Of Toys and Co: Holika Holika Pure Mellow Moisture Tint

Next up in my Korean lip stains adventure is the Holika Holika Pure Mellow Moisture Tint. I've read they're pretty decent, and since I struck gold with TonyMoly Delight Tony Tint I figured I could try my luck again with these. There are 4 colors available, 01 Pink, 02 Orange, 03 Coral, and 04 Red. But when I made my purchase, 04 Red was sold out everywhere, so I only have the first 3 colors. Just recently though I was able to find 04 Red so I'll review it separately later.

Holika Holika Pure Mellow Moisture Tint 01 Pink, 02 Orange, and 03 Coral. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

These come in chubby metallic tubes with the standard fuzzy doe foot applicators. These stains are scented with an artificial grapey flavor, think grape candies/sodas. They're supposedly moisturizing, which is their main draw. Because there are, like, a gazillion lip stains within the Korean lippie market and one has to differentiate somehow. The formula is nice. It's a light cream that goes on cooling, which leads me to suspect a boat load of alcohol, which is probably why I don't find them particular "moisturizing" as claimed. Sure, they don't dry out my lips, but they aren't exactly a lip balms, glosses, or lipsticks. So yes, I'd still recommend layering balm over them.

I subjected these to the same tests as the TonyMoly stains. I first swatched them on well-moisturized hands and snap a few pictures while they set. To that end they stained decently well, although nowhere near the intensity and pigmentation as the TonyMoly stains. Then I smudged up the swatches and blended them into circles below the swatched, and here they performed very poorly. As you can see below, while the swatches show clear stains, the blended spots right below are so faint I could barely see them! This means even if you were applying over bare lips, you would have to slather on a good amount and then let set, versus blending a tiny little dab of the TonyMoly ones. Finally, I run my hand through warm water while rubbing, to see if they would wash off with just water. As you can see, most of them did wash right off leaving a faint stain.

I have a couple of theories for this. One theory is that because, well, my hand was moisturized. Which is why I recommend applying them to bare lips, let set, then layer on balm/gloss for moisture. Another theory is that because the stains themselves are supposedly "moisturizing". Sure, you can find moisturizing and pigmented lippies. But moisturizing and super staining lippies is an elusive combination, because usually emollience acts as a barrier preventing pigments from taking hold. Of course I'm no scientist, so there may very well be a super moisturizing and super pigmented lip stain out there, but these Holika Holika ones are not them. They're still pretty decent, which was the reason I chased after the color 04 Red still, but I probably won't repurchase (that is, if I ever use them up to begin with...). And really, if you're going to layer balm over the stains anyway, and you want color payoff and staining power, why not go for the TonyMoly ones instead? The TonyMoly ones are $3 a piece, versus $6 for Holika Holika. Just sayin'.

- 01 Pink: ignore the neon pink applicator. This one swatches a milky bubblegum pink and sets to a mild princess pink. This is the least pigmented one out of the three.