Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Meringue, Honeycomb, Thistle, and Sake

Earlier this year, Bite Beauty came out with a whole new range of lipsticks called Amuse Bouche, the motto of which is, "The perfect bite that redefines lipstick." They are described as "a collection of high-impact lipsticks in dimensional shades that have been handcrafted to deliver extreme moisture, soft texture, and creamy wear." Bite Beauty has always prided themselves on using real, beneficial ingredients like "organic butters and nourishing oils," and all of the Amuse Bouche lipsticks are at least 95% natural (each shade will state the percentage of natural ingredients on the top of the box). Like all of Bite Beauty's products, the Amuse Bouche lipsticks are hand crafted using a "small batch, low-heat process" that "allows control and the attention to detail needed when creating with real ingredients."


Amuse Bouche lipsticks are made with 12 edible oils to provide "optimal hydration and instantly nourished, smoother, softer lips" and the use of "pearl, silk, and red wine resveratrol prolong wear, enhance creaminess of texture, and provide long-lasting antioxidant benefits long after application." They are lightly scented and flavoured using "fresh pressed grapefruit, lemon, lime, tangelo, mint, and mandarin."  They are housed in dark grey, lightly rubberized tubes with a curved lid to mimic how a lipstick bullet wears down over time (similarly, you could say it looks like someone took a bite out of a lipstick bullet, but this is actually how a Bite Beauty Lip Lab Artist described their lids to me). Each Amuse Bouche lipstick contains 4.35 grams of product, and retails for $30. There are currently 41 shades available, and they are all exclusive to Sephora.
Meringue, Honeycomb, Thistle, and Sake
Meringue, Honeycomb, Thistle, and Sake

Meringue is a light-medium warm peachy pink with a soft sheen in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is darker and more peach than Bite Beauty Sugarcane, more pink than Bite Beauty Honeycomb, lighter and more peach than Bite Beauty Sorbet, darker and warmer than MAC Creme Cup, warmer and more peach than MAC Faux, slightly darker and more beige than Urban Decay Weirdo, and lighter and more peach than Urban Decay Criminal.

Honeycomb is a light-medium warm peachy beige with a soft sheen in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is darker and more brown than Bite Beauty Meringue, more brown than Bite Beauty Amaretto, more peach than Bite Beauty Honey Berry, lighter than MAC Velvet Teddy, slightly darker than MAC Cherish, more brown than Urban Decay Insanity, and warmer and more peach than Urban Decay Safe Word.  

Thistle is a medium cool muted mauve-taupe with a soft sheen in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is cooler and more grey than Bite Beauty Sake, more muted and more brown than NARS Dominique, lighter and more mauve than MAC Stone, lighter and cooler than MAC Whirl, darker than Urban Decay Oblivion, darker and more grey than Urban Decay Violate, and more brown than Jeffree Star Scorpio. 

Sake is a medium-dark cool muted mauve-pink with a soft sheen in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is cooler and more pink than Bite Beauty Pepper, cooler and more muted than Bite Beauty Rhubarb, lighter than NARS Anna, darker than MAC Brave, cooler and more mauve than MAC Twig, similar but more shiny than Urban Decay Backtalk, and lighter than ColourPop Lumiere.

Some of you will know that the Amuse Bouche lipsticks replaced Bite Beauty's old Luminous Crème range. A lot of people liked the Luminous Crèmes and I had bought a few of them due to hype, but they never really impressed me. When I put a Luminous Crème on, it feels thin and looks sheer, like it'll last about 30 minutes on my lips before wearing off. In general, the Amuse Bouche lipsticks are creamier, more pigmented, and just more substantial. They are rich and saturated in colour, they go on incredibly smooth and evenly, and they feel creamy in a way that is moisturizing and incredibly comfortable to wear but never clingy or slippery. They have a slight sheen so they have more dimension than a matte, but they are squarely in the satin category and never veer into glossy. And the wear time is significantly longer: about four hours for the lighter shades and up to eight for the darker and brighter shades. The Amuse Bouches are kinda like a cross between Bite Beauty's High Pigment Pencil and Matte Crème Lip Crayon, except more hydrating and in bullet form. That is to say, you get full colour pay-off in one swipe with a soft luminous finish that makes lips look smooth and healthy. And I like that Bite Beauty decided to come out with one singular formula in one singular finish and a nicely curated range of shades. I appreciate options, but I find that when brands come out with too many colours in too many textures, the quality is mixed across the board. But Bite Beauty proves that quality wins over quantity every time.

