During my most recent trip to LA, I created my own bespoke lipsticks at the Bite Beauty Lip Lab in Larchmont. As a beauty lover and fan of the brand, I was dying to create my own custom lipstick. Fun fact: I booked my appointment at the Bite Beauty Lip Lab before I even booked my plane ticket. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know before visiting the Bite Beauty Lip Lab.
Bite Beauty Brand Ethos
Founded by Susanne Langmuir in 2012 and acquired by Sephora’s Kendo Labs in 2014, Bite Beauty is all about creating clean, cruelty-free beauty with high-quality food-grade ingredients. Each product is free from Parabens, Sulfates, and Phthalates.
Bite Beauty is best-known for their Lip Crayons and Agave Lip Treatments. I’ve personally tried the aforementioned products. I know I enjoy the formula.
Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting the Bite Beauty Lip Lab
The Bite Beauty Lip Lab is a bespoke experience for beauty lovers who want a chance to create their own custom lipstick. Currently, Bite offers two services: A La Carte and Bespoke.
A La Cart
The A La Cart experience allows visitors to create a lipstick from a preset array of 200+ colors, four finishes (sheer, satin, luminous, or matte), and nine scents. As you can tell from the description, A La Carte Lipsticks only allow for a limited amount of customization. This experience lasts roughly 30 minutes and costs $55.00 (for one person to create one lipstick).
Bespoke
The Bespoke experience allows for total customization when creating your lipstick. In addition, selecting a finish and scent, the Bespoke experience allows you to create your dream lipstick color by mixing the various pigments together.
Given the level of customization, this experience costs quite a bit more than the A La Cart experience, $75.00 for one lipstick or $150.00 for two lipsticks. However, Bite Beauty throws in their Agave Lip Treatment Bundle with the $150.00 purchase, too.
Bite Beauty currently operates four Lip Labs: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Toronto.
Lip Lab Pigment Wall
Booking an Appointment at the Lip Lab
Although Bite Beauty can accommodate walk-in appointments, the brand recommends securing a seat by booking an appointment online. Booking an appointment takes less than five minutes. Guests are not charged until the end of their appointment.
The Bite Beauty Lip Lab enables visitors to book corporate events or parties.
Creating Custom Lipsticks at the Lip Lab
When I booked my original appointment, I chose the A La Carte service because I wasn’t fully aware of the difference between the two options. However, I quickly changed my mind after speaking with the store manager at the start of my appointment.
The Consultation
Even though I opted to only create one lipstick, the lip specialist still let me mix two custom shades. My appointment started with a quick consultation where I communicated the colors that I was interested in creating. During the consultation, I prepped my lips with the Agave Lip Scrub.
As an avid beauty junkie, I found this process to be seamless and essential for guiding the specialist in mixing my custom shades. Comparatively, the guest next to me struggled in communicating her preferences accurately to her specialist. (What she said she wanted was quite different from what she actually wanted.)
Having recently decluttered my beloved, NARS Fire Down Below lipstick, I knew I wanted one of my shades to be a matte, deep, brown-based red. For my second shade, I wanted to create my perfect nude lip in a sheer formula.
Lipstick Color Mixing Sheet
The Mixing Process
Once the consultation is over, the specialist began to mix together colors by dipping into jars of lip pigment with a narrow spatula. While the specialist mixed the first iteration of my custom lippie, I provided feedback on the shade. For example, the first iteration of my custom lippie had a deep berry tint. Therefore, I requested to neutralize this by adding more brown pigment. This process continued until the shade met my expectation.
Once the custom shade was set, the specialist went to the back of the Lab to mix together my custom formula. From there, it was heated and whipped together. However, the shade turned out to be too red. Therefore, the specialist adjusted the formula by adding more brown and remixing.
I loved seeing each of my lip shades poured into the lipstick mold and pressed into their tubes.
My Bespoke Bite Lipsticks 🙂
My Bespoke Lipsticks
Remember when I said I chose to create one Bespoke Lipstick? Well, I lied. After seeing the custom, sheer nude on my lips, I had to have it too.
Whine | Deep brown-red matte
I don’t own many matte lipsticks. Matte formulas tend to suck the life out of my already-dry lips. However, the Bite Beauty matte lipstick formula doesn’t do this. In fact, when first applied to the lips, the finish looks almost satin.
My custom shade applies with full opacity with just one swipe of color. The color is so intense that it actually stains my lips a little. The custom name I went with was “Whine.”
Bespoke Sheer Lipstick in Rosee
Rosee
What can I say? I love a good nude lip – the shade Rosee is definitely a “my lips but better” shade. The sheer finish provides the lightest wash of color with a glossy finish that makes my lips look plump and luscious.
The Finishing Touches
Each lipstick case was embossed with my custom shade name. Should I ever run out of my colors, Bite keeps a record of my shades and their formulas so that I can replenish them.
Finally, as mentioned when describing the experiences, I received a bundle of the Agave Lip Treatment, Lip Scrub, and Primer.
Bespoke Lipstick Mixing Sheet
Would I Visit the Lip Lab Again?
Overall, I was thrilled with my experience at the Bite Beauty Lip Lab. Not only was the experience fun, but it was fascinating to see the specialist mix together my custom shades. Fans of beauty, looking to have a laid back and educational experience will love the Bite Beauty Lip Lab.
Additionally, I was blown away by the service and professionalism of the staff. For example, my specialist ended up creating three iterations of my Whine lipstick because the first lipstick leaned too red in color, and the second creation broke in the mold. Not once did I complain or express my dissatisfaction, so I was thoroughly impressed at her initiative to go the extra mile without being prompted.
Potential visitors should be aware that the appointment may run longer than expected. In my case, I expected to be at the Lip Lab for 30 minutes. However, my appointment lasted an hour and a half – likely due to the mishaps with my lipsticks.
Pro tip: be kind to your lips before your visit. As someone with dry lips, my poor lips felt cracked and chapped after the appointment since I was trying different shades throughout the appointment.
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Did you enjoy reading about everything you need to know before visiting the Bite Beauty Lip Lab? Check out my time at Beautycon LA ’18 or Beautycon NYC ’19.
Have you ever visited the Lip Lab or created a bespoke beauty product before? What would your perfect shade look like?