50 Shades of Red

A room full of lipsticks is any woman’s dream. Bite Beauty just made your dream come true. An average woman’s morning routine includes applying makeup. Bite Beauty Lip Lab in downtown Toronto gives you a chance to create your own lipstick for a small price. There are over hundreds of lipstick shades but a common problem is finding a universal lipstick that suits all skin tones and skin types.

Upon entering the lip lab, you will see lip lab artists teaching their customers how are lipsticks made. The loft style boutique has a quiet atmosphere but the aroma of lipstick making does linger throughout the store. If you are luckily seated in the furthest corner of the room, you get the chance to see lip lab technicians wearing their lab coats in their closed off lab, making lipsticks from scratch. The Bite Beauty Lip Lab provide two services; Lip Lab artists can make a custom lipstick with the pre-made base and pigment available or a full experience is available if you decide to book the Bespoke service. This will include making a lipstick from scratch with a lip lab artist and a Bite Beauty goodie bag.

Lip Lab artist Iris Smith explains that the base for every lipstick is different, depending on which finish you chose. Smith offers many lipstick shades so you have various shades to pick from.

“When we make the lipstick, the base is already pre-measured and so is the lipstick pigment. One container of the pre-base and the pigment equals to one lipstick,” Smith said.

Lipstick originated about 5000 years ago, when people would crush gemstones and smeared it on to their lips. Creating lipsticks wasn’t always using safe ingredients. Egyptians used to crush bugs create a red pigment and applied it on their lips which aren’t safe nor healthy. About 1000 years ago, the Chinese created lipsticks from beeswax to wear lipstick.

Meet Amina Sakhiyar, a beauty consultant for Healthy Planet; a health and wellness store. She recommends going to lip labs or makeup studios that makes lipstick for you rather than buying bulk ingredients.

“Some individuals may have allergies or may want a product that contains natural ingredients but making makeup products is time-consuming and so difficult so they’d rather go to an Healthy Planet,” Sakhiyar said.

In 2017, research conducted by Statista.com shows that the makeup industry in Canada was worth $46.69 billion. Over the span of two years, the market value grew to 1.55 per cent and is expected to grow 4.28 percent by the year 2021. The makeup retailer Sephora takes first place, followed by Amazon.com for where customers go to, in order to buy makeup.

Makeup artist Maiyra Wasid believes that customizing your lipstick can be satisfying because you created it yourself but buying lipsticks is less time-consuming.

“Buying lipsticks are expensive but look on the bright side; you are able to create different colours by blending 2 or more shades of lipsticks.” Wasid said.

As soon as you enter the lip lab, you will all 108 lipstick pigments stacked on to the three shelves on the wall. Whichever color you want, Lip lab artists will make it for you. The lip lab artist will start off the appointment by asking you a series of questions for your lipstick. First, you start off by naming a couple of shades for your lipstick so they have a clue of what they’re working with. Each finish requires a different base so there are three bases in total. We went with a satin and matte lipstick. The satin finish is very hydrating while the matte finish has a longer wear since it is fast drying. Then, you are to pick between three finishes; matte, satin and/or gloss. For our first shade, it will be a matte brick red lipstick. Which is perfect for the winter holiday weather.

“We give different options for the shades, just in case you like them better than the initial first shade,” Smith said.

After we figured out the shades and finishes, we were told to exfoliate our lips to try out shades that will match our skin tones and skin types. This part of the demo usually takes several minutes since there are various types of colours and pigments to look at. After this process, you pick between seven fragrances. We will be choosing Citrus Mango for our red lipstick and Violet for the pink lipstick. There are at least three shades you are given to test on your lips to see the colour and you choose between which. The pigment, pre-base, and a fragrance are then melted and blended together in a mixing machine. Then, the lipstick is poured into the mold and you wait for it to harden.

“Creating your own makeup can be really frustrating, as you would have to try it at least a few times through trial and error to get it the way you want it,” Sakhiyar said.

At the end of the day, it really is up to you if you wanted to create your own lipstick from scratch or go out and spend money on one lipstick.