Review: Bite Beauty Lip Lab Experience
Last December, while I was in New York City, I had the pleasure of being able to visit Bite Beauty's Lip Lab in SoHo. One of the highlights of their Lip Lab is that they are able to customize and create your own lipstick shade and formulation with hundreds of available lipstick shades and finishes that they can customize just for you. I have always wanted to visit and have my own Lip Lab experience, and during this specific trip, I figured I'd go ahead and book one for myself as a little makeup treat for my birthday!
I know that this experience was from a year ago, but I’ve always wanted to know how Bite Beauty’s Lip Lab was like and I’ve never really found a lot of in-depth reviews about this experience online, hence why I felt the need to post my own review. Afterall, this service is offered all year round and holiday season is about to be here. I figured this is a good way to start thinking about presents for your loved ones, especially if you really want to have a gift that stands out. To top it off, the Lip Lab Services are offered in 4 major cities: New York, LA, San Francisco and Toronto. I figured, aside from the high population density, there’s going to be a likelihood of people visiting those cities, and this can be a fun beauty stop/experience for any beauty enthusiast who’s traveling.
Bite's Lip Lab offers two-types of lipstick service:
Custom Lipstick Service - In this lipstick service you are able to choose from their range of 200+ lipstick colors and customize their finish and scent. It costs $55 per person for one lipstick or $80 per person for two lipstick shades.
Bespoke Lipstick Service - For this lipstick service, one of their trained Lip Lab artist will custom-mix two unique lipstick shades just for you. You are able to choose the finish and scent of the lipsticks as well. This costs $150 per person for two lipstick shades. They also give you a lip kit that includes their own lip scrub, lip mask and lip primer
The Experience
I decided to try out the Bespoke Lipstick Service and made sure to set up an appointment before I headed to this location, however, you are able to do a walk-in appointment if they have an available artist to help you out. Bite's Lip Lab is set up like a bar counter, in which you are seated on one side on a comfy stool and behind the bar are their artists with various pigments and lipsticks are located where they can then mix and match the colors for you. Each stool is a makeup station with a small mirror stand and a tray with makeup removers, cotton pads, cotton swabs, tissues, etc.
My artist for this appointment was Marie. She is actually one of the oldest Bite Lip Lab artist at this location. After introducing herself and talking about the process of the service I booked, she started to interview me on what I was looking for in the lipsticks I wanted to take home. I really like how much attention she gave to the details of the colors I was aiming to get and when/where I intended to wear them. I felt that she really listened to what I wanted and made sure to ask follow-up questions when she needed clarification. She then proceeded to take out some of the creme pigments that pertained to the color and finish outcome I wanted to get and started custom mixing my first shade. It was very cool to see her mix different pigment creme shades in front of me and I was excited to see the final color shade it produced. The beauty about this process is that you don't have to like the first shade that they mix for you, in fact they encourage you to give them feedback on the first shade that they mix for you, so that they can mix another shade with the adjustments that you may want from the first attempt.
Outcomes
For my first Bespoke color, I wanted a perfect "nude" for my skin color. I wanted it to lean more neutral without being too pink or peach undertoned. Note that my nude may not necessarily work on someone who has lighter or darker skin than me or a different skin undertone than I am. She did 2 different custom mix nude shades for me before we decided on my perfect nude color.
For my second Bespoke color, I wanted to do a more fun berry shade that leaned more on the plum/magenta side. I wanted it to have depth while maintaining its rich color. Creating this shade ended up taking a bit more trials for Marie. She was very patient with me and really tried to get every detail I wanted, even when it became hard for me to fully verbalize the color that was in my head.
While we were finishing up, I was asking her if she can show me some bright-toned fuchsia pinks from their custom lipstick service. I told her of how I’ve been watching the show Arrow, and I really wanted this bright pink lipstick shade that the character Felicity Smoak wears frequently on the show, but obviously I wanted a bright pink shade with a depth that suits my skintone. Somehow, that shade manages to be bright while still maintaining a depth to it that makes it look classy. She showed me a few of the bright pinks in their collection, and I was excited to have found a shade that met the criteria of what I was looking for! And that’s how I ended up with a third customized Bite Beauty lipstick…LOL!
Final Thoughts
The products I got from my Bespoke Lipstick Service appointment.
I really enjoyed my time at the Bite Lip Lab. It is definitely an experience I would highly recommend for anyone who loves makeup, or even just lipstick. What I like about this type of service is that it's very inclusive and can definitely be for anyone from the casual makeup wearer to the makeup obsessed, as long as they enjoy wearing lipstick. This experience is perfect as a treat to yourself for any occasion or as a gift to someone you know and wanted to give a more creative present for. The service I received was very outstanding and I couldn't have asked for a better Lip Lab artist than Marie. I enjoyed both the Bespoke and Custom lip service thoroughly and you definitely can’t go wrong with either, but I have to say that I preferred the Bespoke Service experience a lot more because it really made the experience feel very personalized to my taste. Yes, the Bespoke service is quite expensive, however, as I've said before this is definitely more of a treat and an experience that I certainly would urge anyone to get if they don't mind splurging for a very fun treat for themselves or their loved ones! I do recommend the Custom lip service if you want to still have that personalized experience but want to stay on a budget, because it was still fun choosing a formulation and scent for your lips. After all, it is very very cool and fun to see the lipsticks being mixed and poured onto the lipstick bullet molds, and then see it be placed into the lipstick case!