Bite Beauty Mauvember Luminous Crème Lipstick

Last month, Bite Beauty created a lipstick in partnership with the Movember Foundation, which works to raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancers during the month of November. Bite Beauty founder, Susanne Langmuir, was inspired by her own father's winning battle with prostate cancer, and "wanted a fun, easy and meaningful way for women, also known as Mo Sistas, to support the men in their lives facing health issues." Thus, the shade Mauvember was created in Bite Beauty's Luminous Crème Lipstick formula, which is described as "a lush, long-lasting, moisture-rich lip colour... [that] delivers super antioxidant resveratrol, which fights free radicals with potent long-term anti-aging benefits." As with all of Bite Beauty's products, Mauvember is "free of synthetics, polybutenes, and petroleum byproducts and made exclusively with lip nurturing food-grade ingredients that are healthy enough to eat." It has a light berry scent, but no discernible taste. Each Mauvember lipstick is packaged in a dark grey rubberized tube featuring a slanted tip lid, contains 4.35 grams of product, and retails for $28. Mauvember is exclusive to Canada; it never appeared to be available online, but it should still be available at most Sephora locations.
Mauvember
Mauvember

Mauvember is a medium muted cool mauve-pink with a natural sheen in a cream finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is more muted than Bite Beauty Violet, darker and more muted than MAC Up the Amp, lighter and more purple than MAC Amorous, darker and more pink than NARS Dominique, lighter and much more muted than Too Faced Melted Violet, and darker and more muted than Clinique Grape Pop.

I have lots of Bite Beauty's Matte Crème Lip Crayons and High Pigment Pencils (both of which received a lot of hype last year), but this is actually my first official Luminous Crème Lipstick. The formula itself is ultra-smooth; it's creamy but not thick or slippery, and it's immediately hydrating (a seriously welcome reprieve to all the drying matte lipsticks I've been wearing this season). Over time, it never feels drying and remains very comfortable to wear. The colour itself is rich and pigmented, and wears well for about four hours before starting to fade. I've seen this shade worn on multiple skintones and it seems to look different on everybody, but it's surprisingly flattering on all complexions (it will be darker and more muted on lighter skintones, and lighter and brighter on darker skintones). It's definitely one of the more wearable purple shades I've seen on the market, so if you're a fan of purple or mauve lipsticks, this is definitely one to check out — and 100% of the proceeds from each Mauvember lipstick will go directly to The Movember Foundation, the leading global organization committed to changing the face of men's health.  

NYC — Winter 2015: Bite Beauty Lip Lab

One place I knew I had to visit during my trip to NYC was Bite Beauty Lip Lab. Yep, there is a store in Soho where you can create your very own Bite Beauty lip product. We originally went on Monday, but they were fully booked for appointments, so we made one for the next day. When we walked in, we were greeted by our Lip Lab Artist, who seated us at one of their stations and promptly took out a sterile clear plastic sheet and wrote my name down on the top. She asked me what I wanted to make that day, and I told her a lipstick. She handed me a swab of their Agave Lip Mask to condition my lips first, and then asked me what kind of colour I was looking for.


Going in, I had originally wanted to do something nude-ish, an MLBB. But then I thought it was too boring, and I have way too many of those types of shades as it is. So I scrapped that idea, and decided on a purple; something that was brightened, fun, but still wearable, and unique. Something that I wish were on the market without having to mix two or more products. So I told her that I wanted a kind of cool-toned, brightened lilac colour, something that was lighter, less pink, and less bright than their Violet High Pigment Pencil or MAC's Up The Amp, but definitely not in the pastel category. She originally mixed a kind of pink-mauve shade, and I wanted it darker and more purple. So she mixed in some more blue and a bit more red. It was a touch too dark and too pink, so she mixed in a bit more white and a touch more blue. When I tried on that final third shade, I knew that was it: she nailed my perfect colour. For reference, my shade is lighter, cooler, and less pink than Bite Beauty's Violet and MAC's Up The Amp; lighter, brighter, and more pinked than NARS' Dominique; warmer and less blue than Lime Crime's Airborne Unicorn; and darker and more pink than Colour Pops' Brills. 

