TonyMoly Delight Tony Tint

One of the things I got into within these past few months were lip stains. No, they're not new and have been around for quite a while now. However, nothing sparks a mass craze for them like a popular idol TV show. I'm talking about the South Korean remake of Hana Yori Dango. You see, in that show the actress Koo Hye-Sun playing Geum Jan-di sported stained lips and, well, lip stains became the thing in South Korea, with the most popular of them all being these TonyMoly Delight Tony Tint, allegedly. So of course I have to give them a try ^.^

There are 3 colors available, 1 Cherry Pink, 2 Red, and 3 Orange Chacha and I have all three. They're super affordable, as in I paid all of $3 a pop! No, really.

TonyMoly Delight Tony Tint 1 Cherry Pink, 2 Red, 3 Orange Chacha. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

So the tubes are oddly shaped, with a heart-shaped cap. Also, it seems there has been a packaging revamp, because the label on my tube 1 Cherry Pink looks different than the other 2, but otherwise everything else is the same. 

The applicator is the good ol' fuzzy doe foot. The stain itself is a gel formula, meaning it's thicker and doesn't run, which is great because you can spread without any fear of it bleeding into lip lines, as a runny watery formula would. And holy crap I think I see why this stuff's popular: it's damn pigmented and it stains the daylights out of my lips (and the back of my hands)! See for yourself the swatches below. It takes about a minute to set, which was basically from the time when I made the swatches, took a few snap shots, then blended them to into circles below. 

These are scented with a fruity fragrance. Being stains, they're not moisturizing at all by themselves despite having rose hip oil, jojoba oil, and argan oil as parts of the main ingredients. So I do recommend layering with balm or gloss if you have perpetually dry lips like me. 

The staying power is excellent! However, there's a catch - layering these on top of lip balm will shorten their stay time, probably because the pigment can't really "grip" onto a slippery coating of emollience, wax or oil. So for longer lasting stains, I would recommend dabbing (dabs, folks, you don't need a lot at all!) onto bare lips first, let set, then layer with lip balm or gloss for moisture. When I tested these on the back of my hands, I had applied hand cream prior, but still they stained like mad. I rubbed and rubbed under running water and they faded may be a tiny little bit. Several hours later they were still going strong after my night shower, lasting until the afternoon the next day! Eeps!!! O.O 

Conclusion? The best $3 ever spent. Period. Impressed is an understatement. If they weren't in a giant 9mL tubes, I'd probably get backups. Actually I just check and they're on sale for $2.49 a piece now. May be I will get backup after all ^.^ Why the hell not, right?

- 1 Cherry Pink: swatches a blue based red but sets to a pigmented deep medium pink.

- 2 Red: swatches a yellow based blood red but sets to more of a tomato red, little milder but still super pigmented.

- 3 Orange Chacha: swatches a navel orange but sets to a yellower orange. Gorgeous!

Swatches (left) and blended (right). If you look closely at the right picture, you'll see the stained borders in the original swatches (top row). 

This is what remains of the original swatches and the later blending after rubbing vigorously under warm running water!