Another lipstick size comparison: Bite Beauty Mix and Mingle Duo ($14) vs. Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Creme ($24)

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
Here's a supplement to my previous post on this topic. I bought myself one of the Bite Beauty Mix and Mingle mini lipstick duos a couple of weeks ago as a reward for completing some especially horrible job applications. Not without a lot of dithering, however--they just look so small! They're basically two "deluxe" sample-size lipsticks attached back to back, with a total weight of 0.1 oz. (Note: The Sephora listing is incorrect, because it says that they weigh 0.5 oz x 2. In fact, they are 0.05 oz/1.55 g x 2, as labeled. BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE. A 0.5 oz. lipstick would be huge.)

According to Sephora, the duos are a $24 value for $14. Since they are Bite's Luminous Crème lipsticks, that's not completely accurate. A full size Luminous Crème does cost $24, but it weighs 0.15 oz., not. 0.1 oz. The Bite High Pigment Pencils, however, are 0.09 oz. and also cost $24, so I suppose they are calculating the cost as somewhere in between these two.

And that is what actually persuaded me to buy the tiny lipstick duo (in Scarlet/Mulberry). By weight, it's about the same size as a typical lipstick crayon, so it's not outrageously small. In fact, it's exactly the same weight as the hideously expensive Tarte crayon that I used as a comparison last time.

Since those Tarte crayons cost $24, that makes them $240 per oz. This Bite lipstick, then, is a more reasonable (ha!) $140 per oz. But are they really the same size?

I just don't see it. What do you think? Maybe there is something going on here with the components of the different lipsticks weighing different amounts. After all, we're measuring these by weight, not volume. Is it better for a lipstick to be heavier or lighter? That is something I just don't know at the moment. It would depend what ingredients weigh more, and if those are the things you want more of (pigment or moisturizing ingredients, etc.). Will a heavier lipstick last longer than lighter one--or vice versa?

The Tarte crayon is a bit sheerer than the Bite lipsticks, if that tells you anything. I am quite happy with the little Bite lipsticks, in any event. I'd been wanting to try this lipstick formula, and this was a relatively inexpensive way to do so. I'll write more about the formula (etc.) in a future post on dark/vampy lipsticks, but here are some quick swatches, in case you're interested! Scarlet on the left and Mulberry on the right.

If you have any insight on the weight/size problem, please share!

Tricky Tricky! Which lipstick package holds more product?

Disclosure: Affiliate links.

(This is the time of year when the light gets progressively lower and consequently my photos get progressively worse. I experimented with different lighting and a new background here, and I don't think either of them are winners. Grainy as shit. But since we are just looking at sizes and packages, this ought to suffice for now. Back to the drawing board next time.)

This is a long one, so get comfortable.

I'd been thinking about writing about lipstick packaging ever since my first "tricky tricky" post more than two years ago, but I kept putting it off. (See the others in the series here.) The reason I hesitated is that with most of these lipsticks, I don't think the packaging is deliberately designed to trick you into thinking you're buying more product - at least not in the same sense as some of the packaging I've discussed before. Nevertheless, one of the moments of inspiration for the series was when I realized that the actual product that twist up lip crayons contain is only a small fraction of the length of the tube. That fact came as a bit of a surprise to me, because I hadn't thought carefully about it before and simply assumed, sort of subconsciously, that I was getting a bigger lipstick in this format than in a traditional bullet. Maybe it was obvious to everyone but me that this was not the case. But that is really the goal of a tricky package - you get the impression that you're buying more without ever being prompted to look closer.

In case you think I am just being paranoid (fair enough, because who spends so much time thinking about this shit?), there have been cases where companies have been fined for using deceptive packaging, like Unilever in Europe recently (for Axe body spray). Paying close attention to how much you're paying per unit is especially important this time of year, when a lot of holiday gifts sets are coming out. If you're like me, you probably assume that buying a set or palette is more economical than buying individual products, but that's not always the case. For instance, the new Hourglass palette costs significantly more per unit than if you were to buy individual powders or blushes, and LORAC has managed to decrease the weight of the eyeshadow in the Mega Pro 2 palette while charging the same price as the first palette (whether less weight means less product in this case is debatable - a whole other issue to consider!). Check out these reviews (Hourglass and LORAC) from Temptalia for more information. Bastards!

That said, I think in the case of some of the packaging I'm going to compare today, there is an actual advantage to making it larger. That means it's not necessarily deceptive in a troubling way. But if you're like me and you hadn't thought much about different types of lipstick packaging and how much actual lipstick they contain, you might also find this interesting.

Let's start with traditional lipstick bullets. For each of these comparisons I chose three lipsticks at different price points. I also chose examples from my hoard that I had used infrequently so that the comparison photos are a accurate as possible. I've used each of these only 3-5 times (with the exception of the Revlon crayon below, which I will explain there).

Here we have Maybelline Creamy Matte lipstick in Divine Wine (average price $7) (reviewed here), Wet N Wild Megalast lipstick in Rose-bud ($2), and Lipstick Queen Jean Queen ($22) (reviewed here). Which do you think contains the most lipstick?