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 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.
yea i thought it was a little gimmicky too but then i thought about how much lipstick i ate and i read the ingredients on the back. even when it comes to actual food, i don't often purchases processed products but when i do, and i can actually understand what all the ingredients are, that's a big bonus. and with these, i could recognize a lot of the ingredients.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's a big draw for those who want natural ingredients in their lip products, and a lot of people are more aware of what's in their cosmetics now. When I bought these, I didn't even think about this aspect; I just appreciate these from a make-up artist's stand point, lol.
DeleteI think these smell weird, so I don't think I'm buying any more Bite Beauty things. I think the natural thing is gimmicky as hell. Especially claims of anti-oxidants and things - the amount you would consume daily is nowhere near useful, unless you're going to eat the whole thing in one go? Prolly not. Buuut they do come in a lot of colors and it's nice to see an all-lip product brand focus sometimes, too.
ReplyDeleteI can see what you mean, there is a bit of a fruity smell to it that can be off-putting. I don't personally mind it, but it's personal preference. It's like how I don't love the scent in Dior or Lancome lip products. I mean, I'll still wear it, but I don't love it (it's like tasting perfume), lol.
DeleteI agree with you on the random "health" claims, though -- apparently these have the amount of resveratrol found in five glasses of wine, and it fights free radicals and has long-term anti-aging benefits. But unless you actually keep the lip product on for a long-term, I don't see how one can really benefit from these claims. I kind of ignore that whole "natural food grade" aspect and focus on how pretty they look, LOL.
I'm finally on board with Bite but so many colours and I just get confused, lol. They're also constantly coming out with something new so it's hard to focus. Rhubarb and Violet look awesome from this selection though. :)
ReplyDeleteI think these pencils are what drew me to Bite initially... Don't know how interested I am in the rest of the line, though. I'm thinking about getting a couple of their liquid lipsticks (those liquid-to-powder ones) but otherwise, I'm not too curious about their other offerings. I am, however, going to check out their Lip Lab when I'm in NYC -- I totally want to make my own lipstick! :D
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