“My heart is breaking”: Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipstick in Kale – review

Let’s start with the obvious: this lipstick is beautiful. When Bite Beauty decided to bring out a selection of shades for Summer and I saw that half of them were these beautifully rich, dark colours, I was psyched. So psyched, in fact, that I couldn’t wait for them to amble their way over to Australia, if indeed they ever get over here. I have poor impulse control when it comes to blue and green lipsticks. It was a costly and complicated ordeal and I don’t want to talk about it. I was well-behaved, though. I only ordered one, the single most enchanting lipstick I had seen: Kale.

Kale is a blackened forest green. It is completely unique in my collection, and if you’re familiar with my collection, that is saying something. It looks straight up black in some lights, but there’s a lit-from-within unmistakably green tilt. I could wax poetic about the colour for hours, but instead, here’s a photo.

It is a pure sexy sea witch colour.

But sadly – and god, it is sad – I have qualms. Mostly, they’re my own fault. I digress.

The colour goes on mostly opaque, though it does drag a little on initial application. It smells like lemon cleaning products, but not in an unpleasant way and I’m kind of into it. Once on the lips, it’s a distinct cream finish, so your enjoyment of it will come down to your enjoyment for cream finishes and formulas. I had conveniently forgotten that I am…not a fan.

The cons. Ay.

Without a lip primer or liner, this colour has the tendency to do that thing when it separates on the upper lip and you try to fix it by applying more and it just makes things worse. When adequately prepped, like in this photo (I used the Too Faced Lip Insurance in this instance), it’s not as much of a problem.

This lipstick is so damn slippery. I love it, and I want to wear it forever, but it slips and slides around on my lips like no one’s business. I can get maybe two hours of comfortable and appropriate wear without weird slip’n’slide lip action going on and everything looking a mess. With less intense, beautiful colours, it’s not a problem, but with this colour, it’s so obvious that there’s no avoiding it.

Not sure if it’s just my bullet, but it is nearly impossible to get a clean line with direct application. The bullet has no sharpness to it, and while that’s resolved with a liner or applying with a brush, I am notoriously lazy and need to be able to apply my lipstick straight from the bullet on the go from the bullet, as is. Here is an unfortunate, unflattering close-up of what I am talking about:

It’s  not atrocious, but it’s not great. I hate looking messy when I’m wearing a lip as high impact as this. I want to look my sexy goddamn sea witch best, right?

Alright. I’m calm.

This lipstick is beautiful. It’s one of the prettiest colours I own, and were it in a liquid formula I love or a great matte, I would wear it next to non-stop. If you love hydrating cream formulas, you might love it, and I might very well love this formula in less intense colours.

But these lipsticks retail for $40 in Australia, and these colours aren’t currently and may not be available in Australia at any point in the future. Who knows. So to pay to have this shipped over via a third party from the US, was it worth it? I’m glad I have it to play with, but I honestly just don’t know.

I’ve heard nothing but raves for this formula, and truly, so so beautiful, so take my review with lots of salt grains, but the overall melancholy is palpable.

Onwards with your lipstick ventures!

 

 

Bite-Sized Five: Mini-Reviews of New-to-Me Products + Purchases

I’ve been meaning to post some more regular content (this blog needs at least 70% more lipstick), so I’ve decided to introduce a new little feature. Time will tell whether or not this becomes regular or not. Basically, the idea: I encounter a lot of new releases, and just in general acquire a lot of new products. Some are new-new, and some are just new to me. Eventually they will surface, whether in empties or favourites posts, but by that point, they’re old news. Let’s talk about them while they’re fresh to me – while I’ve had some time to develop thoughts, but while I’m still excited and wanted to share. These opinions may not yet be fully formed – I will happily update later, or when I use them up – but there’s meat to them.

I’m going to avoid lip products in these posts, because I like to be very – very – thorough with my lip product reviews. I’m really keen to talk about Bite Beauty’s Amuse Bouche lipstick in Kale – that’s coming soon.

Benefit Gimme Brow in Deep (Deluxe sample – NEW – Launches in Australia on the 22nd of July) – I’ve never tried the original Gimme Brow, but I was happy to try out the deluxe sample of this when it was offered to Black Card holders at Sephora Australia.  I’m generally pretty low maintenance when it comes to brows – mine are notoriously full and angry – but I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying this. I feel like this sample will last me for a decent chunk of time, and it’s really easy to toss on in a rush. I just brush it through my tails and define my arch a little and I’m good to go. I like the precision of a pencil, but this is a good easy alternative, and it’s definitely something I’d recommend to people recovering from bad bouts trichotillomnia (compulsive hair pickers like myself) or who are balding on the brows from meds (also me) – it won’t give you brows where there are none, but it will do great with thinned out, balder patches.

Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant (Deluxe sample) – I received this in my June Lust Have It bag, and it saved the bag for me. Thankfully, I ended up really enjoying it, and have since ordered the full size. I don’t know whether it will become a regular thing, but I want to see how the full bottle goes. I have felt like there’s been a noticeable improvement in the stubborn closed comodones on my forehead. My skin feels nice and smooth, and I’m not reacting to it (I don’t use it on days when I use a mask or physical exfoliant). It’s a generous deluxe sample size, and I appreciate that you can order this size from the website – though it is prone to leakage. I’m not a part of the Cult of Paula’s Choice, but I’m also not against using good stuff.

