Hey, everyone!
In this post I want to share with you my top 5 Korean and western drugstore matte liquid lipsticks, as well as some comparisons between them. Since this is my own top 5 ranking, I evaluate them based on my preferences in matte lipsticks.
Basically, in term of matte lipstick, I prefer liquid lipsticks than conventional bullet lipsticks. I find liquid lipstick is easier to apply by nature and offer more crisp look without having to put a lot of effort by lining our lips first. I often do my makeup in a hurry so I rarely have time for a lip pencil.
To make it easier for us to compare, I divided the evaluation into some categories: price, consistency (creamy or watery), applicator (whether it makes application easier or not), finish (whether it sits on fine lines or not, whether it stains our lips or not, and whether it feels heavy or not), wearing time (whether it’s long-wearing or not), and transfer-ability (whether it’s transfer-proof or not). And for a quick disclaimer, since all lipsticks here are imported, I’ll be mentioning the price when I bought it, not their original prices in their country of origin, and convert them into USD so it’s easier for you to assess whether it’s affordable or not.
Okay, without further a do, here are my favorite Korean & western drugstore matte liquid lipsticks from top 5 to top 1.
Wet n Wild Megalast Liquid Catsuit
This lipstick is the cheapest among all lipsticks I’ll be mentioning in this post. I bought it for around USD 5.
It has consistency between creamy and watery. So it’s not too creamy, but not too watery either. It has doe foot applicator with a dent in the middle so that it can reach our entire lips precisely. I found it very effective to apply the products not only to the front part of my lips, but also to the top part, without having to go back and forth.
It doesn’t stain my lips, instead it sits on top of them. And because of that, there’s possibility it could stick on my teeth if I shut my lips before it completely dries. However, it dries fairly fast, so I don’t find this property very annoying. I don’t have chapped lips, but I find it sits on my fine lips after a long wear time. So please keep that in mind if you have a very dry lips. I also feel it a little bit heavy, nothing crazy, but I can clearly feel that I have something on my lips.
Speaking about wear time, I guess it has an okay wear time. As long as we don’t eat or drink, it isn’t really worn off for nearly 4 hours. But it’s not transfer-proof. It definitely leaves some marks on my cup or my straw when I drink.
Maybelline Superstay Matte Ink
They claim to be 16-hour long-wearing but I never had a chance to wear it for that long. But I remembered one day, I wore this lipstick and ate a kind of soup. After eating, it was still on my lips as if I didn’t eat anything. And until the end of that day, maybe around 8 to 10 hours after the first application and without re-application, it was only start to worn off of the inner part of my lips, but it definitely left stain on that part so I still looked like I have lipsticks on. That being said, I can safely say that this lipstick is the most transfer-proof and long-wearing among all lipsticks I’ll be mentioning in this post. It also stains my lips therefore it looks there even after quite a long time.
However, I feel like this one is also the heaviest. I definitely feel I have something on my lips. It has creamy consistency and doesn’t sit on my fine lines, which is usually the case for creamy liquid lipstick. But I don’t really like the applicator. It is too big for my small lips so I must be extra careful when applying it. It also needs a decent amount of time to be completely dry. And I highly recommend you to not shut your lips before it’s dry or it would wipe off some products you’ve applied.
Price-wise, it was slightly more expensive than the Wet n Wild one. I bought it for about USD 7.
Etude House Matte Chic Lip Lacquer
If you don’t know, Etude House is a Korean beauty brand. They always have cute packaging and are still considered drugstore/ affordable price among other Korean brands, although they aren’t sold in drugstores. They have their own stores widely spread across Korea and a lot of Asian countries, including Indonesia.
Etude House advertised this as a completely transfer-proof lipstick, and I must agree. Although it has watery consistency, and watery liquid lipstick tends to transfer easily, it’s not the case with this one. It almost as transfer-proof as the Maybelline one. But, it takes a decent amount of time to be completely dried. If you shut your lips before it dries, it might stick on your teeth. So please keep that in mind. However, when it dries, it’s not easily transferred to our drinks or foods.
