I have to tell you something. The first thing I did after buying my tickets to New York last summer was to make an appointment at the Bite Lip Lab. Yes, right after (and only after that did I book the hotels for the road-trip lol)
I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was one of my wildest dreams but it was something which had been in my personal check list for a while. As a true lipstick addict, the idea of participating in every step of the development of my perfect lipstick shade is quite appealing!
And if you then add, that I completely fell in love with the Bite Beauty brand since I discovered them, I’m sure you can easily understand my excitement!
Bite Beauty Lab, presentation:
The Canadian brand of lip products, Bite Beauty is available primarily in Sephora in the United States and Canada. The Bite Lip Lab was originally intended to be the brand’s first store in New York, and as a pop-up store. They had also planned a mini-lab inside the shop in order to show the different steps of the creation of a lipstick.
The shop opened in October 2013 and was a success.
It was so successful that Bite Beauty decided to make the store permanent but also to slightly change its concept. The Bite Lip Lab is now a boutique where you can create your own personal Bite Beauty lipstick. Customers can now create their ideal lipstick shade in 20 minutes, choose its flavour (cherry, mint, vanilla, lemon, mango, purple gold berries) and its finish (satin, transparent, matte , glittery…).
All this for a price, although not necessarily cheap for a lipstick, let’s say that here, it’s more about the experience than just buying a mass made product off the shelf: $55 for 1 lipstick (or $80 for 2).
Bite Beauty Lab, my visit:
The Bite Lip Lab is located in one of the trendiest area of New York, SoHo in Lower Manhattan. The shop looks like a hipster candy shop with all these colorful pigments everywhere!
The appointment takes place in the form of a consultation of 20-30 minutes with one of the sales assistant in the shop, who accompanies you during all the steps of the creation of your lipstick.
The least I can say is that I was super excited the day of the appointment! I thought a lot about the colors I wanted (yes, of course, I knew there would be 2, impossible to limit myself to just one!)).
I wasn’t very original, and I chose to create a nude and a red. I asked the girl who took care of me about the colors their customers for the most at the moment, and clearly the nude and the red have bright days in front of them! lol
For my perfect nude, I didn’t want any nude color, I wanted a nude dusty pink (I know, such a surprise, right? :P). This kind of pink neutral shade is the one I prefer at the moment, and I’m not a fan of nude shades that are too orange or not very flattering on me.
I took my favorite dusty pink lipstick color with me, the Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid lipstick in the shade Dusty Rose (obviously lol). We used it as a guide to create the first color.
For the second lipstick, I wanted a really beautiful sophisticated red, a little dark and very glamorous.
The person who took care of me first asked me which finish I preferred (mat, satin, transparent, glittery …) and I chose a matte finish for both the lipsticks because I love the Bite Beauty matte. They are in my opinion more of a semi-matte finish, very creamy and comfortable but they are also very pigmented on the lips.
Then we discussed the color I wanted. I first showed the color of the ABH lipstick then we discussed the undertones and she showed me some mix of pigments she spread with a small spatula on a sheet of paper. Once the color seemed to fit, she impregnated a small disposable applicator and I tried it on my lips. We did that process a few times until we found the right shade.
As you may imagine, choosing the color is the longest step because it’s not always easy to materialize the idea you have of a shade and it must also suit you! You first see the colors like above on ‘paper’, then it’s a good idea to test them on your hand, then on your lips. I found that what looked good swatched on my hand, due to my pigmented lips didn’t always look the same in some cases, like with normal lipsticks.
The colors used as the starting point are existing shades from Bite Beauty, I recognized some of the names I saw on the labels of the small jars she used to make her mix of pigments.
Once I found the ideal shade for both lipsticks, I then chose their flavour. The Bite Beauty flavour are insanely good, I could eat them (and I could actually do it because the Bite Beauty lipsticks have been certified edible by the FDA).
For my “Dusty Rose” lipstick, I chose a mixture of Vanilla and Mango-Citrus and for my “Dark Red”, I opted for a gourmet Vanilla-Cherry flavour. I love when lipsticks are perfumed, so I was thrilled! bigsmile
Once all the ingredients had been selecred, she simply put them for a few seconds in a kind of centrifuge, which mixed and heated them to make them liquid.
The liquid was then poured into a mold which was placed on ice to cool and shape them.
While the lipsticks cool and take their shape, I chose their packaging among the 3 different shapes, exclusive to the Bite Lip Lab.
After a few minutes, the tubes of lipsticks are finally ready and can be inserted in their packaging. Et voilà!
Overall, it was really a super cool experience, and I really loved participating in all the steps of “creating” my own two colors!
A small note though, I don’t know if I myself was a little bit over-excited by all this or what, but the person who took care of me seemed a little too “indifferent”, almost jaded. She was very professional, I’ll give you that, but it just brought my excitement down several notches… and well, it’s a bit of a shame! uneasy
Bite Beauty Lab, the lipsticks:
I’m not going to do a detailed review of these because there is no point here but I still want to show you my two precious lol!
What is also super nice is that all the information of the shades created at Bite Lip Lab are kept in their system and that you can even reorder them if you want to. Not sure if they’re delivering outside the United States though…
In summary, if you love, like I do, both lipsticks in general and the Bite Beauty brand, it’s really a fun experience. I highly recommend! smile
The Bite Lip Lab is located at 174 Prince Street in New York. The shop is open daily from 11am to 7pm and on Sundays from 11am to 6pm.
When I went in September, I had to make an appointment on their website but apparently now you can just go, without an appointment.
And if you are in Toronto in Canada, Bite Beauty has just opened a second Bite Lip Lab! smile
And you, have you ever visited the Bite Lip Lab? How was it? Did you also enjoy it? smile
Photo credit: bonnie-garner.com