The Body Shop Hawaiian Kukui Cream – This product isn’t new to me (I work at the body shop) but I’ve managed to resist on buying it since it’s launch. I thought I much preferred the Japanese Camellia Cream, and while I like the light texture or that one, for winter this one is so much more luxurious and warms up nicer on the skin so I don’t have to go to bed cold. It’s super moisturising and the smell is heavenly and lingers on the skin for a good twenty/thirty minutes, which I love when the weather is cold. I also find I can use it on my chest and arms, where I’m the most sensitive, which is a welcome change from a lot of the body butters and lotions I have to steer clear of. It’s expensive as hell, but damn, it’s good shit.

Sephora Collection Skincare Booster – Luminizer – I know all about the purported benefits of Vitamin C for the skin, but while this one promises to be a kind of concentrate, it’s not particularly concentrated. That said, I’d trade that for being able to use it on my skin – a lot of other Vitamin C things I’ve used that are more active are hell on my skin (though I do remember enjoying the Paula’s Choice Vitamin C 25% spot treatment – not $70 enjoy). I don’t know if this is doing anything, really. I doubt it is. I’ll use it for the suggested 14 days per season, because it smells like orange sherbet and it feels lovely and light on the skin, and my skin looks lovely right now. I doubt it has to do with this product, and more to do with the other product combinations, but I’m happy to keep this up. Not something I’ll be rebuying, though, unless sudden dramatic changes occur.

Smashbox Fan Brush no.22 – Thought I’d try out a fan brush! I’m coming down from the ultra intense highlight train, liking it a little more diffused, and fan brushes should give that effect more easily than my alternative Real Techniques setting brush (which I actually love for more intense highlight). So far I’ve only played with this and very buttery powders like the Becca and Balm powders, but I’m looking forward to more experimentation. It is lovely and soft, not too dense, a little more frayed than I was anticipating.

Five things, five mostly positive thoughts. That’s not always the way, but I’m glad that’s how it’s gone this week.

 

 

 

New Fyrinnae Metallic Liquid Matte Lipsticks (quick swatch/review)

When it comes to liquid lipsticks, I’ve tried out…a lot of the market.

I have raved about the Fyrinnae liquid matte lipsticks three hundred times or more. Between these two posts on my old blog, I have swatched and reviewed nearly my entire collection (but I have more). I own almost all of the colours and there are a still a couple I am eyeing up: the other one that was released with these two, a beautiful matte-metallic purple shade called Vintage; a gold called Enchanted.

As a recap, or for the unfamiliar: the main selling point for me are the beautiful and interesting colours, as well as how light these feel on the lips. While they do feel drier than formulas like the NYX Matte Lip Creams or the Colourpop Ultra Satin lips, neither of which are particularly matte, I never feel like these are balling up or cracking on my lips and they don’t wear away in chunks (which is one of my many, many beefs with the Jeffree Star liquid lipsticks, and one shared by the Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid lipsticks). The formula, I will definitely say, is not the most consistent – there are definitely some hits and misses in the collection – but when they’re good, they’re great. They’re very thin and liquidy, so some have issues with opacity and there is a steeper learning curve than with some other brands, but the doe foot is good and a liner will fix most of the worst of it.

I also love supporting Fyrinnae – they’re one of the most consistent brands when it comes to indie cosmetics, and one of the few I can be bothered ordering from now in my weird stage of indie fatigue. Enter the three newest shades, released on sale while I was in hospital (though they normally retail for $10USD). I picked up the two that spoke to me he clearest.

So the blue. I picked the blue. It’s always the blue.

Fyrinnae Sugar Coated

Sugar Coated is a blue shimmer over a black base, and it is stunning. It is the lipstick for all of your spooky witchy needs. You can kind of see that gorgeous blue sparkle here, but it shows up differently under different lights. It requires two coats (I did them wet) because otherwise the shimmer disperses a little unevenly, or it would be fine over a black or blue liner (NYX have a black lipliner). I ate a messy fish dinner and it held up with no smudging and fair colour loss.

I also picked up the red, because I’m a huge fan of two of their existing reds (Vixen and Naughty & Nice), and the metallic spin looked beautiful.

Fyrinnae Candied Kisses

Candied Kisses is a metallic dark browned crimson. It isn’t a rich bright red – definitely less richness than Naughty & Nice – and the brown and purple tones differ depending on the light. I love the metallic finish, and it’s incredibly easy to get opaque, but it wears away faster than Sugar Coated and fades after a couple of hours. The Fyrinnae formula stands up really well to reapplication, so it’s not really an issue for me.

Overall,

Pros:

• Beautiful colours
• Comfortable formula
• Wears away nicely and reapplies well

Cons:

• Higher learning curve than mousse formulas
• Can take a liner/second coat for even dispersion/opacity
• Not as long wearing as some of the colours from the range

 

That’s a bit of a quick and dirty overview of the formula with my investigation of the new colours, which I adore. It was a blue on black lipstick – it was practically made for me.