When she asked what finish I wanted, I asked for a creamy matte, so it doesn't make the lips look dry or chalky but is more matte than satin. Luckily for me, that's really the only kind of matte they make. We then moved on to flavour/scent, which I knew I wanted. ("Scentless" basically means "plastic" in my books, and that's a big no-no for me.) They have six different flavours to choose from, all natural food grade (as you can expect from Bite Beauty); you can choose one or any combination of the six. I decided to choose equal parts citrus mango and vanilla, resulting in a lightly sweet Creamsicle flavour. She put the correct amounts of several different colour blocks to create my shade, as well as the scent/flavour oils I chose into a container, and then put that into a machine that heats and blends all the ingredients together. About two minutes later, the concoction was ready to be poured into a lipstick mould. 

While the mould set, she asked which tube I'd like for my lipstick. There are four tubes to choose from, and they are all designed to look like how people wear down their lipsticks: one is slanted on one side, one is slanted on two sides, one has a minor curve, and one has a steep curve. I chose the one with a minor curve, since that's the way I wear down my own lipsticks. Finally, the mould was set, and she inserted it into the tube. We waited for another couple minutes before she put the cap on, and voilà, my very own custom lipstick! The price for this whole endeavour? A mere $36. I had a most amazing experience at Bite Beauty Lip Lab and I will definitely visit again next time I'm in NYC (I was tempted to make another appointment on the trip, but alas, our days were numbered and our time was limited). I whole-heartedly recommend a visit to Bite Beauty Lip Lab to anyone and everyone who loves lipstick. 

Bite Beauty Lip Lab 174 Prince Street New York, NY 10012 (646) 484-6111

Bite Beauty Matte Crème Lip Crayon in Léché, Amaretto, and Tatin

Bite Beauty has been getting a lot of attention in the past six months or so, despite launching over three years ago in Toronto (yay Canadian beauty brands!). Bite Beauty is exclusive to Sephora and the brand's own Lip Lab in NYC, but you'll notice that it's available at nearly all Sephora locations now. This might have to do with the fact that they were acquired by Kendo last year (who also has Marc Jacobs Beauty, Kat Von D, and Ole Henriksen under its umbrella), so they now have the means of distributing to a much wider audience. The brand specializes in lip products that are "high performance and healthy enough to eat," which seems a little gimmicky to me, but I suppose those who are concerned with using natural products will be drawn to this aspect as Bite Beauty claims all their products to be made with "natural food grade" ingredients. Along with several shades of their High Pigment Pencil, I also picked up three shades of their Matte Crème Lip Crayon during Sephora's VIB sale a couple months ago. It is described as lip crayon "with a matte yet moist texture" that features "the moisture-locking power of orange peel wax along with the antioxidant properties of resveratrol. The colours are water-resistant, and long-wearing." They have a very mild fruity scent and taste. Each High Pigment Pencil comes in a black rubberized mechanical crayon barrel, contains 1.56 grams of product, and retails for $28.

Léché, Amaretto, and Tatin
Léché, Amaretto, and Tatin

Léché is a light-medium warm peachy pink with a satin-matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is darker and warmer than Bite Beauty Madeira, more pink than MAC Kinda Sexy, warmer and more peach than MAC Faux, more pink than NARS Raquel, more peach than NARS Anita, and more peach than Urban Decay Naked.

Amaretto is a light-medium warm peachy brown in a satin-matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter and more peach than Bite Beauty Honey Berry, lighter than MAC Velvet Teddy, more peach than MAC Cherish, more brown than NARS Raquel, darker and more pink than Too Faced Naughty Nude, and slightly darker and more peach than Urban Decay Naked2.

Tatin is a light-medium warm carnation pink in a satin-matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is darker and warmer than Bite Beauty Velvet,  slightly darker than MAC Please Me, lighter and more muted than MAC Chatterbox, lighter and more muted than NARS Natalie, warmer and more muted than NARS Marisa, and lighter and warmer than Urban Decay Turn On.

I really had to test out what the difference is between these and the High Pigment Pencils because they perform very similarly. They're both lip pencil/lipstick hybrids (a "lip crayon"), and both formulas are smooth, pigmented, creamy, hydrating, and comfortable to wear. They both give full colour pay-off in a single pass. They both have the "antioxidant properties of resveratrol" (again, I do think this is gimmicky because it's yet to be tested to see if you can actually benefit from this in the long-term via a lip product). What it comes down to is the finish and the wear-time. After having worn these, I will say that the Matte Crème Lip Crayon has a satin-matte finish, whereas the High Pigment Pencil has a luminous satin finish. Neither of them are true mattes, but the Matte Crème Lip Crayon is definitely more matte than the High Pigment Pencil, though it never feels dry. And the Matte Crème Lip Crayons cling to lips better, so they do have a bit of a longer wear-time than the High Pigment Pencils, stretching about an hour or two more for these lighter, more muted shades (as I don't have any of the darker or brighter shades in this formulation, I can't really say anything about the wear-time on those). They also last longer and don't transfer as much through drinking, eating, and smoking. I really enjoy using both these and the High Pigment Pencils, and would highly recommend both, though if you are looking for a hydrating matte lip product (say, you're someone with dry lips but loves that matte lip look, or you like the matte lip look but don't like how dry they can feel on the lips), these are a fantastic option.

