Laneige Two-tone tint Lip Bar and Mei King Two-tone lip bar review and comparison!
The two-tone lip bars from Laneige makes the Korean ‘gradient lip’ easy to do for everyone. Is the surprise challenger Mei King the Chinese brand producing a decent knock-off and giving consumers a cheaper alternative?
Read and find out!
I bought 2 shades of Laneige Lip Bar and 1 of Mei King from Aliexpress where the brand has an official store account. This Mei King product is in the shade Embracing the Breeze (okay the name is tacky, their other lipstick names in Chinese are beautifully poetic though!) is currently on sale and is 8.12 NZD. The shades I bought from Laneige are No.2 Tangerine Slice and No. 7 Lollipop Red. These were on Yesstyle sale price of 24.20 NZD. First off the swatches on the inside of my arm.
This is Laneige Lollipop Red by itself.
And this is Laneige Tangerine Slice and Mei King Embracing the Breeze side by side for comparison. I would say in terms of pigments, the difference is honestly not noticeable. If we are saying Laneige pigment is 10 points, then Mei King comes in at a solid 9-9.5. Both feel very balm-y so they are both designed as lip balms and do well with keeping the lips feel hydrated. Their lasting powers are about the same too. I mean you have to reapply after eating a meal but drinking water should be fine. All of the lip bars transfer colour onto cups but it’s expected, if your lip stick doesn’t transfer any colour then you should be worried as it usually means it contains heavy metals.
Now the lip swatches, let thee be pre-warned of dead lip cells and left over crust from a cold-sore episode that JUST passed also really unnecessary facial hairs anyone?
I do pat on my foundation onto my lips so the colour shows through without my natural lip colour influencing it. So this is Laneige Lollipop Red. I think the photo came out a bit more blue toned than in real life. The red from the lip bar is more true red than the fuchsia it’s trying to be here.
Here’s Laneige Tangerine Slice, photo came out more peachy than the more orange-y look in real life but still pretty.
Here’s Mei King Embracing the Breeze. This came out a little bit more true to colour in real life but still not quite orange-y enough. In my mirror I could not tell apart the colours between the orange colours of Laneige and Mei King so honestly I feel like the two are interchangeable.
After rubbing with water, Mei King lip bar washed off more easily (on left) but both of them left a faint stain behind.
After using an oil based makeup remover, both lip stains disappeared without a trace...
Last impression: Honestly both brands of lip bars felt the same to me, both moisturizes well, have the exactly shape, colour and basically same style of packaging. If I had known Mei King brand a bit sooner I would have picked up more lip bars from them instead of Laneige purely because of the price difference I mean the price is like 1/3 of Laneige! The only edge Laneige has really is the slightly sturdier feel in the plastic packaging, I noticed the cap on the Mei King lip bar is a little bit looser than Laneige. That and Laneige has a wider shade range (>17? If counting the ones with the slanted shaped lip bars instead of the V?) and combination compared to Mei King (6) but Mei King does have all the commonly used shade combinations available. So if you want more value for money and unless you want to have a VERY specific shade/combination, I would recommend Mei King over Laneige any day of the week!
