L'oreal Tint Caresse, Japan Release

I saw this item the other day at LOFT and it looked so interesting that I had to buy it. This is a product that just launched in Japan ( I'm not sure if/when its heading to other parts of the world) that is meant to create a gradient lip look. Here is a picture of the model wearing the product:

That looks promising doesn't it?? Here is more information on the item. It is from L'oreal and it is called Tint Caresse (ティント　カレス). This is actually quite confusing since every L'oreal lip product here is called some version of carresse. Here is what the product itself looks like:

Now you can see why it piqued my interest. The packaging is a lovely gradient. The product is a unique powder that you apply using the felt tip. The powder product itself is housed in the cap. It comes in 8 colors and retails for 1700 yen. I bought the deepest color in 8 Dark Plum. Perfect for the fall which is finally here!! Here is the model modeling the color I bought:

That looks amazing doesn't it!! According to L'oreal this product is: 

A historic first! You can have gradient lips with this brilliant matte cushion lip product, feather it out from the middle of your lips.

Have some pictures:

Sorry for the pic quality, all I have in here is a ceiling light. Anyways, it looks so pretty here, being all plum and stuff. Here is a swatch on my hand:

Doesn't it look nice here too, such a bold color. So much sass. The product is a super velvety powder that stains the lips (or back of your hand) fairly well. Here it is on my lips, I'm putting these as small as possible because lip swatches are so awkward.

 Just the product by itself.

With gloss added on top.

As you can see the application looks pretty terrible by itself. Its patchy and it doesn't build on itself to make the center look darker than the rest of the lips. Also it is incredibly drying. Maybe for someone whose lips aren't as full as mine it would be less of an issue, since someone with thinner lips wouldn't have to feather the product from the middle of their lips as much as I do. With the gloss it looks a lot better but the gradient would be lost when gloss is added on top of the product. Also, the product is deeper in person, my lights washed it out, it actually looks close to the color swatched on my hand. 

Final Thoughts:

Maybe the product would look better over a lip concealer or nude lip stick but I'd be afraid of product transfer into the powder. Oh well. At least its a nice color, but I think I'll just use it as a regular lip color and not try to do fancy tricks with it. What do you guys think?? Let me know in the comments!!