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It’s completely vegan and comes in playful packaging
There are many American beauty brands that have launched in the UK in recent years, including CeraVe, Danessa Myricks, Uoma Beauty and Drunk Elephant, to name a few.
And now luxury brand Bite Beauty is set to be added to the list, as it launches in the UK on 9 July at Boots and Feelunique, bringing its vegan make-up range to the masses.
The brand uses many ingredients often found in our favourite skincare formulas, such as antioxidants, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.
We’ve spent the past few weeks putting it to the test, trying primers, foundations, lipsticks, mascaras and complexion products to see what us Brits have been missing out on.
Packed with colourful shades, an inclusive range and fun packaging, here’s our breakdown of the Bite Beauty collection.
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Available in a hydrating or mattifying formula, this primer left us very impressed. Its skin-smoothing finish provided the perfect canvas for a liquid or cream foundation.
The formula is enriched with maqui berry and has a velvety smooth texture. We tried the mattifying option and found it to be incredibly fast to absorb, and it improved areas of texture on our chin and cheeks.
A little goes a long way and we applied a small amount to areas that are oiliest, including the nose, chin and forehead, and we found it helped our complexion products go the extra mile without looking shiny come 3pm.
Surprisingly sheer, we’d compare the coverage of this foundation to a tinted moisturiser. It’s very lightweight, leaving you feeling like you’re barely wearing anything at all. It’s available in 32 shades spanning light, medium, tan and deep skintones, and has a natural finish that’s not too matte or dewy and gives a “your-skin-but-better” look.
We think it’s ideal for summer when you want a bit of coverage but nothing too thick or heavy that you’ll eventually sweat off. The formula is so easily blendable we loved using our fingers before patting over it with a sponge to ensure there were no patches.
It’s quite expensive and full-coverage fans may not love it, but if you’re after something weightless that won’t cake or crease, this is worth the splurge.
This is your classic powder compact that has two purposes; to set your make-up and make it as long-lasting as possible, and to mattify shine through the day.
The packaging is neat and sturdy, with a mirror on the inside. There are eight shades to choose from.
It’s not dusty and nor did we see a lot of excess product when we swirled a fluffy brush around it, but, ultimately, while it feels nice on the skin, it doesn’t outperform our favourite, the Laura Mercier translucent loose setting powder (£32, Cultbeauty.co.uk), which blurs pores perfectly.
Aside from the adorable packaging, this is a fool-proof cream blush that adds a luminous glow to the skin. While it’s a shame you only get 10ml of product (with the lid on it’s easy to think that the entire circular shape is full), it is a beautiful, lightweight formula.
There’s a slight shimmer to it, which is a nice way to add a glow to the highpoints of your cheekbones without making oily skin types look or feel shiny.
It blends seamlessly into skin, performing especially well on top of cream foundations, with just your finger or a beauty sponge. We tried “coconut rum”, which is a pink-toned bronze that we used in place of bronzer, but there are three other shades ranging from a peachy pink to a darker berry shade.
This is the star of the Bite Beauty show. We’d heard great things from friends across the pond, and we have to say it’s well worth the hype.
The hourglass wand easily coats lashes from root to tip and there was a dramatic difference in length in just one coat. If you’re looking for volume, we’d suggest applying two to three coats, but even the shortest of lashes will love this.
After a full day of wear, we did see slight smudging under the eyes, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a quick swipe of our finger, and it didn’t put us off using it again and again. It also comes in a mini size (£13, Boots.com).
We were very sceptical before using this jet black eyeliner, as it’s a liquid formula with quite a thick brush that had us imagining a smeared mess all over our lids. However, we found it to be very easy to manoeuvre along our lash line and into a sharp flick.
Once applied, it did not budge – at one point we rubbed our eye accidentally and it remained completely intact.
It does take a little more patience to apply than a non-liquid formula, as it's wet at first, but it dries down in seconds and is removed easily with an oil-based cleanser.
We love lip crayons. The chunky size means it’s easy to swipe on a burst of colour without needing to be too precise. No to mention, it takes up barely any room in your handbag.
We tried the shade “brandy” – a deep wine red – and were immediately impressed. It has a sharp nib which acted brilliantly as a lip liner to ensure a precise finish. Then we shaded in the rest of our lips lightly. The colour is rich in pigment, easily providing an opaque level of coverage, and the formula is creamy without feeling cakey or dry.
The newest launch for Bite Beauty stateside, these lipsticks have taken all the brilliance of matte finishes – ie, the staying power and strong pigment – and upgraded them with a creamy, non-drying formula.
We tried three shades: “sugar buns” is a pinky nude, “hot tomato” is a vibrant pinky red and “chai” is a rosy brown. But there’s 20 in total, so you’ll be spoilt for choice.
Exactly as the name says, they have a soft-focus finish and can easily be applied with your finger for a less intense colour payoff. They didn’t budge through brunch (drinking included) or leave our lips feeling dry, so we’re giving them a big thumbs up.
This lip gloss claims to be plumping, but we sadly didn’t see any difference and found the plastic tip made it difficult to evenly coat our lips in the product.
Shimmer is hard to pull off in lip formulas as it can often look dated, and this just reminds us of the early-Noughties make-up trends, when gloss was applied in abundance.
We used the shade “cinnamon twist” – a deep brown which, while sheer enough to layer nicely over a nude lipstick, left us feeling a bit sticky.
While pretty pricey, if you have the budget, we’d recommend treating yourself to some bits from this new launch. The packaging is luxurious but remains playful, and overall we’re impressed. We suspect Bite Beauty will be popular with beauty fans in the UK.
There are some big hitters too. The upswing full volume mascara won us over instantly with its lash-lengthening effect, the upswing extreme longwear liquid eyeliner’s staying power left us wowed and the power move creamy matt lip crayon is an easy one to add to your routine. All three have earned a spot in our everyday make-up bag.
For the latest discounts on beauty and make-up buys, try the links below:
For an effortless summer glow, read our review of the best face tanners, from sprays to serums