Bite Beauty High Pigment Pencil in Syrah, Madeira, Honey Berry, Rhubarb, and Violet

Bite Beauty has been getting a lot of attention in the past six months or so, despite launching over three years ago in Toronto (yay Canadian beauty brands!). Bite Beauty is exclusive to Sephora and the brand's own Lip Lab in NYC, but you'll notice that it's available at nearly all Sephora locations now. This might have to do with the fact that they were acquired by Kendo last year (who also has Marc Jacobs Beauty, Kat Von D, and Ole Henriksen under its umbrella), so they now have the means of distributing to a much wider audience. The brand specializes in lip products that are "high performance and healthy enough to eat," which seems a little gimmicky to me, but I suppose those who are concerned with using natural products will be drawn to this aspect as Bite Beauty claims all their products to be made with "natural food grade" ingredients. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to pick up several shades of their much-buzzed-about High Pigment Pencil during Sephora's VIB sale a couple months ago. It is described as "a long-lasting, matte lip pencil made with a double-dose of premium micronized pigments" that "delivers super antioxidant resveratrol, which fights free radicals with potent long-term anti-aging benefits." They have a very mild fruity scent and taste. Each High Pigment Pencil comes in a black rubberized mechanical crayon barrel, contains 2.52 grams of product, and retails for $28.

Syrah, Madeira, Honey Berry, Rhubarb, and Violet
Syrah, Madeira, Honey Berry, Rhubarb, and Violet

Syrah is a light warm peach-beige in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is darker than MAC Pure Zen, lighter and brighter than MAC Peach Blossom, lighter and more peach than NARS Raquel, lighter than NARS Barbara, lighter and more peach than Too Faced Nude Beach, and more peach than NYX Pumpkin Pie.

Madeira is a light warm pink-beige in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is more beige than Bite Beauty Bouquet, lighter and more pink than Bite Beauty Amaretto, lighter and less pink than Bite Beauty Léche, more beige than MAC Creme Cup, more pink than MAC Viva Glam II, and similar to Too Faced Marshmallow Bunny.

Honey Berry is a light-medium brown-beige in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is more brown than Bite Beauty Amaretto, darker than MAC Honeylove, similar to MAC Yash, darker than Urban Decay Naked2, darker and more pigmented than Too Faced Naughty Nude, and more brown than Too Faced In The Buff.

Rhubarb is a medium-dark warm muted plummy brown in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is darker and more plum than Bite Beauty Chablis, more pink than MAC Twig, more brown than MAC Craving, darker and more brown than NARS Anna, more brown than Urban Decay Rapture, and more muted than NYX Doll. 

Violet is a medium-dark muted magenta purple in a satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is similar to MAC Up The Amp, more purple than MAC Love Forever!, lighter and more muted than Too Faced Melted Violet, more purple than NYX Pink Lyric, lighter and more purple than YSL 16 Pourpre Preview, and more pink than NARS Dominique.

These are everything you could ask for in a jumbo lip pencil/lipstick hybrid, really. The formula is smooth, pigmented, creamy, hydrating, and comfortable to wear. They give off full colour pay-off in a single pass, and they wear an average of four to six hours. I wouldn't use these to replace a lip pencil, mind you, but they are great if you want precision without using a lip pencil. Bite Beauty describes these as having a "modern matte" finish, but they are definitely more of a satin with a soft sheen, so if you were looking for a true matte, then you'll probably want to skip these. Bite Beauty's High Pigment Pencils are somewhere in-between Clinique's Chubby Stick Intense and NARS' Velvet Matte Lip Pencils: they're creamier, more matte, and more precise than the former; shinier, more hydrating and more user-friendly (no need for a jumbo sharpener with these) than the latter. They have a solid range of shades to choose from as well. I don't know about the "long-term anti-aging benefits" or if having "natural food grade" ingredients are actually better for you, but these are definitely one of the best lip crayon formulas I've tried in terms of application and execution.