FIRST PERSON LIPSTICK LOVE AT FIRST BITE.
Looking through the windows of the Bite Beauty Lip Lab on Fillmore, you might mistake the lip boutique for a candy store. The shelves are lined with jars full of brightly hued pellets, and there are stools set up around high tables. The glass case at checkout looks to be stocked with candy-colored truffles.
Walk in and you will find yourself in a lipstick addict’s fairy tale — a magical place where you can resurrect that discontinued Chanel or MAC lip shade that you never got over, request a food-grade, lead-free version of a Kylie lip color or be audacious and invent your own dream lip shade.
Your fairy lipstick godmother, also known as a Lip Lab Artist, will guide you through your two options: 1) For a quick fix, create a custom lipstick by choosing from 180 shades, three different finishes and nine essential oil-powered scents; or 2) If you’re feeling creative and/or indecisive, work with your Lip Lab Artist to design your own bespoke shades (the bespoke option comes with two lip colors).
As someone who considers herself both
creative and indecisive, I opted for the two bespoke lipsticks. I sat down at one of the high tables with my Lip Lab Artist Rhianna Smith and we brainstormed my two desired shades — a flattering peachy nude for spring, and a vampy oxblood to reflect the fall New York Fashion Week runways.
Smith started with the nude by scooping chunks of various lip colors from pots and mixing them together on a palette. When she was ready for me to try the first color, I applied the pale nude to my lips. One look in the mirror, and I declared our first pass “too ‘Housewives’ ” and asked her to add more rose. From there, Smith tinkered with the hues two more times before we got to my perfect nude. I then chose my Amuse Bouche (Bite’s version of satin) finish, and after several sniffs of all the essential oils, decided I wanted to combine violet and wild berry for my signature scent for both lipsticks.
Smith then went to work on my second lip color, scooping red, brown and black from the colorful pots. It didn’t take long for us to find the winning combination for my vampy red. Quickly after the first pass, which we both agreed wasn’t dark or daring enough, Smith added a little more black and we were off to the lipstick lab.
The lab is Walter White meets Willy Wonka, complete with brightly colored truffles of color, beakers, tongs and equipment like a microwave, an anti-griddle to cool down the lipstick and a speed mixer. Smith started the process by cutting chunks from the colored lipstick truffles (which she and the Bite staff refer to as chocolates), throwing them in a bowl and melting them together in the microwave. Then she put the blend in the speed mixer to whirl it around 1,200 times in 10 seconds. She then added my desired essential oils and poured the liquid color into lipstick molds, which she set on the antigriddle to cool. While we waited, she went through the same steps for my second color.
By the time the second shade had been poured and placed on the anti-griddle, my perfect nude was cooled and ready for showtime. Smith clicked an empty lipstick tube over the mold and voila! The lip color fit into the tube like a glass slipper, and my perfect nude was born. Once she finished my vampy red, both lipsticks were capped and cradled into a tissue-lined bag to safely carry my new creations home. And the three of us lived happily ever after.