I got the Etude Soft Fixing Tint mostly out of curiosity and this is kind of a part two of reviewing the Etude Fixing Tint line! I have a post here where I reviewed the original Fixing Tint, the Fixing Tint Bar, and the Glow Fixing Tint. I pretty much bought this tint blind because I didn’t find many reviews and didn’t bother investigating further. It seems like this product is pretty new and when I checked the Etude instagram they teased it only a few months ago back in June this year (2025).
I got the color #11 MYU, Red Bean, which is a cool, muted brown-beige-red mix. I have light olive skin and wear #21 in Korean foundations. I think I lean warm-toned based on the lip colors I’ve liked in the past.
On my lips, it’s definitely very muted and more brown/beige than red, just like advertised, but compared to the official pictures, it leans a bit more purple/gray on me. I think it’s actually very close to my natural lip color, but it accentuates zombie vibes on me and is kind of a mlbw (my lips but worse) instead of being a mlbb color. I was a bit surprised by how cool it looks on me as I was expecting it to be more red/pink based on the swatches I looked up (lip swatches by 삐삐 and arm swatches by 여븐) and my arm swatch.
The top swatch is the stain left behind after being wiped with a dry tissue and the bottom swatch is a full application.
Picture 1: Natural lighting
Picture 2: Artificial lighting
Picture 3: Amount of transfer when pressing tissue to the arm swatch (as though blotting) and the lip tint bottle
Picture 4: Lip tint applicator
Picture 5: Official swatch of #11 MYU, Red Bean
The packaging of this one is kind of interesting. It’s short and dumpy with a relatively short applicator. I don’t like the tube because it’s too big to fit in my regular lippie holder, and it’s not really very stable—I’ve knocked it down several times. I think the bottom is a bit too rounded for stability. One of my friends said it looked like the fwee gloss and I agree.
One of the advertised selling points was that it has a clothing iron-shaped applicator. The shape and larger size does make it easier to apply, and the pointier tip made it especially easy to cleanly apply around the cupid’s bow. However, I felt a bit of resistance trying to take it out of the tube, which could be either poor design or a manufacturing defect. I didn’t really find the applicator improvement significant enough that I would buy this tint over a different formula I liked better with a regular applicator.
- Finish: Matte. It doesn’t smooth out lip lines, but doesn’t especially settle in them either.
- Texture: Mousse-like and very lightweight on the lips. It goes on greasy, but the greasiness almost completely fades away soon after application. In the tube, it almost bunches up in little balls, but it’s easy to flatten out during application.
- Transfer: Transferproof. I haven’t tested it as thoroughly as the original formula, but in general my experience with the Etude Fixing line is that it usually won’t transfer to tissue/fabric even with a firm press, but transfers a little bit to plastic like straws and sometimes on glass/china/metal. To be extra safe, I would blot a little bit after the lip has set. This one barely transfers to plastic and metal in my experience!
- Longevity: I got about 3-4 hours of wear with a full application and it was pretty faded by the 5 hour mark. It fades unevenly and leaves the center of my lips looking lighter.
- Scent: Very little scent and doesn’t linger after application.
- Color payoff: On the low end of medium color payoff. It’s fairly opaque, but it’s just sheer enough that the background color (lip color) has some influence on the final color. I have slightly two-toned lips and it shows a little bit through the tint, and is accentuated by the uneven fading. It doesn’t blend out or layer very well; it feels more like I just keep pushing it around until it settles.
- Other notes: Even though it has a greasy feeling, I think the Soft Fixing Tint is a bit on the drying side. My lips looked dryer and more wrinkly and the tint settled a tiny bit into those lines. However, I didn’t really feel any pain due to the dryness, so it doesn’t really bother me.
Comparison with original Fixing Tint:
- Finish: Original > Soft because the original smooths lip lines.
- Texture: Similar, but I personally prefer Original > Soft because I don’t like greasy tints. The Original is more liquidy and the Soft is a whipped mousse texture, but they both feel lightweight on the lips.
- Transfer: Soft >= Original because it transfers less to plastic straws, which is my main struggle.
- Longevity: Original >> Soft; the original consistently lasts me 4-5 hours minimum and doesn’t have uneven fading. I recently had a day where the original was still giving me some color at the 12 hour mark. I would say usually a full lip application gets me in the range of 5-7 hours and it fades very evenly so it still looks okay as it fades.
- Scent: Soft >= Original because I don’t even detect a scent in the tube, but neither of them smell very strongly.
- Color payoff: Original > Soft because the original is more versatile to me; it can easily be blended out or it can be layered for a more full coverage color, but if you want something that doesn’t get too full coverage then Soft would be better.
Final thoughts: I don’t entirely know what spot this product fills over the original Fixing Tint. I think the finish, color payoff, and transferproof qualities make the two products really overlap, and I think the original does pretty much everything better. However, the color selection does seem to offer some different options, so if I really liked a color I would consider buying another one, because I really value lack of transfer in a lippie. MRP, but definitely doesn’t topple my long-time favorite original Fixing Tint.
by yanyan367