Bite Beauty Matte Crème Lip Crayon in Léché, Amaretto, and Tatin

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. Along with several shades of their High Pigment Pencil, I also picked up three shades of their Matte Crème Lip Crayon during Sephora's VIB sale a couple months ago. It is described as lip crayon "with a matte yet moist texture" that features "the moisture-locking power of orange peel wax along with the antioxidant properties of resveratrol. The colours are water-resistant, and long-wearing." They have a very mild fruity scent and taste. Each High Pigment Pencil comes in a black rubberized mechanical crayon barrel, contains 1.56 grams of product, and retails for $28.

Léché, Amaretto, and Tatin
Léché, Amaretto, and Tatin

Léché is a light-medium warm peachy pink with a satin-matte 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 warmer than Bite Beauty Madeira, more pink than MAC Kinda Sexy, warmer and more peach than MAC Faux, more pink than NARS Raquel, more peach than NARS Anita, and more peach than Urban Decay Naked.

Amaretto is a light-medium warm peachy brown in a satin-matte 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 lighter and more peach than Bite Beauty Honey Berry, lighter than MAC Velvet Teddy, more peach than MAC Cherish, more brown than NARS Raquel, darker and more pink than Too Faced Naughty Nude, and slightly darker and more peach than Urban Decay Naked2.

Tatin is a light-medium warm carnation pink in a satin-matte 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 warmer than Bite Beauty Velvet,  slightly darker than MAC Please Me, lighter and more muted than MAC Chatterbox, lighter and more muted than NARS Natalie, warmer and more muted than NARS Marisa, and lighter and warmer than Urban Decay Turn On.

I really had to test out what the difference is between these and the High Pigment Pencils because they perform very similarly. They're both lip pencil/lipstick hybrids (a "lip crayon"), and both formulas are smooth, pigmented, creamy, hydrating, and comfortable to wear. They both give full colour pay-off in a single pass. They both have the "antioxidant properties of resveratrol" (again, I do think this is gimmicky because it's yet to be tested to see if you can actually benefit from this in the long-term via a lip product). What it comes down to is the finish and the wear-time. After having worn these, I will say that the Matte Crème Lip Crayon has a satin-matte finish, whereas the High Pigment Pencil has a luminous satin finish. Neither of them are true mattes, but the Matte Crème Lip Crayon is definitely more matte than the High Pigment Pencil, though it never feels dry. And the Matte Crème Lip Crayons cling to lips better, so they do have a bit of a longer wear-time than the High Pigment Pencils, stretching about an hour or two more for these lighter, more muted shades (as I don't have any of the darker or brighter shades in this formulation, I can't really say anything about the wear-time on those). They also last longer and don't transfer as much through drinking, eating, and smoking. I really enjoy using both these and the High Pigment Pencils, and would highly recommend both, though if you are looking for a hydrating matte lip product (say, you're someone with dry lips but loves that matte lip look, or you like the matte lip look but don't like how dry they can feel on the lips), these are a fantastic option.