Etude House Play 101 Stick #12 Review & Swatches

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted – definitely been hectic in my life! This semester of university has the weirdest timetable so my day is spread out in a really inconvenient way for blogging 😦 But anyway, today’s post is a short one (I will have a suuuper long one coming up soon!) about Etude House’s Play 101 Sticks, released last December!

Picture from Etude.co.kr

The Play 101 Sticks are a spin-off line from Etude’s “Play 101 Pencils” line. I’m not sure why these are listed all the way up to 15, when I can only find information about 4 foundation colours and 6 “other colours” (shown above) on the website, but they come in a small range of shades, leaning towards lighter skin tones as most Korean products unfortunately do.

When compared to the pencils, the packaging is much more sturdy and sleek. It is mostly matte, with the lower twisting part, letters, and swirly design on the lid being shiny. They upgraded the font as well and I think it looks a lot better!

•○ Packaging ○•

They come in a box with the outer packing matching the colour inside, and a number to identify which shade it is directly.

cosDNA

It claims it also works on the lips and eyes as do the pencils, but as I bought it for my cheeks I will be reviewing it’s use as a blush!

As you can see, I picked up #12 which is a matte coral peach!

The design is very simple and minimalistic! The twist up part at the bottom matches the colour of the product, as does the text. You can also see the colour number on the back of the tube.

This product is the twist-up type, but does not need to be sharpened like the Play 101 Pencils due to its flat shape being the most convenient for application to the face.

It comes with 7.5 grams of product for 12,000 KRW. I wanted to take a picture of it twisted all the way out so you could get a better idea but was worried I’d never get it to go down again ㅋㅋ

The compact size and easy application makes this a product that I often throw in my pouch when I have to do makeup on the run!

•○ Swatches ○•

No flash

Flash

This product has quite a creamy texture, and goes on very pigmented. Because of this, I recommend either a light swipe or do what I do and pat it on the cheek lightly. You can also apply it with your finger by rubbing it on the stick and patting it on your face. I like to blend it out with my finger, which is what I did in the photos above!

It gives a very natural glow that makes me look warm and awake! If you rub it too hard on the skin with your finger it does have a tendency to come off, so I recommend light blending and setting it with powder on top. It doesn’t last all day, but it’s easy to reapply so this doesn’t bother me at all.

The biggest con for me, however, is THE SMELL. If you put your nose against it it smells awful – probably one of the worst smelling makeup products I own. Trying to be as least graphic as possible, but it smells like a cat marked its territory on my blushㅠㅠ luckily you can’t smell it at all when you apply it to your face! This is a reason why I would avoid using it on your lips and just stick to using it as a cheek product…

•○ Final thoughts ○•

I am always too lazy to bring along a powder blush + brush, so I find products like these extremely convenient when it comes to daily use. Lately I do my makeup on the run more often than not so cream blushes with built-in application systems appeal a lot to me!

A little goes a long way with these so I think the price is worth it for the amount of product you get. Despite it not lasting all day, when set with powder you can get quite a few hours of use out of this! My only complaint is the smell and the fact that dust sticks to it easily 😦 Other than that I totally recommend it! You can check them out on Etude House’s Korean page here.

I’ve been sent quite a few products this week for reviewing so I’m hoping to get another post out by the weekend!! I know I’ve been really bad at this lately but I’ll try my best 😀