Essence Gel Tint

Most of the time I'm in a rush. I don't even have time to apply something on my lips in the morning or touch up from time to time. That's why I love lip stains, they're supposed to last a long time, because they stain your lips and what I like about it most is that it doesn't leave a trace of lipstick or -gloss when you're drinking from a cup or bottle, also, your hair won't stick to your lips if the weather outside is windy and your hair is swooping all over the place.

I saw these babies and I wanted to try them out. So I bought three colors: hot red, pink exposed and flashy apricot. Hot red is supposed to be, well, red, pink exposed a hot pink and flashy apricot an orangy color.

I think the packaging looks cute. It looks like a tube. It has a twist cap with a sponge tip applicator at the end.

As you can see the gel tints are waterbased, which makes me think that it won't stay that long on your lips, it'll probably 'dissolve' in your drink or whatever, but we'll see!

01 hot red

03 flashy apricot

04 pink exposed

I wonder what color 02 is. Anyway, first I tried on hot red on my lips. The applicator with the gel tint feels very soft on the lips, maybe even a little sticky. It's not pure color what comes off, but I didn't expect that since it looks pretty clear in their tubes.

 My lips, with nothing applied, they're still dry, oops.

Hot red

Flashy apricot

Pink exposed

One layer of gel tint, lightly applied. It looks pretty sheer, but if you want a more intense color, you can apply more layers.
My favorite? Flashy apricot, because I hadn't one of those peachy colors! Pink exposed turned out more purple than I expected (and it's much darker in real life!).
It's too bad my camera doesn't pick up the colors as dark as they actually are, but I think you can probably imagine how the colors look like a little darker.

Testing!

After holding my mouth under a stream of water and rubbing them lightly with my fingers. When you compare it to the first picture you can see my lips are a little bit stained by the color, but not that intense. The color is stained better where my lips are the driest.

I applied a layer again afterwards and let it sit for over an hour, then, I drank a glass of water and whiped my lips with a tissue. Result:

In real life the color look slightly more intense, but it still faded a lot compared to when freshly applied. I guess it stays on better when you don't rub or whipe your lips. It still leaves some color on top of your lips. I didn't wow me, but it was actually as I expected it to be. It tastes weird though, so I do not recommend licking your lips. The smell is subtle, but very sweet. What I like about this gel tint is that it won't sit in the lines of your lips, thats probably because of the consistancy of the gel tint, is between a gel and water.

Overall, I'm satisfied. It's perfect for clubbing (according to me) and the consistancy of the gel tint is good, not too watery, nor too thick.

Oh and lastly, a little test on my hands:

I applied all three colors on my hand and let it sit for a few minutes to dry. When it pretty much dried, I held my hand under running water.

After running my finger over it very softly:

Result:

The colors are faded, but still visible. In real life the colors are a little darker and more visible than on the picture and when I'm typing this, which is a few hours later, they still look the same.
That is if you don't wash your hands in the meantime ;).
Like I said, overall I think these gel tints are okay. I didn't expect them to stain your lips for days, since I only paid about 1 euro for each. I love the way the packaging looks, it's different from the other 'typical' lipgloss tubes.

If you want a darker stain on your lips, just apply a few coats and wash off and finish it off with one coat of gel tint and you're ready to go!