Helloooo everybardy! How was your Chinese New Year? Since my wardrobe consists of a super colourful black, black and black, I was digging out all my red makeup items in an attempt to jazz up the ensemble. Thankfully, I’d managed to do a beauty haul last week while I was in Korea from Aritaum, a brand under AmorePacific which I think is fast becoming one of my favorite makeup brands – it’s got pretty strong color payoff, works well, and most importantly – it’s affordable so I can buy the same item in alllll the shades (well, not all, but at least more than 1 shade anyways).
After my extensive swatching session at Aritaum and bugging the sales person to tell me which were the most popular shades (to which she replied “I don’t know, cos they just launched this” hurhurhur), I ended up with these 3 shades – No. 12 Fruits Punch (a coral-pink), No. 5 Candy Crush (a somewhat hot pink) and No. 7 Crazy Ruby (a raspberry deep pink-red).
I say…
The Packaging: It comes in the usual plastic click-on cap with a tube body, but the distinctive feature of this is the way it’s dispensed. Normal lippie products have a twist bottom to raise the lip product (simply turn the bottom), but this one comes with a measured twist bottom – each turn emits a “click” sound, and you can see that the Sliding Tint only raises by a mere 1mm (or even less!) per click. This is supposedly because each application only requires 1mm of product. Note that this does not retract (aka a one-way rotation), so don’t overdo the clicking/twisting or you won’t be able to cap it.
The Scent: It smells wonderful! The scent is almost similar to that of the Aritaum Honey Melting Tint - floral-fruity. I love! It’s the sort of scent you can smell when you first apply, and then slowly dissipates.
The Application: Ok, no joke here – it literally slides (and glides) on. It’s so, so smooth! The color is so, so bright and cheery too – even though it’s sort of “watery”, the color pigments are really strong and all you need is one coat to get a nice pop of color. Of course, two coats will give you an even brighter color finish. The hydration levels are frigging high as well – absolutely no need for lip balms prior to application, and even after a long time (I clocked about 4 hours), the lips are still very hydrated and the color is still fresh. Regarding the 1mm claim – well, I guess it is sort of useful to carefully calculate the amount of product needed. But I’m not fussed about it simply cos the color is so strong that I hardly need more than one layer to get the color I want (although I still do go two layers because it feels soooo good!).
The Verdict: I am very, very, veryyyyy impressed with this product. Despite its affordable price tag, this product doesn’t compromise on performance – it hydrates, it moisturises, it smoothens, it feels less “sticky” than the Honey Melting Tint, and has superb color payoff. I. MUST. GET. ALL. THE. COLOURS!