Radiant Orchid Lips? Benefit Lollitint Too Expensive? Try the Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint in Lavender

I've talked about it again and again, but Pantone's colour of the year, radiant orchid, just happens to be my vice. I've been wanting Benefit's Lollitint since it first launched, for that perfect slightly purple makeup look. I'm a fan of natural makeup, so a lip and cheek tint was the perfect solution to get my orchid kick without going overboard.

I own multiple trial sizes of Benefit's tint (Cha Cha is a favourite of mine), and they've lasted me for years – I can't imagine buying a full-sized bottle (okay, maybe I'll indulge in the Cha Cha tint one day). While I think $30 is a reasonable price given the quality and how long it will last, I simply didn't want a full sized bottle of purple tint that I'd only use on occasion.

Now, I've been to Korea, and I know they're on top of the trends. Orange lips were popular there before Benefit's Cha Cha tint became all the rage here! So, my first stop was to check out the Korean beauty stores I frequent online. After a few minutes looking under lip tints, I found it. Etude House had come up with two limited editions of it's famous fresh cherry tint – both seemingly perfect dupes for lollitint and cha cha tint.

I only indulged in the PP501 Cherry Lavender Tint, although for $7 I thought about getting OR202 cherry coral as well.

This tint, like all of Etude House's wears about six to eight hours on me (only six on my cheeks though) – and I am constantly sipping on tea. There's not transfer whatsoever, and I'm sure if my lips weren't so dry, it would last even longer (rather than peel off). The colour is very similar to Lollitint, which I swatched in Sephora.

Left: Sheered out - Top Right: Applied over concealer - Bottom Right: Applied onto bare lips

It's a nice bright pink with purple undertones, but not quite lavender, out of the tube, and once sheered out, turns to a subtle purple tinged pink. For full orchid radiance, pat concealer over your lips to dull out your natural colour, and then apply the tint. You'll get a really vibrant colour, like the promotional pic. The colour does wear faster when applied like this, so you'll have to touch up every now and then.

As you can see, colour applied without concealer is a better match for my skin tone. When I apply concealer underneath, the colour turns a very cool toned pinky purple,