Review: Etude House Look at My Lips Lipsticks (#1, 4, 8, 9, 14, 17, 19)

Hey guys! I'm back with one of the most requested reviews from one of my entry questions in my ongoing Etude House Giveaway. After posting that huge haul with almost too many products to handle, quite a few of you requested reviews and swatches on the different Etude House Look at My Lips Lipsticks, and here I am, humbly obliging :)

The Look at My Lips line is actually quite old, released back in 2011. I'm pretty sure that they might be retiring this line soon, so better get your hands on some of these babies before they do! Hopefully this in-depth review will help you decide which ones to grab before it's too late haha.

It took quite a few wears of each color for me to get a decent feel on each one, because believe it or not, even though they're from the same line, the way they wear on my lips is remarkably different for each color. But before that, let's get on with the superficials, shall we?

Packaging

Compared to Etude's Dear My Blooming Lips Talk, which is more girly and princessy, the packaging of this lipstick isn't very cutesy and instead borders on the more sophisticated. The silver cartridge is decorated with swirly cursive and the lipstick bullet itself has the words 'Look at My Lips' engraved on it. 

One thin that really irks me however, is the plastic cover. It supposedly snaps onto the cartridge but more often than not, it comes off too easily. This lipstick is definitely rucksack safe.

The plastic cover also sort of takes away from the sophistication of the packaging and instead makes it look rather flimsy looking, but that's just my opinion. What do you guys think?

Color and Application
I'm blessed to have been given the chance to try all these different colors, and where color selection is concerned, I couldn't be happier! These are just seven of the nine lipsticks that I got. Most of you are probably aware that I'm giving away the other two, so I hope you guys aren't too disappointed with not having a review on those.

So the way I'll be doing this is by giving a quick rundown on each color individually, because like I said before, I've had very different experiences with each color, probably because of the type of pigment used to achieve the color.

#4 I Love Pink is a very baby pink with a subtle blue undertone which really stands out in contrast to yellow-toned skin like mine. I'm not very fond of blue-toned pinks in general, and this one, with its lightness, just doesn't seem to suit me at all. But I can see this color working a lot better for fairer skinned people, or people with pink undertones :) However, the consistency of this one seems a bit sheer on my dark-toned lips and it doesn't really cover the darker areas of my lips. I find this works a lot better with a lip liner base rather than applied directly on the lips. Direct application is somewhat splotchy for me, sort of like how oil would apply onto damp surfaces - not a very good look.

#8 Lovely Antique Rose is a color that's more up my alley, and is one of my favorite of the bunch. It's a wine-toned neutral which I could probably describe best as what burgundy would look if it was mixed into foundation that's the color of my skintone haha. The neutral undertone makes it suitable for almost all skintones, and this is the lip color I don when I want a more mature sophisticated look. This one applies really evenly on my lips and only requires one application to completely cover my natural lip color. And despite the darker color of this lipstick, it doesn't stain. Yay!

#9 Paparazzi Coral is a very reasonably bright warm-toned color. I'd say it's more peach than coral because it leans more toward the orange side than to the pink. This is the color that I'd say strikes the best balance between bright and neutral, making it one of the most versatile colors to own. The warm undertone complements yellow-toned skin quite well, and because of its lightness also works wonderfully well on pink undertones and fairer skin. This one takes two applications to get that flawless look. One coat doesn't really cover darker lips like mine, especially around the edges.

#14 Pop Star Pink is one of those colors which I like calling Nicki Minaj colors. It's a very bright hot pink with magenta-blue undertones. I know a lot of people who absolutely love colors like these, but I can't say that I'm a huge fan, because this color just stands out too much in stark contrast to my skin. It'd probably require a lot of heavy poppish eye makeup to compensate for the heaviness of this color. That being said, this color applies very very smoothly and has really good color coverage. If you guys are fond of that striking pink, this is definitely for you.

#17 Lady Like Pink is very very similar to Pop Star Pink in the tube, so much so that I get ridiculously confused telling them apart. When worn however, it's a lot more muted and wearable and has more red and less blue than Pop Star Pink, making it a muted fuchsia. I'm still not a fan of this one because it still has blue undertones, but I wear this more often than I do Pop Star Pink, especially when I'm wearing something plain and boring, just to spice up my look a little. This one also applies quite well, but for some reason, I've found that my lips dry out when wearing this one. Odd.

#19 Pole in Beige is my absolute favorite of the bunch. It's one of those perfect neutral nude colors that makes it ridiculously versatile. You can wear it with a dark smokey eye for that sophisticated look, or neutral makeup with volumized lashes for that mod look, or even just everyday in school for that my lips but better look. If you guys are familiar with the Dear My Blooming Lips Talk in BE102 (also a nude neutral), this one looks quite neutral but is probably a half-shade lighter, which, believe it or not, makes a huuuuuge difference. What can I say? I'm a huge fan of nude colors -- you can probably tell while looking back at all my previous posts haha. One downfall of this (ugh, I wish it were perfect, but it's not), is that after a while, this color seems to settle into liplines (oh, such a pity). Nothing a little blotting and reapplication wouldn't fix, but yeah.

And last but not least

#1 My Secret Mix is a sheer shimmer lipstick. Seriously, it's a stick of shimmer. If you could turn a discoball into a lipstick, this would probably be it. It's more of a gimmicky color than anything, and since all the colors in this line are flat, I guess they thought adding this color for mix-and-match shimmer would help. Honestly, I feel like shimmery lips were one of the worst fads of the late 90's and early 2000's. Even the memory of it makes me shudder x_x Glitter or shimmer has no place being on lips, especially when you eat. That or I'm just ridiculously sensitive to the gritty feeling that shimmer leaves on my lips. This would probably be an okay idea to put on over flat lipstick if it didn't wipe away the color of lipstick you were wearing under it =_= Also, it's a lot more drying than the rest of the lipsticks in this line. BUT! On the plus side, this one has SPF15 - It makes sense. This looks like it could be the lipstick that Edward Cullen wears, I guess protection from UV rays is just that important to a vampire haha.

Transfer and Staying Power
Kidding aside, one of the things that makes or breaks a lipstick is its staying power. My experience with Etude House lipsticks has always been pretty much the same. The color at the start is amazing, but it transfers like crazy. This line is not exception. While it's a lot more solid and less creamy(?) than the Dear My Blooming Lips Talk line, it still transfers everywhere. There's something about the formula which makes these lipstick feel like there's an invisible layer between your lips and the actual product which prevents it from sticking to your lips effectively. But again, almost all lipsticks are like that, and I really don't mind re-applying. This just probably wouldn't be the best choice for long arduous occasions like weddings and parties. At best, this stays put for 3 hours before it starts disappearing on you (that's without eating and drinking, but really, can you not drink for three hours? o_o). Its staying power is pretty so-so for a lipstick, so I'm not docking points from it for that reason.

Moisturizing
I don't think this lipstick claims to be moisturizing, so I'm not expecting much from it. While my lips don't feel plump and hydrated while wearing this, at the very least, this product doesn't dry out my lips and make them peel like I've experienced with countless other brands. So I have to give it to Etude for achieving that at least :)

So that's pretty much it! This was a rather text-heavy post but I wanted to be as in-depth as possible with the review.

The colors I'm giving away are #11 Marshmallow Pink  and #12 Peach Bonbon, both of which are LIMITED EDITION and no longer available on shelves (as far as I am aware). I always save the best for my readers hahaha.

To learn more about how you can win these lipsticks, check out my giveaway by clicking the banner below!

Ada, signing out!
Follow me!
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Google + | Bloglovin