This is a mini documentary of my visit to Bite Beauty Lab! The store is located in Soho on Prince St. I arrived early and was able to score a custom color appointment easily; however, customers who arrived after me had to wait anywhere from 30 min to a couple of hours. I would recommend either calling ahead of time or coming early.
This is a view of the consultation area. You sit across from a MUA with a spread of colors between you, as well as a clean surface for mixing:
The lovely MUA (whose name I forget! I remember that she was from Senegal, that she wore MUD eyemakeup, and that she used to work for OCC, but for the life of me I can not remember her name!) introduced me to the four formulations: Luminous Creme, Matte Creme (?), Sheer Creme (?), and Creme Deluxe. The Luminous Creme is like the Luminous Creme lippies that they sell: satin finish, hydrating. The Matte Creme is supposed to have silica powder which makes it longer lasting. The Sheer Creme is sheer and hydrating, probably like the sheer lippies in their regular line. The Creme Deluxe has more antioxidants and is long lasting due to inclusion of Japanese silk and is therefore more expensive at 48$. The prior 3 are 36$. I decided to get a Creme Deluxe in a classic blue based red and a Luminous Creme in a pinky-peach my-lips-but-better shade. The MUA started mixing shades using a spatula on a clear surface:
The first mixture was too bold, the second too purple, and the third was just right. For good measure, I tried a fourth, but settled on the third. With each concoction, the MUA wrote down the proportions of the different ingredients:
After settling on both shades, I was asked to choose a scent. There was a scent station with cherry, wildberry, mint, vanilla, mango, citrus mango, and violet scented lipstick bases. I settled on citrus mango:
My MUA then pulled all the pigments for my lippies from a wall full of pigments in bon-bon sizes and shapes:
She then put them in a cup and added the appropriate lipstick base formulation as well as several drops of the scent I had chosen:
After melting the concoction in the microwave, she put the mixture in a centrifuge:
She then tested the shade against the shade we had mixed together at the consultation area. One of the shades was slightly off so she added additional pigment and then remelted/centrifuged:
Once the shades were perfect, she poured them into lipstick molds:
The lipstick molds were set on a cool surface and allowed to solidify. Afterward, she released them from the mold:
She then got an empty housing and placed it carefully over the unmolded lippie:
Then the lipstick was lidded and boxed:
The lipstick was placed in a box and labelled with my chosen lipstick names. It was placed in a plastic bag with a business card (red lip), advertisement card, and personalized lip card with my shade on it and the recipe on the back. I named my two lippies after my two kids:
Here is the final result:
I enjoyed my experience immensely and have to thank my dear friend Mary for giving me a 100$ gc to Bite Beauty Lab for Christmas. I would highly recommend this experience to those of you who would like to find the absolute perfect shade. The more expensive formulation (deluxe creme) is about the price of a Tom Ford, so probably not worth it unless you have a gc. The others are in the range of a Guerlain or Chanel, so for me, totally worth it, considering you are getting a perfect shade. I would swatch my lippies for you, but my lips are entirely exhausted from trying on so many shades. I hope this helps those of you nearby decide if you want to make the trip to Manhattan, and as for those of you who live far away, consider visiting (and making an appointment!) if you ever visit NYC!
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