Last Christmas I was lucky enough to receive a gift card for the Toronto Bite Lip Lab from a co-worker. Located at Queen St. just west of Bathurst, it is the home of Bite Cosmetics that lets you create your own custom Bite lipsticks.
I had a wonderful artist helping me named Natalya. She started by asking me if I wanted to do their Bespoke or A La Carte lip services. I discussed that my gift card was for two A La Carte lipsticks, but I wasn't sure if I should splurge on the upgrade. We decided that since I was looking for two specific colours I should get the Bespoke, so I did.
I brought along two lipsticks that I wear a lot, cost a lot and would enjoy something like them that I could use daily and feel a tad less guilty about. They were Tom Ford Boys & Girls lipsticks in the shades, Bradley and Richard, a muted warm peach-brown and rich pinky mauve respectively. Now, these Tom Fords are tiny little lipsticks that cost $44 + tax each, so I figured I would probably end up flying through them if I didn't find something similar that I liked just as much soon.
Before we began mixing, I was given some of Bite's lip scrub to scrub my lips and some of their lip mask to hydrate.
We first started with trying to get something that resembled Bradley, essentially a pinky or peach nude that would look good on my skin tone. The first thing that then happened was a cellophane sheet came out with grids on it. The artist then applies a shade from many concentrates that they have to a select number of cubes on the sheet. The colour and its amount get written down and this happens a few more times until the artist feels they have the correct mixture for your shade. They then mix them together in the middle and a small amount of your desired base (I chose satin) gets mixed in and you have a chance to try it on.
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| a snap of my final mixes. The shades I chose have hearts next to them. Sorry about the quality, using my cell phone camera. |
I did not like the first attempt at all, which was fine, the artist and I discussed what it was I thought it needed and mixed some more shades and tried again. Surprisingly, the second shade was spot on. I just adored and decided to go with that. The process went really quickly because I wasn't trying to exactly match my existing lipstick and because I had a good idea of what I wanted it to look like. We then started with the second lipstick. I decided I wanted something more oranged nude, kind of a spicy shade. This one took three tries!
While the artist writes up my custom recipe for my lipsticks I was asked to smell some flavours and decided on which ones I would like to use for my lipsticks. I chose mint and citrus for mine.
My mixtures got made into little jars, melted and then spun in a centrifuge. Then once mixed they were poured into a mould and put on an anti-griddle (like at cold stone creamery). We then waited and I chose the names for the lipsticks. I went with B-Rad for the Bradley type lipstick (my dog Bradley's nickname is B-Rad) and Vixen for the spicer fall shade.
My lipsticks got engraved and come in the same magnetic packaging with a flat cap as Bites Multiple Sticks.
Overall I really loved the process. I got two custom lipsticks I think really suit my skin tone and because they are shades I really like I know I will use them a lot. I always find I get nudes that are too brown or too pink or heck too pale, so getting a pinky one made that suites me is one of the best things I could hope for. As for Vixen, I love that it is spicy and just a tad bit orange with makes it great for the fall.
I also got a cute little mini lip kit which has a mini scrub, lip mask and primer because I got two Bespoke lipsticks made. The lipsticks and the kit were wrapped up incredibly nice in their own boxes, bite lipstick tissue paper and a gift bag.
In the end, these cost $150 for both and the kit, making them $75 + tax each. It wasn't a cheap time, but I did get to spend close to an hour making something just for me and got two great lipsticks out of it. I would definitely do this again, in fact I plan on taking my aunt when she gets low on her favourite discontinued lipstick shade.
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| My finished lipsticks. |
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| My entire purchase ( I also got a lipstick from the store). |
Have you ever visited a Bite Lip Lab? What shade of lipstick would you make if you went to one?
