Subtle glitz: Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Holiday Lipstick Duos in Opal/Jam and Gold/Sour Cherry

Disclosure: Affiliate links.

This purchase was not a typical one for me. I rarely seek out limited edition products (though sometimes I am pleasantly surprised). I don't usually go for holiday releases/sets. And I don't usually buy more than one item from a line, sight unseen.

But here I am with two of the Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche holiday duos. I was having a day, I guess. It was the same day that I ordered that Kat Von D blue lipstick (reviewed here), but the Bite lipsticks worked out better.

These duos are double-sided, like the Luminous Creme duos from last year, which I liked. And in fact, the price is good. It's actually cheaper to buy these minis (0.05 oz. of each color) than to buy a full-size Amuse Bouche lipstick. The full size comes out to $173 per ounce, and the duos are $140 per ounce. Mind you, the packaging of these mini lipstick may mean that more of that product is buried below the edge of the tube, making it harder to get out, but it's still a respectable price, in my reckoning.

I've been happy to see that metallic lips are, apparently, a big thing this season. I like a little shimmer and all matte all the time was starting to get boring. I once had a sheer, gold lipstick from Avon that I got as a gift as a teenager, and it was really pretty. So a new, sheer, gold lipstick from a brand whose lipsticks I've enjoyed in the past was exciting to see. I was also intrigued by Opal, which Bite has brought back in one of these minis. In fact, I originally almost bought all four of the duos but eventually (fortunately) talked myself down to two. I didn't think I would wear the pale pink Fig much, and I already have Pepper in the old Luminous Creme formula. So I went for Gold/Sour Cherry and Opal/Jam.

I was also curious about the Amuse Bouche formula, having read mixed reviews of it. I suspect, as with most lipsticks, the performance will vary based on the shade. For these two/four, I've been really impressed. Sour Cherry is particularly wonderful: pigmented, smooth, long-wearing, and moisturizing. Yes, moisturizing! It's extremely rare for me to find a lipstick that actually makes my lips feel better as I wear it. Revlon Cherries in the Snow does that, but the Bite Luminous Creme lipsticks do not.

Swatches:

Left to right: Gold, Sour Cherry, Opal, Jam.

Okay, get ready for many, many more photos.

Vampy Winter Lips for Beginners

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The beginner I'm mainly referring to here is me. I know that some of you are seasoned vampy veterans, but I haven't historically been a huge lipstick wearer in general. I've even declared in writing that I was giving up on lipstick because it was too high maintenance. Instead, I wore every other type of lip product: stain, balm, tint, gloss, etc. But somehow, in the last year or so, I've got a lot more into lipstick. I don't know what happened. Bored with other types of makeup? Getting old and no longer as self conscious? At any rate, probably 80% or more of the makeup I've bought in the last 6-9 months (which hasn't been a lot) has been lipstick, and when I'm browsing it's usually the most appealing category to me lately.

Left to right: Revlon Balm Stain in Crush, Paula's Choice Plum, Bite Mulberry/Scarlet, Maybelline Creamy Matte Divine Wine, and Urban Decay Matte Bad Blood.

One new change that I've really only embraced this winter is dark or bold "vampy" lipstick. Now I am talking about vaguely vampy shades, nothing extreme. I'm still a beginner, and my coloring makes things look more dramatic than they might otherwise. There's nothing black (or blackish) in my lineup. The few lipsticks I have that could be categorized as vampy are mostly very pigmented berries or wines. Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy (a supposed dupe for MAC Rebel) is sort of my baseline for comparison here. If you consider Sugar Plum Fairy or Rebel to be a "wearable berry" then you're probably going to roll your eyes at my whole weak foray into bold lipsticks. If, on the other hand, you find it slightly intimidatingly bold, I'll assume you're with me on this one. I'm not saying Rebel is vampy, but for me, anything darker than that is edging into vampy territory. It's my vampy watershed. Or something.

Here is my small collection of debatably vampy lip colors, with Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy also swatched for comparison:

Why do they all look bright pink? Shitty winter light!

Left to right: Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy, Revlon Balm Stain in Crush, Paula's Choice Plum, Bite Mulberry, Bite Scarlet, Maybelline Creamy Matte Divine Wine, and Urban Decay Matte Bad Blood.