Product: Bite Beauty Crystal Crème Shimmer Lip Crayon in Molten Chocolate

Date Purchased: April 2020

Grade: A-

Can someone tell me what the hell happened to Bite Beauty? For close to a decade, everyone knew them as the brand that produced food-grade, food-themed lip products. Then it was like we collectively glanced away for a second, and when we looked back Bite had discontinued their most popular products, including all of their lipsticks, and rebranded themselves as “The New Face of Clean.” Did anyone want this? I don’t think I’ve seen one positive comment about Bite’s transformation, but I do tend to hang out in corners of the internet that attract complainers (r/muacjdiscussion, for instance), so who knows. It’s odd that Bite has yet to replace the popular and extensive Amuse Bouche line of lipsticks with a vegan “clean” version, but the rebrand happened just before the pandemic, so I’ll cut them some slack. I just hope they find their way eventually, because those dog-penis-looking frosty liquid blushes are not it.

Though the Amuse Bouche lipsticks are no longer available, Bite still has some older products for sale, including the Crystal Crème Shimmer Lip Crayons, which have been marked down from $24 to $12. (Though if the new products are “clean,” the old ones must be “dirty,” and surely Bite wouldn’t want its customers to use dirty products??) They’ve been on sale for over a year now, actually: I bought Molten Chocolate at the very beginning of the pandemic.

I ordered Molten Chocolate in the hope that it would be a higher-quality version of NYX’s lip crayon in Enamored, which I got rid of years ago because the formula was dry and patchy. But I kept my eye out for a similar lipstick—a dark brown with reddish copper glitter—and when I noticed Molten Chocolate in Bite’s sale section, I pounced. Buying a vampy lipstick in early spring was arguably a stupid decision, but few of us were thinking especially clearly in those days.

My hunch was right! Molten Chocolate has a redder, warmer-toned base color than Enamored did, but it’s otherwise very similar, down to the crayon form. I’m not enamored of Molten Chocolate’s packaging, however. It’s a tall and skinny twist-up crayon that looms head and shoulders over all my other lipsticks, which annoys me because I’m unduly fussy about the arrangement of my makeup on my dresser. More materially, the lipstick’s shape makes me nervous that I might break the bullet if I twist it up too far. I appreciate the crayon form for precise application, but I think Bite could have made it a bit shorter and wider, or else housed the lipstick in a more durable wooden pencil à la NARS.

Most of the shades I tried in Bite’s Amuse Bouche formula were too slippery for my taste (see here and here, though I still own and enjoy Star Anise). Molten Chocolate has, if anything, the opposite problem: it’s a very thick, waxy, grippy formula packed with glitter. If not for the glitter, the lipstick would be matte. This is just one swipe:

This is the kind of color that I think of as steampunk: rusty yet sparkly, grungy yet futuristic. When I wear it, I feel as if I’ve traveled to a sort of alternate-history Jazz Age, like the world of Lara Elena Donnelly’s Amberlough series. I don’t usually like the industrial gray of Bite’s packaging, but it works with the metallic copper of this particular lipstick. Below, Molten Chocolate with some other steampunk lipsticks:

The glitter particles in Molten Chocolate are large enough that I can actually feel them as I swipe on the lipstick, though the grittiness goes away once I’m done applying. The glitter reads as metallic, not sparkly, on my lips. As with other thick matte formulas, I have trouble persuading Molten Chocolate to adhere to the inner part of my lower lip. I need two coats for full opacity, as below:

Like the other Bite lipsticks I’ve tried, Molten Chocolate doesn’t dry out my lips, which makes it highly unusual among metallic matte lipsticks. The formula has a decent wear time of several hours, but it does come off on my Fleabag mug:

Molten Chocolate couldn’t be less suited to this time of year (though May in northern Ohio can feel remarkably like February) or to my current lifestyle, but it’s comfortable and flattering enough that I don’t regret buying it:

I tried out IsNtree Mugwort Clay Mask and Holy Snails Shark Sauce the night before taking these photos and my skin looked amazing the next day, if I do say so myself. I haven’t written a skincare post in almost two years, so I should probably get on that.

My next 2020 Lipstick Chronology post will feature a product (well, a few products) far more appropriate for spring than Molten Chocolate is!