Glossy lip tints seem to be enjoying a renaissance in 2025, much as slim lipsticks did in 2023. And just as I did two years ago, I’ve managed to acquire two examples of the trend, one from the drugstore and one at a higher price point. I didn’t buy them specifically for this blog post, but I think I’d be remiss not to compare them! On the pricier side, we have Benefit Splashtint in Wide Brim, which usually retails for $26, though I bought it for $17 during Benefit’s 30%-off sale in June. From the drugstore aisle, we have e.l.f. Sheer For It Blush Tint in Cherry Cola, a mere $5. They’re almost the same size, though Blush Tint contains slightly more product: 6.8 ml (0.22 fl oz), versus Benefit’s 6.0 ml (0.2 fl oz).

In my experience, shiny lip tints fall into two categories. There’s the thick, sticky variety, which has traditionally been more popular in the West, and the thin, watery variety, which is easier to find from East Asian brands. Both kinds of lip tints look shiny when first applied, but they wear differently. The thicker tints stay shiny (and feel tacky) for hours but don’t actually stain the lips—they come right off when wiped with a tissue. With the thinner tints, the shiny top layer breaks down relatively quickly, but the pigment actually stains the lips.

To illustrate the difference, I’ve swatched five of my glossy lip tints, L-R: Maybelline Super Stay Vinyl Ink in Wicked; Revlon ColorStay Satin Ink in Silky Sienna; Wide Brim; Cherry Cola; and Etude House Dear Darling Water Gel Tint in Red Bean Red. The first two go on more opaque and feel sticky as long as I’m wearing them; the other three go on more translucent and feel more lightweight.

After letting the tints set for five minutes, I wiped them with a wet paper towel, then with a tissue dipped in Vaseline. The Maybelline and Revlon tints disappeared almost completely, while the Benefit, e.l.f., and Etude House tints left noticeable stains with defined outlines:

Wide Brim and Cherry Cola may belong to the same subspecies of tint, but that doesn’t mean they perform identically, so let’s look at each one in isolation! I’ll start with Wide Brim, since Benefit is the creator of the OG water tint, at least in the West: the iconic Benetint, invented in 1976 as a nipple tint for strippers in San Francisco (true story). More Benetint shades were added over the decades, but not until last year did Benefit introduce two new lip-tint formulas: the matte Plushtint and the dewy Splashtint. I first encountered them last August at the Benefit flagship store in the brand’s (and my) hometown of San Francisco. Note that they were $24 at the time. A $2 increase in just a year? Ouch, man!

Aesthetically, the concept of the Splashtints is somewhat incoherent. There are the tropical-themed shade names (Fresh Squeezed, Isle Style, Coco Cabana). There are the pink boxes adorned with wavy stripes (the ocean? heat waves?). And then there’s the distinctive plastic component, its bulbous, iridescent white cap recalling an architectural detail from a Victorian greenhouse (and making the whole thing top-heavy and liable to topple over).

The odd design choices continue with the applicator, a pointy doefoot with a well in the center. This shape spreads the tint unevenly, depositing more product on the outer rim of my lips and less in the center. And because the cap isn’t flat on top, I can’t set the wand down on my dresser while evening out the tint with my finger, as I always have to do.

I own an embarrassing number of lip colors in this purplish-reddish-berry category, so I had plenty of options for comparison swatches. L-R: Tower 28 JuiceBalm in Drink, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Porto Please, Wide Brim, Maybelline Wicked, Maybelline ColorSensational Lipstick in Crimson Race, in indirect and direct sunlight:

Wide Brim and Wicked look very similar here. On my lips, though, Wicked reads “berry red” and Wide Brim reads “red berry,” and as you and I both know, that’s a meaningful and important distinction.

Benefit makes a lot of promises about Splashtint’s formula. It’s supposedly “longwearing” and “kiss-proof,” providing “all-day comfort.” It’s “moisturizing” with a “juicy, dewy finish” that “visibly smooths fine lip lines.” The formula is a lightweight gel, and as with most water tints, I find that I need two coats for full opacity. Here are two layers of Wide Brim on my lips just after application, and I would indeed describe the finish as “dewy”—it’s not as high-gloss as, say, YSL Glossy Stain (RIP), but there’s a subtle shine. The Splashtints have a faint fruity scent (mango, I think?) that fades quickly after application.

