Clinique’s black honey went viral and it’s worth all the hype

If you’ve been on TikTok at all you may have come across Clinique’s black honey lipstick which went viral thanks to its dark colour in the tube but sheer payoff on the lips. And when we say viral, we’re talking more than 142 million posts.

The little silver bullet has been worn by A-list celebrities like Julia Roberts, Zooey Deschanel and Troian Bellasario for a berry bitten lip look that’s all about giving your pout a ‘your own lips but better’ finish. Plus it comes with a reasonable price tag and a subtle hue that adjusts to your own personal lip shade.

Originally coming to prominence in the late 1980s and 1990s, it was originally made in 1971 and it’s hybrid finish, which is somewhere between a gloss and lipstick, is what caused it to stand out from the crowd.

But is it worth all the hype? I put it to the test to find out whether black honey really should be a cult classic.

How I tested Clinique black honey

I’m a big lipstick lover, so I was ready to put this through the ringer to see if it lived up to its good press. So, I applied black honey onto bare lips without any lip balm or lipstick at the beginning of the working day, and was looking out for the colour payoff, how it felt on my lips and how many times I needed to reapply throughout the day.