k-beauty – Makeup and Skincare Reviews

A lot of affordable makeup is pretty fantastic, and I don’t spend enough time talking about it. So for May, I’m dedicating the entire month to posts about products under $20. I actually have more under $20 Yesstyle post planned that might land in June – let me know if you still want to see it in May or you’re ready for other things!

There are so many Asian beauty lip products I love that this could easily become several posts. I’ve tried a ridiculous number of tints, stains, glosses, balms, lipsticks, and blurred matte lip products at this point, but I made myself narrow this down to the under $20 lip products from YesStyle I actually reach for all the time and would repurchase first. Almost all of these are stains because they’re just so good, but I did include one everyday glossy balm. If I’m missing one of your favorites, tell me in the comments so I can try it next!

In this post, all links are affiliate links (thank you for your support!), but all opinions are my own. Swatches are under a ring light to show true to color (photo #1) and then standard lighting to show the formula a little better (#2) for all the products.

JOOCYEE Long-Lasting Glossy Rouge in Diamond Sea and Naked Tea – This formula is such an easy, moisturizing, nourishing balm that I can apply without thinking. My lips always look and feel so much better when I use these. I was honestly pleasantly surprised how much I love this formula. Diamond Sea is the shade I reach for constantly. It’s a perfect everyday cool-toned mauvey pink that has a little sparkle without being chunky or grainy. Naked Tea is warmer than I wanted it to be. I thought it would be more neutral, but on me it pulls a little orange. It’s still wearable, especially if I use one of my lip mixers underneath, but it’s not the shade I’d tell you to buy first. If I were picking one, I’d get Diamond Sea.

Judydoll Ice Watery Lip Gloss-Gen 2 in 06, 11, and 18 – I love this formula so much. It’s glossy and moisturizing when it goes on and feels so nice for hours. This is actually the product I chose to put on after retesting a bunch of these because it’s really just so good. It also leaves a real stain behind that actually lasts. The stain also matches the color of the gloss and doesn’t turn orange or pink or another color I’m not expecting.

Judydoll Ice Watery Lip Gloss-Gen 2 in 06, 11, and 18 stains

11 is the easiest everyday shade for me. It’s that perfect “my lips but better” cool-toned, slightly mauve lip that I can throw on without thinking (I’m sure you’re seeing a pattern). 18 is the brown I’d recommend first if you want an actual brown that doesn’t turn orange. It has a little bit of yellow in it in a way that works really well with my undertones, but it still stays brown instead of going Cheeto. 06 is annoyingly warm. In the listing, it looked like a perfect terracotta red, which is exactly the kind of warm shade I actually can get away with sometimes. On me, this goes pumpkin orange.

rom&nd Juicy Lasting Tint in 39 Odd Grape, plus minis in 10 Avocado, 12 Odd Mulberry, and 13 Black Berry – I’ve used rom&nd Juicy Lasting Tints on and off for years, so this is a formula I already knew I loved. It’s glossy, comfortable, easy to wear, and it leaves enough of a stain behind that it doesn’t feel pointless once the shine wears off. Like the Judydoll glosses, these stain the color you hope for (mauve, green, purple, and black respectively) instead of turning bright pink or orange for no reason. I’ve tested these on my lips, hands, and arms just to make super sure, and they all stain true to tone, which makes them especially useful for mixing.

rom&nd Juicy Lasting Tint in 39 Odd Grape, 10 Avocado, 12 Odd Mulberry, and 13 Black Berry

rom&nd Juicy Lasting Tint in 39 Odd Grape, 10 Avocado, 12 Odd Mulberry, and 13 Black Berry stains

Odd Grape is the one I bought to actually wear all the time, and I do. It’s a muted, dusty, rosy pink, which is basically the exact color I’m always trying to find in both lip products and blush. I also picked up the minis in Avocado, Black Berry, and Odd Mulberry, mostly to use as mixers. Avocado tones down lip products that are too red or that aren’t showing up well because my natural lip pigment is too red. Black Berry deepens products that are too pale or too chalky. Odd Mulberry helps when something is too orange but I don’t want to fully neutralize it with blue, so the purple tones down the yellow while leaving some of the red. The minis are $8 each, and you can usually find them on sale, which makes them worth it to me for mixing.

ETUDE Fixing Tint in 14 Rose Lilac and 15 Woody Pink – This is my favorite formula in the blurred matte lipstick/lip tint category that I’ve tried so far. I’ve tested a ridiculous number of soft matte, lip blush, blurred lip products at this point, and these are the ones I keep coming back to. You can tap on a little for a soft hint of color or build it up more, and either way it stays comfortable, looks smooth, and never gets dry or crusty. Woody Pink is a dusty rosy neutral that works really well with the mauvey beige looks I wear all the time. Rose Lilac is deeper and moodier, more of a jammy berry-plum, and it pairs especially well with berry-toned blush. Woody Pink fades into a really pretty light pink stain, while Rose Lilac leaves more of a berry tint. And the stain lasts like all the other tints/stains in this post.

ETUDE Fixing Tint in 14 Rose Lilac and 15 Woody Pink, fwee Rose Obsession Stay-Fit Lip Tint in MC03 Dusty Rose

ETUDE Fixing Tint in 14 Rose Lilac and 15 Woody Pink, fwee Rose Obsession Stay-Fit Lip Tint in MC03 Dusty Rose stains

fwee Rose Obsession Stay-Fit Lip Tint in MC03 Dusty Rose – I talked about a couple of fwee lip products in my last post about under $20 Ulta and Sephora products, but you can’t get this one at Ulta. As far as I can tell, this is one of the fwee products you have to get somewhere like YesStyle, and I’m glad I did because it’s a great formula. Even though the ETUDE is still my favorite, this is a close runner up. This is blurring and matte, but not too matte. It still has a little bit of a satin finish, so it doesn’t give me that flat, dry, powdery lip look. It feels comfortable and moisturizing, and although it’s not as nourishing as some of these other products, it doesn’t dry out my already dry lips or make them look worse. Dusty Rose is a great everyday mauve on me, although I like the tones of the Etude more. The Etude stains also last way longer (like they were still on my arm the next day longer), so if you’re looking for something that doesn’t stain as strongly, the Fwee is a great choice.