Unfortunately, Splashtint doesn’t live up to Benefit’s “longwearing” claim. Yes, it stains my lips a bit; but for me, “longwearing” means that a product looks freshly applied (or close to it) for hours. This is not the case with Wide Brim. It takes about fifteen minutes to dry down fully; eating or drinking anything during that time will smear the product (God forbid you realize immediately after doing your makeup that you forgot to take your meds, as I did one recent morning). After that, the tint is dry to the touch, and it doesn’t feel tacky when I press my lips together. However, the shiny upper layer is very sensitive to liquid and breaks down quickly. Here’s how Wide Brim looks after three hours of sipping coffee and water:

And this product definitely won’t survive a kiss—or a thirty-minute walk through the August heat and humidity. Here it is after said walk (about four hours after application), and you can actually see where a drop of sweat made its way down my lips:

On the plus side, Wide Brim really is as comfortable as promised. It doesn’t feel sticky or gooey, and while I wouldn’t call it moisturizing, it’s not at all drying. I’d also agree that it “visibly smooths fine lip lines” when first applied, though almost any glossy lip formula will do that. Its translucency gives it a lovely stained-glass look, especially in sunlight:

I love how this shade looks on me, and I think I’ll wear it often this fall.

I was curious to see how Wide Brim looked with a sheer shimmer on top, so I layered Kryolan LCP629 over it and loved the result! Very ’80s prom.

Now for Cherry Cola. As many people have noted, e.l.f.’s Blush Tint is a shameless knockoff of Benefit’s Benetint, which is made to be used as both a blush and a lipstick. (Benefit makes no such claim about Splashtint, so I didn’t try it as a blush.) Blush Tint comes in five shades, each of which has a correspondingly colored cap and cardboard sleeve:

I much prefer the Blush Tint packaging to that of Splashtint. The component is translucent, so you can see how much product you have left. The applicator, a small, smooth doefoot with no indentation in the center, spreads the liquid evenly over my lips. The cap clicks shut securely. The whole thing is simple and cute and feels much less tryhard than the Splashtint packaging (though I don’t want to give e.l.f. too much credit when Benefit more or less did it first with Benetint).

I was hoping Cherry Cola would be as cool-toned as the bottle makes it appear, but it’s a reddish brown that looks almost burnt orange next to my other russet lip colors. L-R: NYX Fat Oil Lip Drip in Status Update, Maybelline Ultimatte Slim Lipstick in Mostly Cedar, Cherry Cola, MAC Lustreglass Lipstick in Spice It Up!, Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip in Blackberry:

Moments after washing off those swatches, I remembered which of my lipsticks Cherry Cola resembles most closely (why must this happen so often?!): ColourPop Lux Lipstick in Gallop. This rich shade of auburn always puts me in mind of Pre-Raphaelite portraits.

One could get away with wearing a single layer of Cherry Cola, but I much prefer how it looks with two layers—it’s darker and therefore more flattering for my high-contrast coloring, and the more I apply, the redder it becomes. Below, two layers in indoor natural light (top) and outdoor sunlight (bottom):

Having swatched Benetint at Ulta just the other day, I can report that the Blush Tint formula is similar, but a little thicker. Also, whereas Benetint has a strong rose fragrance, Blush Tint is scent-free. Here are the Benetint swatches I made; you can see how thin and watery this formula is by how much the colors bled across my hand! L-R: original Benetint, Dark Cherry (darker and cooler-toned than Cherry Cola), Raspberry:

Cherry Cola sets on my lips much more quickly than Wide Brim does—it’s dry to the touch in about three minutes and doesn’t come off on cups and glasses. Neither the shine nor the stain survives a full meal, however. I find the Blush Tint formula slightly drying, as many long-lasting lip tints are. As a blush, Cherry Cola blends out smoothly with my fingers (as a reminder, I don’t wear foundation, so I can’t speak to how it performs over other makeup) and is visible on my face for most of the day. However, it feels a little tacky on my skin for the first hour or so, and it’s not a very flattering blush color for me, leaning more orange-brown than warm red on my cheeks. Here I am wearing it as both a blush and a lip tint:

My final thoughts: If I could combine the color, finish, and comfort of Wide Brim with the packaging and lasting power of Cherry Cola, I’d have a perfect lip tint for my needs! In my opinion, the Blush Tints are well worth $5 if you’re attracted to one of the five shades (and since this product seems popular on social media, I wouldn’t be surprised if e.l.f. expanded the shade range eventually). As for the Splashtints, I think $26 is a ridiculous price for a formula that doesn’t do what I most want a lip tint to do—that is, last on my lips longer than a conventional lipstick—but I don’t regret trying Wide Brim on sale.

Neither formula measures up to Etude House Dear Darling Tint, however, and I have to conclude that Korean makeup brands might still have the edge in the world of water-based lip tints. Speaking of which, the Rom&nd Juicy Lasting Tints are available from Ulta now, and Plum Coke looks like the true black cherry I hoped Cherry Cola would be. Hmm…