Latina tries Korean makeup!

I purchased a ton of Korean makeup products from 3CE, Etude House, ROM&ND and 16Brand to see how they’d perform on my tan (MAC NC40) skin! Some of the results were surprising and some were, ah… not.

Full product list:

• 3CE Soft Lip Lacquer in “Tawny Red”
• 3CE Cloud Lip Tint in “Immanence”
• 3CE Matte Lip Color in “Baked Orange,” “Kytaly,” “Benchmark” and “Smoked Rose”
• 3CE Mini Eye Palette in “Closing Out”
• 3CE Blush Cushion in “Mandarine”
• ROM&ND Juicy Lasting Lip Tint in “Juicy Oh,” “Apple Brown,” “Pink Pumpkin,” “Jujube” and “Eat Dodori”
• Etude House Soft Drink Tint in “Zero Red”
• 16brand Mochi Pact Highlighter in “Orange Light”

Lip products

The majority of my purchases were from popular K-beauty brand 3CE, which is regularly on sale over at Stylenanda. I first learned about this brand while visiting Tokyo last October, where I came across a brick-and-mortar 3CE store and nabbed a Soft Lip Lacquer in “Tawny Red” plus a Cloud Lip Tint in “Immanence.” I loved both products, which was surprising given my dry skin/lips means I don’t usually find liquid lipsticks very comfortable!

While in Tokyo I also stopped by an Etude House location and picked up a Soft Drink Tint in “Zero Red.” It looks like that line is discontinued now, which is a shame because the tiny soda packaging is adorable.

As it turns out, 3CE matte bullet lipsticks are just as nice as their liquid lipstick formula. Some shades are creamier than others, but they all applied fairly well. I did find the color selection a little limited and not quite accurate to the website photos, but overall I was very pleased!

My final lip product purchases were from a different brand called ROM&ND via Yesstyle. I’ve tried Yesstyle a few times over the years and had great experiences each time, with international shipping always surprisingly quick. This time I bought a slew of colors from the Juicy Lasting Lip Tint line because they were highly recommended by KennieJD. I love her videos and knew that if they showed up well on her deeper skin, they’d probably look nice on me too! As long as you don’t layer too much, the formula is semi-gloss without stickiness. Because they’re tints, the color lingers on your lips even after the actual product fades. The tints also have a subtle fruity scent.

Eye products

Next up, I went back to 3CE and and tried their Mini Eye Palette in “Closing Out.” I had previously tried an Etude House eye palette and found that the colors were so pale/de-saturated that they all essentially looked like the same shade of pink on my skin tone, so I was hesitant… but pleasantly surprised by the 3CE formula! The colors were very cute and, while they lacked the saturated “punch” that seems so valued in Western makeup, I didn’t see that as a negative at all. I’ll include swatches alongside the face products further down this post.

Face products

Face products were where my success started waning. While the popularity of K-beauty means that product color ranges are starting to expand, most K-beauty doesn’t cater to a very diverse market of skin tones as the default. As a result, complexion products deep enough for my skin are hard to come by. I decided to try my luck with a highlighter and blush.

The highlighter was a cushion-style product from 16brand called Mochi Pact in “Orange Light.” I had seen Jella use it last year and came across the product while in Tokyo, as this particular color is often sold out on Yesstyle. Unfortunately, I found the cushion it came with didn’t do a great job of applying the product (too slippery!), so my fingers made do. It’s a very very glittery formula with– as you’d expect– a truly mochi-like texture that you can press into. Super weird but super satisfying! That said, the highlighter is tricky to apply and the glitters have a habit of migrating all over your face over the course of the day.

The final product I tried was the 3CE Blush Cushion in “Mandarine.” This was, I’m sad to say, a big fail for me– but that’s not all the blush’s fault! I purchased it knowing that it would be a very yellow blush on a very yellow-toned (and very tan) person, so there was a good chance it wouldn’t show up at all. And I was right! The color basically disappeared on my skin. Now, it’s my fault for choosing a color that probably wasn’t created for my skin, but it is the blush’s fault that it smells so strong. This product is heavily perfumed with the scent of baby powder to the point where you can smell it on your face for quite a long time. Heavy fragrance isn’t my cup of tea and this blush doesn’t do much for me in terms of color, so I’ll be passing it on!

To sum up: this Latina is absolutely on-board with K-beauty eye and lip products, but face products are still so-so. If you enjoyed this video/post or have suggestions for how to better cover beauty in the future, please let me know in the comments below!