Holika Holika Holy Berry Tint

The third lip tint I've tried (and probably the last now that I have backups of TonyMoly Delight Tony Tint ^.^)  is Holika Holika Holy Berry Tint. It comes in three colors, 1 Strawberry, 2 Raspberry, and 3 Orange Berry.

Whereas the TonyMoly tints are gel and Holika Holika Pure Mellow Moisture Tint are light creams, these Holy Berry Tint are a watery runny formula, yes, as in they will drip. In fact, it's kind of unnerving looking at them in the clear plastic tubes - they look like watered down food coloring. Why am I dabbing this stuff onto my lips again? They have fuzzy doe foot applicators, and all have a pleasant berry scent.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

This watery runny formula has a small advantage of being super spreadable, while with the gels and light creams I'd have to apply and spread with a quick super sonic hand before those first dabs set and then my lips will look patchy, with some spots more stained than others. Sadly though, I do think watery runny formulas tend to have more disadvantages than advantages, the most obvious of which is that it bleeds like crazy, especially on dry lips like mine. See the swatches below - the bleeding was pretty much immediate. I dabbed it onto the back of my hands and it just ran away. Another significant disadvantage is that it takes a hell of a long time to set, 3-5 minutes for this particular tint.

Even then, I let the swatches below set for 5 minutes while taking photos and whatnot, and afterwards they looked like they were set so I touched them, ...and promptly smudged them. So yeah, they didn't set completely after 5 minutes on the back of my dry hands, so I had to let them set some more. That said, they do set exactly as they appear in the swatch photo, to a transparent stain that's somewhat pigmented. I guess if you wanted higher intensity stains you could layer on another wash, but then you'll have to sit and let that second wash set also.

I put these swatches through the same water test as the other tints I have, running them through warm water first. They didn't budge. Good. Then I rubbed them under warm running water. They washed off like the Pure Mellow Moisture Tint did, leaving behind tints so faint I didn't bother to photograph. Not so good. I only paid $3.50 for each 13mL tube, but considering how much more pigmented the TonyMoly tints are for less than $3, I'd say skip this one and go straight for TonyMoly instead.

- 1 Strawberry: a yellow based red even if it doesn't look it.

- 2 Raspberry: a blue based red even if it appears berry.

- 3 Orange Berry: yellowy orange that turns more navel orange after setting.

1 Strawberry, 2 Raspberry, and 3 Orange Berry.