How Clinique Black Honey Lipstick Went Viral 50 Years After Its Launch

TikTok has utterly modified the best way we purchase magnificence merchandise. The typical social media person will open the social media app 13 instances in 24 hours, with 49% of customers claiming to have found one thing new on the platform. TikTokers are additionally one and half instances extra doubtless to instantly purchase one thing they noticed on TikTok, in contrast with customers on competitor social media platforms. Right here we examine the Anatomy of a TikTok Product, to learn the way these web obsessions go viral. First up: Clinique Virtually Lipstick Black Honey. 

It doesn’t matter what technology you determine with, you have in all probability heard of Clinique’s Black Honey Lipstick. For millennials the slim tube was a staple in our moms’ make-up baggage and a clandestine companion for varsity dances and graduations. As we speak most individuals will acknowledge the darkish lip stain from viral movies on TikTok, the place the hashtags #blackhoney and #cliniqueblackhoney have racked up 242 million views previously yr alone, thanks largely to a Gen Z–fueled renaissance. 

Identified for its practically black lipstick bullet, Clinique Virtually Lipstick Black Honey first launched in 1971. A hybrid between lipstick and lip balm, the method delivers a sheer berry tint with a delicate, balmy end. The product was revolutionary for its method and for its universally flattering shade, which makes use of a singular mix of crimson, blue, and yellow pigments to regulate to your pores and skin tone. Black Honey rose to prominence within the ’90s and early 2000s, when it turned a magnificence staple on the crimson carpet and in tv and flicks. 

Fifty years after its launch, Black Honey skilled a second life and offered out a number of instances over in 2021. Clinique has supplied information and model historical past behind Black Honey’s resurgence, however the easiest reply will be discovered within the ’90s and Y2K nostalgia that is dominated magnificence developments over the previous few years. The web additionally retains data: In June 2021, Lord of the Rings superfans on #tolkientok recognized the precise lipstick that actor Liv Tyler wore onscreen as Arwen Evenstar within the 2001 movie adaptation. The product? Clinique Virtually Lipstick Black Honey. 

It did not take lengthy for the remainder of TikTok to take discover. What began as fan memorabilia shortly became a full-blown magnificence phenomenon. Black Honey mania took over the app, with everybody from influencers to informal buyers speeding to purchase the shade and take a look at it for themselves. By the top of the yr, the lipstick secured a spot on TikTok’s 2021 Reward Information, a curated record of merchandise whose reputation will be instantly tied to the social platform’s video creators.

Celeb make-up artist Neil Scibelli additionally credit the return of brown and raisin lip shades for Black Honey’s main comeback. “With lip appears presently targeted on deep mauve hues made standard within the ’90s, the attractive raisin tone is the proper solution to keep on pattern,” Scibelli says. “Plus, the hybrid gloss and lipstick end actually adjusts to particular person pores and skin tones, permitting anybody to reaching that excellent ’90s pout with a balmlike texture. I’ve been excited to assist my shoppers rediscover Clinique’s Black Honey Virtually Lipstick, and it has been wonderful to see this product proceed to stay on pattern technology after technology. It has actually develop into an iconic mainstay for any make-up fan.”