As many of you have seen all over Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Bite Beauty has opened up stores in a few different cities where you can create your very own lipstick. Who doesn’t want a unique shade made just for them? Well, unfortunately, that is not exactly what happened during my trip last Sunday in Soho, NY. I did the most basic package for $55 titled Custom Lipstick. Although the website says they have 200 exclusive pigments, I assumed since it was a custom color that I would be able to mix some of these pigments to get the perfect shade I had in mind. Instead, I only got to see 8 of the 200 shades in total and was not able to mix any of the pigments. I would have had more of a selection at Mac where they have 56 matte shades, 26 satin shades, 25lustre shades, and many more laid out in a beautiful arrangement to see what they have to offer.
I told my artist what color I had in mind and she pulled out a few options, this is something that could have easily happened at Ulta, Sephora, or any place that sells makeup. After swatching each color I told her what I liked and disliked about the color and she pulled a few more options. In total, I saw 8 colors, which is around the average for a client that comes in according to my artist. That doesn’t seem so bad but when you think about it I only saw 8 out of 200 colors. I could see more colors at a display for any brand that sells lipstick in Sephora! And I paid $55 to do it!
Once I found a color I was somewhat happy with I got to choose my finish. Now, this is great because you can choose if you want a gloss, a matte, or a satin in your color: something you can’t do in a regular store, but I was completely misinformed of these finishes. I tend to love a satin finish in my regular stick lipsticks, so I chose that. I found out later (after I had finished the process) that the matte finish isn’t actually matte and instead it is a less shiny satin, which is something I would have really wanted to get instead of the satin I had chosen. This obviously isn’t a huge deal, but when I pay $55 for a tube of lipstick at this lab I expect to be informed of all my options.
Next I picked out a scent for my lipstick. I chose mint (my favorite scent ever) and I really like my choice and would choose it again, but several of the scents were mislabeled at each station and I was not informed that I could choose to not have a scent at all. I’m very happy with my choice, but make sure you check all of the labels and know that you don’t need a scent if you are ever in the Lip Lab creating your own!
The next disappointment was that I couldn’t actually make my lipstick. The only thing I did throughout this entire process was swatch a few lip colors and tell the artist what I wanted. I definitely had a misconception as to what I would be doing in the lab and how hands on it would be, so I want to clarify with anyone else that is going to create a Custom Lipstick. You just watch them create it and to be honest, you can’t even see half of the steps they do to create it. This misconception was completely my fault. I want to make it clear I’m not blaming Bite Beauty Lip Labs for this, but I just want to make sure that you don’t have these same misconceptions as well going into it.
Lastly, to add to this negative experience, the artists that I worked with behaved unprofessionally. The entire time, one of them was being very blunt and patronizing when talking to me and my mom (who also made a custom lipstick). Everything we said was shut down by her to the point where she was telling my mom that she was wrong in what she wanted. My mom asked for a peachy nude that went well with the eyeshadow she was wearing at the time, and instead of responding in a positive way, the artist told my mom that there was no peach in her eyeshadow and that she has no idea what she is referring to. Clearly, this hindered the process and made it uncomfortable. The artists were also staring out of the window and glass door at the front of the store and commenting on the clothing choices of the people walking by. While that is fun to do on your own time, I find it to be unprofessional when working with a client.
After all that, I left with a lipstick that I do really like but is not the color I had in mind when walking in. Most of the issues I had at the Lip Lab were due to misconceptions that may be common. It also had a lot to do with the artists we were working with at the New York location. I love Bite Beauty as a brand and I’m sure this could be a fun experience for many of you, but I wanted to clarify and explain several of the issues that I had because at the end of the day I saw 8 lipstick colors and paid $55 for a tube of lipstick. A Dior or YSL lipstick is only $37 and there are many more colors. If you choose to do the Lip Lab I hope you have a much better experience than I did!
Thanks for reading this post and if you enjoyed my review, let me know so I can continue to do posts like this!