!

Ada, signing out :)

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