I watched Memories of the Alhambra about two months ago on Netflix, and of course, I was tempted by Park Shin Hye’s Mamonde lipsticks!
The one that she uses in this series is the Mamonde Creamy Tint Color Balm Intense, and I had to Google which shade she uses. The result of my Googling – she uses #24 Nectar Coral when she was getting ready for her birthday.
I’m not a big fan of Koreanovelas. I am picky. I have to watch the trailer first and look at the leading man. I am turned off if the leading man looks excessively feminine, so I have only watched very few Koreanovelas. Good that Memories of the Alhambra doesn’t suffer from that flaw. I enjoyed the series except for the ending, so I hope they hurry up with Season 2!
MAMONDE CREAMY TINT COLOR BALM INTENSE REVIEW
Mamonde isn’t officially available in the Philippines. I tried to look for Mamonde when I was in Hong Kong last March but it wasn’t available there, either. They don’t have a Mamonde branch in Hong Kong, nor was Mamonde available in any of the usual makeup shops like Sasa and Bonjour.
So in the end, I searched Shopee and found sellers offering the Mamonde lip products. I waited until Shopee had one of their free shipping promos for P299 minimum purchase and finally ordered a Mamonde Creamy Tint Color Balm Intense in #24 Nectar Coral for P375.
I hope that the item I got is authentic. So far, I haven’t come across any that looked fake, and Googling didn’t turn up any reports of fakes, either.
I’ve already used the Mamonde Creamy Tint Color Balm Intense on and off for 2 weeks.
I didn’t expect the color to be this bright! Here’s a swatch:
Here’s what it looks like on me. I wore it to vote today. We just walked over to the nearby school to vote. I just got back, that’s why my hair is sweaty 🙂 This is just simple makeup – just my favorite Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream #21 set with Maybelline Fit Me powder foundation (the rectangular one). The sunscreen from the BB Cream gives a white cast. Brows look okay irl but don’t show up well in the photo.
I also wore it to the orange-themed Pizza Hut pool party last week:
Application:
Swiping the pen easily yields color with good coverage. However, the first few times I used it, I could see the “pen strokes” of the lipstick, and I need to do an extra step of blending it all with my fingers. This is the only negative for me, but it’s kind of annoying to have to do extra work. But, after having used it a few times, this issue went away – the product felt softer and applied better. I’m not sure but maybe I just had to get through the drier outer layer of the color balm. After I got through the dry outer layer, application was great!
One time, I tried using a lip balm first before applying the Mamonde to make the color apply more evenly / easily on my lips. It didn’t stick to my lips as well as it would have on its own, and because of the lip balm, I felt very aware of the products on my lips. I don’t recommend doing this.
Feel:
It feels very, very lightweight, as if I’m not wearing any lipstick at all. This is the most invisible-feeling lipstick-like product I’ve ever tried!
It doesn’t feel drying on my lips, however, it took a few uses before I felt the “balm” texture – like I said before, it seemed like there was a dry layer I had to get through first.
Longevity & Transfer:
There is only a little transfer, almost negligible compared to regular lipsticks. The color does tint my lips and my lips still show some of the color even after eating.
It lasts for a few hours but if you talk or smack your lips a lot, the product tends to fade unevenly. Even after just drinking a glass of water, I noticed that most of the color balm is concentrated on the outer area of my lips and the balm on the center part of my lips tends to have faded a little already.
SUMMARY
At first, I was shocked by how vibrant the orange color of the lip balm was, but after using it once, I’ve actually come to like it. I think the coral color looks good against my skin, but I have to be wearing BB cream at least to make it look good (gives better contrast compared to just a bare face). I also have a lot of red, mauve-y and berry lipsticks already, and I’ve been on a coral lip phase lately, especially this summer.
I find the Mamonde Creamy Tint Color Balm Intense easy to use, and I keep it as part of my daily makeup bag which I bring everywhere. It’s easy to retouch and I feel like the packaging / shape / formula of the Mamonde Creamy Tint Color Balm Intense will be able to withstand daily abuse inside my bag – I don’t feel like I have to be careful with it, I don’t feel like it will melt or break in the extreme heat of our Manila summer. This is the reason why I’ve been using it more lately compared to my other lipsticks.
Another thing about this is that I feel like I need to use some techniques to make it look wearable. If I apply it like regular lipstick, it comes out too vibrant orange. So I usually do a version of the Korean gradient lip — I apply a little on my lips and then spread it all over my lips using my fingers. This way the color isn’t too shocking orange.
