Bite Beauty High Pigment Matte Lip Pencils in Tart, Velvet - Review, Photos, Swatches

I positively j'adore lip pencils and can hardly restrain myself when I stumble over new ones! Though I'm only reviewing now I purchased the following Bite Beauty High Pigment Matte lip pencils over a year ago and, based on my happy experiences, I am excited to try the new releases now available at Sephora. Woo! 

Anyway, here are my lovely little Bite starlets, Tart and Velvet -

Tart is a tomato-paste red, with a hint of orange and a dusty quality to it -

Velvet is a bright light rose -

These lip pencils are pretty spectacular - they go on quite easily, smoothly, and feel like butter! I love the soft, rich texture, and the pigmentation is superb. The finish is shiny more than matte as the name indicates, but it's still quite pretty. Additionally, the formula is moisturizing and long-lasting. These are winners and have converted me to Bite Beauty! I'm curious to try some of their other products as, based on the pencils, I doubt they'll disappoint.

Bite High Pigment Matte pencils are available at Sephora for $24 a piece. 

Thanks so much for reading, I appreciate it! Have you tried Bite? What do you think?

BONUS -

Bite claims that this lipstick contains resveratrol, which "fights free radicals with potent long-term antiaging benefits". Hmm. Being the anal scientist that I am I can't help checking the research to confirm this claim. So, armed with my skepticism and my institution's journal subscriptions, I searched the literature.

I should mention that red wine is a particularly strong source of resveratrol. Bite points out that one lip pencil has the resveratrol content of five glasses of wine - which is great, if you want to spend $24 on a lip pencil just to eat it (personally, I'll take the wine), if it even does benefit your health in any significant way.

So does it?  Well, the evidence is spotty at best, and many positive outcomes have been the result of animal model experiments (for example, in one study resveratrol was found to have increased the life-span of obese mice fed high-fat diets). Animal models are useful in many ways, but mice are not humans (obviously 8D); it's incorrect to extrapolate to humans without additional studies, and when human trials have been performed, the effects of resveratrol have been inconclusive or much less significant. So Bite's claim of "potent" anti-aging benefits are exaggerated at best. And, again, the proposed benefit comes from consumption of resveratrol, and not topical application.

In conclusion, take Bite's claim with a grain of salt and cast it aside with the many other unfounded beauty claims out there ("xyz mascara increases your lash volume by 923678687%!!!1"). I like my evidence like I like my men: strong, replicable, and peer-reviewed (that doesn't really work, does it 8D), and the evidence here is inconclusive (in addition, the long-term effects of resveratrol have not yet been studied). So please, err, don't eat the lipstick. 

[I've not included my sources because this is a beauty blog, darnit, and not a fancy scientific paper (also... laziness D:), but if anyone is interested, I am happy to provide links!]