Beauty/Review: Etude House Play 101 Stick Foundation and Contour Duo

One of the highly hyped and anticipated releases following the successful Play 101 Pencils are the Etude House Play 101 Sticks! Once again, they partnered with Pony Makeup for a series of makeup tutorials making use of the products. I only got the stick foundation and contour duo of the entire line, but the blushes and other cheek products swatched beautifully in store as well. Across the line, the packaging is the same sort of simple light plasticky material with a cap that locks nicely.





The Etude House Play 101 Stick Foundation come in four shades; 01 Bare (very pink-toned), 02 Vanilla (which I got, and brightened my NC15-20 skin tone well), 03 Beige (natural light shade) and 04 Sand (not very dark at all, in stores it appeared to be about NC25-30 at best). Etude house describes them as "a long lasting, multi-function foundation stick that glides onto skin completing smooth and flawless-looking face with the soft and creamy texture". The product contains 7.5g of product, and retails for W12,000 (~$12).

I'd like to preface this by saying that I have very oily skin, hence longevity and oil control is often something I look out for. Given that, I did not like this foundation. I felt that the formula was, while creamy, caked up on my less than perfect skin and around my blemishes. The best way I've found to apply the product was by spreading it very lightly and blending out with a damp beauty blender, which gives a decently natural finish.

The product did not last very long on my oily skin (though likely a lot better on other skin types), and oil significantly broke through by the 3-4 hour mark. It has a medium coverage and covers redness well. The product also has really good spreadability and was very easy to blend.





Next is the Etude House Play 101 Stick Contour Duo which is a duo-ended cream-type contour and highlight stick. Etude House describes it as "a creamy contour duo that creates a look of authentic dimensionality of face". The product retails for W12,000 (~$12) and contains 1.7g of product on each side.

Now, this product I quite enjoyed. I haven't tried much cream type contouring products (preferring powder products), but the creaminess and blendability of the formulation made it so easy to shape the face. The shader, meant to be used under the cheeks and along the perimeters of the face, is a matte warm-toned brown that is surprisingly dark (photo turned out significantly lighter than in person). The highlighter is a very light near-white matte shade.

The shades aren't my first choice for highlighting and shading (since I prefer cool-toned browns and skin-toned highlighters with very fine shimmer) but I do think that it is a good and travel-friendly product especially for people just starting out with contouring.

Translation
Step 1: Apply a Play 101 Stick Foundation that matches your skin tone before using the Play 101 Stick No. 11 following the perimeters of your skin broadly.
Step 2: Apply the Play 101 Stick Contour Duo on the forehead, nose and chin carefully, and blend it out using your fingers.