More on all those budget delights in another post, or a few more posts. This one will be a review of a pricier item: my last splurge before my August no-buy. I’d had my eye on Bite Beauty’s magical-looking Prismatic Pearl glosses for a while, but a couple of things kept putting me off. First, the $22 price tag. I have no problem paying $22 for a lipstick, but gloss tends to have a shorter shelf life, and Bite prides itself on its food-grade ingredients, which means I probably can’t count on its glosses to last longer than a year or so. Second, it was Bite, a brand with which I had a checkered past. But after my great experience with Star Anise, I went back to Sephora and took another look at the pink-bronze-green duochrome (tetrachrome?) glory that was Rose Pearl, and I could resist no longer.

Well, actually, I spent some time deciding between Rose Pearl, Oyster Pearl (another in the Prismatic lineup), and NARS Full Vinyl Lip Lacquer in Abruzzo, but determined that I’d get the most wear out of Rose Pearl.

L-R: Oyster Pearl (which I still want tbh), Rose Pearl, Abruzzo.

I should note that Bite also makes Prismatic Pearl Multisticks in the same shades as the glosses, but they’re not quite as magical-looking: liquid formulas are the best for showcasing sparkle. Check out the Prismatic Pearl Glosses under the bright Sephora lights and see if you don’t come away desperately wanting at least one, even if you’re not a gloss person or a shimmer person. I dare you.

Unfortunately, Bite likes to package all its products, no matter how sparkly, in boring gray boxes. At least the Prismatic Pearl box has a tiny lip-shaped iridescent sticker indicating the shade inside:

The gloss comes in a sturdy rectangular plastic tube with a matte gray…lid? top? what do you call the handle of a gloss applicator? I’ve been away from beauty blogging for too long. For a size comparison, here’s Rose Pearl next to my favorite autumnal cocktail, a Manhattan:

The label on the bottom serves a dual purpose: it not only indicates the shade name, but also disguises how little gloss there actually is in the bulky tube. (As if I have a chance of finishing what little there is before it goes bad.)

After buying Rose Pearl, I waited several days to open it because it was too exquisite and I didn’t want to mar it with my clumsy monkey paws. Then I waited two months to write a review because I felt that neither my prose not my phone camera could do justice to Rose Pearl’s beauty. In preparation for this post, I’ve taken at least a hundred photos, but not one of them captures what I see in real life. Rose Pearl is the perfect autumnal gloss: a sheer bronze base with densely packed fuchsia shimmer and a yellow-green shift that suggests a hint of decay.

Below, I’ve sheered it out as much as possible to make the base color more visible:

Rose Pearl is about 75% opaque: on my lips, it’s nowhere near as intense as it appears in the tube, but it still covers my natural lip color almost completely. Because of its multidimensionality, it looks very different from one lighting situation to the next. Under artificial light, the greenish shift becomes apparent:

Direct sunlight brings out the fuchsia:

And indirect natural light turns it into a rosy copper:

I’m not usually a fan of layering lip gloss over lipstick or lipliner (too gooey and slippery), but I was curious to see how Rose Pearl would fare as a lip topper. Over a flesh-colored liner (Milani Nude), it looks pretty enough, but loses its duochrome effect:

But over a dark liquid lipstick, it’s absolutely stunning! Here’s Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit in Goth Topic on its own, then topped with Rose Pearl:

Rose Pearl’s applicator is a small doefoot that comes to an unusually sharp point. It applies gloss decently to my bottom lip, but I always have trouble getting my top lip covered, because the point of the applicator scrapes off the product that has already been laid down. I end up with gloss collected along my upper lip line but relatively little on the lip itself, and I have to go back in with a dabbing motion to fill in the gaps. Not an insuperable problem, but somewhat annoying.

I’m very happy with the Prismatic Pearl formula. These glosses have the same sweet lemon scent and taste as the Amuse Bouche lipsticks. It’s not an overwhelming fragrance, but I can detect it for at least an hour after application, so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re sensitive to scents. The formula is on the thick side but (thankfully) not sticky, and the glitter doesn’t make it gritty. I can get about three hours of wear from Rose Pearl before I feel like I need to touch up, which is pretty impressive for a gloss. Like most glosses I’ve tried, Rose Pearl is quite moisturizing.

Despite its cool-toned fuchsia and green duochrome, Rose Pearl looks warm-toned overall, and I always end up wearing it with bronze and warm red elsewhere on my face. I also always end up wearing it with this one dress:

More recently, outside, same dress:

In my next post, I’ll review another newish gloss that I’ve been wearing a lot this fall. I should note that my new apartment gets almost no direct natural light, so you’ll have to bear with me while I sort out my lighting for blog photos. (I’ve been taking makeup selfies in the car, but that’s not exactly a long-term solution.)