What lip products should I test next? As always, some products may have been gifted, but all reviews/opinions are completely my own and unsponsored.

A lot of affordable makeup is pretty fantastic, and I don’t spend enough time talking about it. So for May, I’m dedicating the entire month to posts about products under $20. I specifically picked 13 YesStyle blushes that looked like they had a real chance of being olive-friendly and were all under $20 to test. I originally planned to put all of them into one big affordable YesStyle blush roundup, but once I started writing, it became very clear that 13 blush reviews in one post was too much. So I’m going to do the powder blushes today, and then this weekend or early next week, I’ll post the liquid, cream, and cushion blushes. I promise there will still be all the other affordable May posts so we’ll just have an extra post. In this post, all links are affiliate links (thank you for your support!), but all opinions are my own.

Swatches are in the same order from left to right as the order of blushes are reviewed in the post. I tried two different lighting conditions, and the second photo is truer to the actual colors of the blushes, but I think you can see the formula better in the first. Feedback always welcome!

The first four are the four shades in dasique Blending Mood Cheek in 05 Violet Knit, then NAMING Fluffy Powder Blush in Taro, Unleashia Dough Dough Waffle Blush in No. 3 Jammy Grape, rom&nd Better Than Cheek in C02 Blueberry Chip and N02 Vine Nude, and Judydoll HOT Pretty Blush Powder in 68

dasique Blending Mood Cheek in 05 Violet Knit – These are the powder blushes I reach for the most out of these 6. The formula is so smooth and blurring and has what I’d call a skin-finish matte texture. It’s very soft and blurred, but not flat or dry. There’s a pale lilac I use more as a blush topper, a warmer pink that gives a pretty almost peachy pop (although if you’re less green, it’ll probably be just pink), a cooler purple that actually stays purple on me instead of turning pink, and a bright cool pink that is my my perfect everyday brightening blush. My camera kept pulling the warmer pink so much more peach/orange than it looks in real life, but the difference between the warmer pink and cooler purple is much clearer in person. I can use one shade, mix them, or shift the tone depending on the rest of my makeup, and it’s the rare blush quad where I actually use every shade.

NAMING Fluffy Powder Blush in Taro – I’ve talked about this one before in my beige makeup for olive skin post, and it still holds up as one of my favorite beige blushes of all time. The formula is also excellent. It’s smooth, easy to blend, and very hard to mess up. Compared to the dasique quad, this has a little more of a satin finish, but you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless you were really looking for it. This is the kind of shade I can wear when I don’t want my blush to compete with the rest of my makeup, but I still want my face to look finished. If I had to pick one single powder blush from this group of 6 to keep, it would probably be this one because the color is so perfect.

Unleashia Dough Dough Waffle Blush in No. 3 Jammy Grape – This is not the blush I’d pick if you want something matte, because it is definitely shimmery. There are no obvious flecks or chunky sparkle on my face, but it’s definitely more of a blushlighter. It’s smooth, glowy, and sheeny in a way that makes my skin look really nice but it’s not matte or blurred. Jammy Grape is a brighter pinky-purple shade, and it gives me more of that spring/summer pop of color. It’s also the most pigmented of this group of blushes here, so I don’t have to build it as much to get it to show up. Even with the extra pigment and sheen, I still find it easy to use because the formula is so smooth and blends out without getting patchy. This is the one I reach for when I want my blush to be brighter, glowier, and more noticeable.

rom&nd Better Than Cheek in C02 Blueberry Chip and N02 Vine Nude – I have both C02 and N02, and you don’t need both unless you’re looking for pale blushes with slightly different undertones (I know at least one of you is, and if you’re reading this, then yes, you specifically do need both). They’re also really hard to see in the swatches with my current skin depth, but I promise they’re very pretty in person. The formula is really nice but texturally, these are a little less smooth and blurring than the dasique and NAMING blushes. They still have that soft, airy, pale powder blush look, but if your main goal is “as blurred and smoothing as possible,” these would not be my first choice. If you are very fair and your biggest issue is blushes looking too pigmented too fast, these are perfect. The tones are so pretty and soft and really easy to build up slowly. I also really like them for blending out another blush or giving that Dior Rosy Glow style blush topper effect. When I first got these, I used them both all the time, especially in winter as a very pale blush.

Judydoll HOT Pretty Blush Powder in 68 – This is a really pretty pale cool pink, and it also gives me that Dior Rosy Glow type of effect that’s bright and fresh. The Judydoll formula and the rom&nd formula are almost exactly the same, and I would happily reach for any of them for this type of color. As we’ve moved into spring and warmer weather, I’ve definitely been reaching for this one more than the rom&nd. It works as a topper, but I can also wear it by itself when I want a fun lilac-y pink cheek that still looks like it belongs on my face. Warmer pinks work well on me because I’m a warm olive and I personally like that almost-peachy (not cheeto) look in the warmer months, but if you want to stay in that cool pink/lilac/purple blush family, this is the one I’d pick. *I can’t find this shade on YesStyle right now but it is on Stylevana for about $5.

What other products would you like me to review? Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see here, and thanks for reading! As always, some links may be affiliate links that support the blog, but all reviews/opinions are completely my own and unsponsored.

Tag: k-beauty

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