As one who’s tested an honest ton of beauty products and who has very specific standards, liquid lips are often a veritable minefield. I can’t tell you how many mousses turned out to be drying and sticky, how many water tints only served to gather pigment in my lip lines, how many matte liquid lipsticks felt like they were cracking my lips open.
Then, like an answer to a prayer, Sunnies Face threw its hat into the liquid lip ring.
It’s no secret that I’m personally a fan of the brand’s color products (the Fluffmatte lipsticks and the Airblushes, specifically), so the new launch is particularly exciting. Their latest offering is the Lip Dip, a whipped matte lip cream promising the look of soft-blurred lips. The brand boasts that this product is intended to make lips “look like the best version of your lips.”
Manufactured in Korea, the lip cream and tint capital of the world, the Lip Dip comes in a beautiful soft-touch tube and holds a beefy 3.5 grams of product. Its doe foot applicator is narrow and skinny, with a steep slant on one side. The latter enables the applicator to lay flat against the lips, its size perfect for precision work. A single dip into the tube leaves the doe foot doused in enough product for a fully pigmented application, without the need to re-dip.
The look
Running through the core of the Lip Dip is a mild translucency. Depending on how pigmented your lips are, it can affect how true to color these shades appear, which lends the shades a touch of character and steers them away from looking generally homogenous. That little bit of natural light reflection, without the product actually being shiny, makes this particular matte individual and dimensional. The overall look is plush and worn-in, with an undone kind of sexy. It’s a refreshing counterpoint to pervasive, mask-like Instagram makeup; a casual cool that is intentionally un-fussed-about perfection.
The shades
The nine Lip Dip shades were thoughtfully chosen, many of which would be universally flattering from the palest to the deepest of skin tones. It has a selection of easy, no-brainer colors — an almondy nude called Terracotta; the self-explanatory Peachy Kinda; a deep, sophisticated pink in Femmebot. For lovers of the color Girl Crush in the Fluffmatte range, the shade So Good is its rosier sister, while Posh is a richer mauve.
The stronger shades in the range have a muted brightness and tempered depth, popping just enough on the skin without competing against your overall appearance. Boysenberry is a lush berry, while Coco is a full-bodied chestnut made to star in every ’90s girl’s fantasy. The two reds in the lineup lean two different ways: Obsessed is the color of bitten lips in cold weather stained with pinky berry juice, while LYSM is a hotter tomato with a touch of orange for vibrance. I’ve long reformed my makeup hoarding ways, but I have to say that every shade in this lineup is extremely tempting to hold onto. It’s really that good.
The feel
A minor drawback is that while Sunnies Face claims that this formula is moisturizing, I don’t find that it is. I’m someone who has perennially dry lips, and while this didn’t impart moisture, it didn’t take it away either. Since it’s not actually drying, I don’t find this to be terribly problematic, but it seemed worth mentioning on the off chance that your interest was hinged on that specific claim. In any case, a slick of lip balm before any lip color application is usually in your best interest. (Pro tip: the best lip balm to prep with for any Sunnies Face lip product is a standard Burt’s Bees lip balm, which has no visible sheen and doesn’t disturb color or finish. #NotSpon)
Despite that, the Lip Dip does feel lovely and lightweight on the lips. The formula is creamy and applies smoothly, without too much slip but also without drying down into the Sahara. It’s juicy but secure. In fact, the single most satisfying part of its application is to smack your lips together once it’s on. Where brands often abuse the term “cushiony lip color,” the Lip Dip makes it real as it produces a sort of bouncy resistance between the lips, creating a unique sensory pleasure.
This elasticity also seems to keep the product from sinking into any wrinkles or lines on the lip surface, or from picking up on itself when building up the color. It’s a texture that stays thin, even, pigmented and comfortable, however light or deep the shade might be. This is exactly what makes the Lip Dip a breeze to reapply, and while not exactly advertised as such, it’s what makes the product great for multi-use around the face as well.
The wear
I subjected the Lip Dip to a stress test regular lipstick wearers may be acquainted with. Biting into a sandwich while wearing a pigmented lip color often results in a ring of color on the sandwich, with an additional treat of color transfer onto your chin, often feeling a bit like a crime scene. I found that the Lip Dip has remarkably minimal transfer, leaving both my sandwich and my chin pigment-free. Its longevity sits well above that of a classic bullet-type lipstick, but less than a matte liquid lip, and definitely won’t hold up to a slew of oilier snacks. When it does wear off, however, it will do so in a very beautiful and even way — without any unseemly patchiness and just a very light stain that says a lip product was once there.
The verdict
Not all lip products are made equal, and what Sunnies Face has managed to offer is another stellar luxury formula at an absolute steal. With its retail value of P345 a tube, the Lip Dip blows all other competing lip products in its price range (and some above) out of the water. Because when they say that this is the best-looking version of your lips, to see is to believe, and believe you will. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding — or in this instance, the whipped matte cream.
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The Sunnies Face Lip Dip is available for P345 each, both online and in stores. For more information, check sunniesface.com or on their socials @sunniesface.