I bought it for around USD 8.5, so it’s in the middle range among other lipsticks I’ll be mentioning here. It doesn’t stain our lips, instead it sits on top of them, so it has tendency to sit on fine lines too.
It’s quite long-wearing, and since it’s pretty transfer-proof, too, I find it very practical to wear on the day when I don’t want to keep re-applying my lipstick. But this also because in my opinion, the applicator is not the easiest to use. It has bent like Wet n Wild one (so I like it), but the tip of the applicator is too long for my small lips, so I must be extra careful when applying it. It’s not as difficult as the Maybelline one, though.
3CE Soft Lip Lacquer
Now let’s move on to the top 2 of my all time favorite matte liquid lipstick, and two of them are actually from a Korean brand called 3CE. 3CE is actually considered middle range brand in term of price. They are not fairly affordable like Etude House, but not as expensive as, for example, Laneige or Sulwahsoo. Their style is also very different with Etude House. 3CE is more elegant, as they seem to target women around age 25-35 (based on my observation only), unlike Etude House that seems to target younger women (under 25).
I bought this particular lipstick for around USD 12. What I think is a unique property of it is that it has watery consistency, but it dries down as velvety finish. That’s why it’s called ‘soft lip lacquer’, ‘soft’ because of the velvet finish, and ‘lacquer’ because of the watery consistency. And that’s why I love this one so much. Since it has velvet finish, it stains our lips, doesn’t sits on fine lines, and doesn’t feel dry whatsoever. It also blurs our lips texture and makes it looks so smooth.
It’s also long-wearing enough even though it doesn’t feel sticky on my lips like Maybelline one. I can safely say that it’s also very transfer-proof. I remember one day I had a lunch in a seafood place. It’s hard to eat neatly in seafood place, right? So I remember clearly that I didn’t try to maintain my lipstick during that lunch time. However after finish eating, my lipstick hadn’t come off AT ALL!
3CE Velvet Lip Tint
And here’s my favorite of all time, the 3CE velvet lip tint. This one if I’m not mistaken has the same price as the soft lip lacquer, around USD 12. It has also the same velvet finish, but the initial consistency is different than the soft lip lacquer one, this one is creamy instead of watery. It has the similar shape of doe foot applicator with the soft lip lacquer one, but this one is a lot smaller so it fits better to my small lips.
Although it’s creamy and creamy liquid lipsticks are usually not really long-wearing and transfer-proof, this one is otherwise. It is very long-wearing and has enough transfer-proof property. And the darker color one, since it stains our lips more than the lighter one, it helps to maintain the vivid color. It is unquestionably non-drying and doesn’t sit on our fine lines.
Comparisons
And here are all of them swatched together as well as the summary of their properties I’ve mentioned above in a table so you can see clearly how they are different with each other.
From comparisons above you can see that although the Maybelline one has 5 preferred properties, the same as the 3CE velvet lip tint one, since it feels quite heavy on my lips and the applicator is a bit too big for me, I don’t reach it as much as the ones on higher rank. And because of the weight and how it looks on lips, I found it a little too thick and too crisp for a casual everyday wear.
And then, I also tried to wipe them off with an oil-based cleanser I normally use to clean my face, which is the Garnier Micellar Oil-infused Cleansing Water.
And here’s what they looked like from one to four swipes.
You can see from picture above that the most left one (which is the Etude House one) was the hardest to take off. That’s why I said it has the same transfer-proof property as the Maybelline one, but I prefer the Etude House than the Maybelline because the Etude one is not as heavy-feeling as the Maybelline one.
What do you think about my recommendation? Do you have one or some of the lipsticks I mentioned here, too? If yes, which one is your favorite? Let me know your preference on comment section below! Thank you for reading and I’ll see you on my next post!
Unpretty Vanity 