Inside the beauty lab where lipstick costs over $100

Bite Beauty is a cosmetic brand that gets its name from the food-grade ingredients used in each product. The company sells most of its products online and in large beauty retailers, such as, Sephora.

The brand also has two permanent Lip Labs where customers can create custom lipstick shades. Bite Beauty opened its first Lip Lab in New York in 2012.

At the Lip Lab, customers choose the shades, finish, and flavors of the lipsticks. The higher end services Bite Beauty offers include makeup artists blending many lipstick colors together to create the exact shade desired.

The Bite Beauty Lip Lab was always something that intrigued me. As a makeup enthusiast, the idea of designing and creating my own lipstick sounded really cool. All throughout my teenage years, my older sister, Lindsey, and I talked about visiting the location in SoHo and creating our very own lipstick shades.

For the longest time, only one thing held us back from visiting the Bite Beauty Lip Lab: the prices. It also didn’t help that we debated on whether or not the services would be worth the price for so many years that the prices actually increased twice.

Currently, the company charges $55 for a customer to make a lipstick from the shades Bite Beauty already sells online and in major retailers. For two lipsticks, customers are charged $80. Customers are still able to pick the flavors and finishes at these price points, but makeup artists do not blend shades together.

For $150, customers can create two Bite Beauty lipsticks and also receive a bonus kit containing a lip scrub, lip mask, and lip primer. At this price point, makeup artists blend many shades together to create the exact lip colors desired.

The lipsticks made at Bite Beauty Lip Lab are handcrafted and customized by clients and makeup artists, but it is still pretty pricey for lipstick. My sister and I finally decided to take a trip from Philadelphia to New York to see if the experience is worth the hefty price tag.

We arrived slightly early to our appointment, and the friendly staff sat Lindsey and I at a table covered with different pigments and tools. Nearby, stood a shelf with jars full of multicolored lipsticks. I wanted to touch all of it.

I walked into this experience thinking that I probably wouldn’t do it again, so I decided to opt with the most expensive option. My sister also decided to pick this option with the same reasoning. Between the two of us, we spent $300 on lipstick (before taxes).

The store was very busy and I was worried that the makeup artists would rush through our appointment. I had an idea of the lipstick colors I wanted, but still wanted to explore different options.

We met with our makeup artist and she instructed me to remove the lipstick I was already wearing. She gave us a lip scrub to use to remove dead skin cells, before having us use a lip mask to smooth skin.

I told her I wanted a pink/nude lipstick and a maroon lipstick. She began mixing the pink shade first and had me try it on.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It was nice, but it wasn’t worth $150. I wanted something pinker. The makeup artist began mixing a slightly pinker shade. I tried this one on, and loved it.

After I was happy with the pink lipstick shade, the artist began creating the red. I showed the artist a picture of the exact red I wanted for my lipstick. I wanted a red shade that would exactly match the cover of my favorite album. The artist mixed three pigments and a matte base together. She handed me a disposable applicator with the red lipstick on it. The color matched the album, but I tried it on and was unsure.

“I like it, but it’s a little bit darker than you would normally go for,” Lindsey said.

With lipstick, I normally gravitate towards bright reds or light pinks, which are the most popular shades at Bite Beauty Lip Lab, so this red was something a little bit out of my comfort zone.

The makeup artist could sense my apprehension and suggested just trying out a brighter red shade. She mixed three more pigments together to create a brighter red. I like it, but also thought about how many different bright red lipsticks I already own and decided against it.

I told the makeup artist that I actually wanted the first red she made for me. She then asked if I wanted to try any other colors, just for fun. I decided to try out a teal green lipstick, thinking I wouldn’t actually like it on me and not buy it. The makeup artist mixed up a teal green lipstick that I actually really enjoyed wearing around the store.

After my colors were finalized, my next step was to choose the scents of my lipstick. At Bite Beauty, customers are given choices among cherry, mint, vanilla, citrus mango, violet, coconut, wild berry, lime, and fresh citrus. Customers are also able to mix scents together.

After carefully sniffing a multitude of essential oils, I decided my pink lipstick would be citrus mango scented and the red would have a mint scent.

Meanwhile, the makeup artist was mixing up lipstick shades for Lindsey. My sister also wanted a pink shade, but couldn’t decide what exactly what she wanted. The makeup artist was very patient and mixed up three different pink shades for my sister. Lindsey decided to get a sheer, pink lipstick with rose gold glitter mixed in.

Lindsey also knew she wanted a berry shade of lipstick, but was unsure of the specifics. Again, the makeup artist was very patient and mixed together four different berry shades until she found one that my sister loved. The makeup artist then mixed together a deep purple shade for my sister to wear around for fun.

For scents, Lindsey decided to mix a few together for each lipstick. While my sister was picking her scents, the makeup artist mixed my pigments and essential oils together in little cups and then heated them up. After my lipstick colors were melted, the makeup artist double-checked that they matched the shades I picked.

My shades were then poured into a metal mold that had been refrigerated. The makeup artist then mixed and melted my sister’s lipsticks and added them to the mold.

The lipsticks had to sit in the mold for about ten minutes. The makeup artist took the tops off of the molds and then put the lipsticks into black tubes. Our masterpieces were done! The lipsticks were then wrapped in white tissue paper with lipstick tubes printed on it and put into small boxes. The Lip Lab also gave us boxes with the lip scrub and mask we used during our appointment, as well as, a lip primer. Bite Beauty Lip Lab also sent us home with the proportion of pigments used in our lipsticks, in case we wanted to return and get the same shades.

Overall thoughts

I definitely thought Bite Beauty Lip Lab was worth the money. I had a great experience there and love the lipsticks I bought.

The makeup artist that we worked with was very personable and went out of her way to make sure we had a great experience. The Lab was also so busy that the makeup artists had to turn away customers that didn’t have appointments. I was worried that the because the store was so busy our makeup artist would rush through our appointment, but that wasn’t the case. She really took her time and made sure we were happy with both our experience and our lipsticks.

The experience was also really cool because we got to try a lot of different colors and shades. Before this, I never would have worn a teal lipstick, but I actually really liked the way it looked on me. It was also really great that we were able to leave with the exact lipsticks that we wanted.

I was also pleasantly surprised with the products featured in the bonus kit that came with the package we received. Bite Beauty’s website doesn’t explicitly say what is included in the bonus lip kit, so I was assuming it would be either useless products or would be so small that I would only get one use out of each thing. The amount of product I got surprised me.

My sister and I disagree on a lot of subjects, but we both think the experience we had at Bite Beauty Lip Lab was well worth the money.

I went into this experience thinking that I probably wouldn’t do it again because of the high expense. After experiencing the service at Bite Beauty Lip Lab, I would definitely do it again.