Luminous Crème Lipstick, my first official BITE Beauty product, ever! While browsing the aisles of Sephora for anything but lipstick, I can't bring home any more lipstick, I was stopped dead in my tracks by the BITE beauty display. Like a moth on a porch lamp, I was attracted to the lights and colors of their new Luminous Crème Lipstick set-up. I started swatching many of the shades on the back of my hand, and when I picked up Cava.....
there's something about cool nudes...
I've been looking at Lime Crime's Cashmere, LA Splash's Ghoulish, Coloured Raine's Marshmallow, and all their dupes for a loooong time now. Something about this cool toned sepia makes me drool every time. I would imagine Cava as the more "timid" younger brother of Cashmere or any of these cool nudes. Cava is sheer, although I'm not sure this was intentional. The shade itself is a gorgeous chameleon, appearing warm in the bullet, and almost near-lilac-cool on the lips. This is a beautiful shade for fair skin types, especially if you are prone to redness on your face. I love cool tones especially on blondes (me!!). When done right, it can give off the most beautifully "icy" appearance.
formula & price
If I were to rate the BITE Luminous Crème formula (1 is the worst, 5 is the best) I would give it a 3. It's beautiful, unique, super easy to apply (maybe even without a mirror) and the food-grade ingredients make me happy to wear lipstick, but the very short wear-time before needing to reapply makes this lipstick come in
just average. A lipstick like this wouldn't normally rank a 3 with these problems alone. As with the
Kat Von D Coven lipstick, the price is just too high for me to justify any negatives. At $24 USD, I shouldn't have to be reapplying this lipstick every hour. Another disappointment is that the bullet (amount of product) is smaller than many other lipsticks I own. Again, the same situation I found myself in with
Kat Von D's lipsticks. It's a tough decision (not really #firstworldproblems) but I'll be returning this lipstick, alas, there is still hope!
the dupe
Normally when mind over matter kicks in I can level with myself that returning a beautiful makeup product isn't the end of the world. But this time it was difficult to overcome. This color is something special, a shade I've been looking for for a very long time. I couldn't imagine I didn't already own something at least SIMILAR to BITE's Cava. After all, I own so many nude shades, and primarily gravitate toward cooler colors anyway! After searching through my lipstick collection for a few minutes I rediscovered Summer Love by NYX. I wore it all of last summer (2014). It is a little different than Cava, swatching a little lighter, warmer and with more pink undertones. But for $5 USD, I'm ok with using Summer Love instead. I will be exchanging Cava, perhaps for a BITE Buttercream lipstick? What do you guys think? Anything (doesn't have to be a bite product or lipstick) you'd like to see a review for next?
Much Love,
-Stephanie Eva
Labels: makeup, review
