According to my latest internet search, there are currently 14,000 shades of lipstick on the market. It may seem like limitless shades, colors, and tones for all complexions, looks, and vibes exist, but do they really? In my sharply curated collection of lip-enhancing liquids, mattes, and liners, I have probably 25 shades. Reds, pinks, corals, nudes, burgundies. And still some days, I feel something is missing. Even for the most dedicated makeup shopper, finding that perfect shade is equal parts market zeitgeist and luck. For example, the perfect universal red is subject to so many variations, even the true-toned shades lean closer to the blue, orange, and sometimes brown segments of the color wheel. It’s the reason that adored shade from freshman year in college was discontinued and remains the one that got away.
There’s only one way to fill this void – personal customization. The IRL, real-time selection, mixing, and tweaking of pigments to achieve that perfect, personalized lipstick shade is the core offering at Lip Lab, one of the only makeup brands in the US to do so. Spun off from Lip Lab by Bite! after Bite Beauty sadly folded, the Lip Lab currently has 18 locations in the chicest shopping districts in NYC, Boston, LA, DC, Vegas and a few in Canada.
Over the years, the popularity of bespoke makeup has ebbed and flowed given other market trends, with the most popular being Prescriptives, the Estée Lauder-owned brand that specialized in custom-blended complexion products until closing in 2011. In an age when self care and lifestyle have been elevated to religious practices, blending personalized lipsticks just makes sense. Always on the lookout for the latest beauty frontier, I was so lucky to spend an hour at Lip Lab Soho with one of their star mixologists – of pigment, not booze – for a daytime-appropriate, cool-toned pink matte lippie to match my complexion and highlights.
I arrived at the Lip Lab Soho location armed with an arsenal of lipsticks to compare tones but I quickly realized I didn’t need them. My Lip Lab Mixologist, Rachelle D. Lacefield, a professional makeup artist of bridal glam, edgy editorial looks, and for the screen, with stints as a color and formulation specialist at prestige makeup brands Nars and Bobbi Brown, started talking color and tones right away. As we discussed a slew of customization options, including texture, finish, and packaging, she prepped me for the final payoff of trying on my personal color.
We started with a bit of micellar water to breakdown the shade I was wearing, and the Lip Lab best-seller Agave Weekly Lip Scrub. The mix of chemical and physical exfoliants via papaya extracts and brown sugar dissolved dry flakes and smoothed the lip surface for optimal color adherence. For a bit of moisture and TLC, Line & Define Lip Primer followed. With kiwi seed oil and peppermint extracts, it left my lips jazzed and ready to go for color. Like all Lip Lab products, from the glosses to the lipsticks, the treatments are clean, free of preservatives, vegan, and cruelty free.
From huge jars of bright oranges, reds, pinks, yellow, blue, and green pigments, in and off themselves beautifully stunning, Rachelle chose a super bright, almost neon pink, Kimchi, a warmer darker tone to find that balance of bold, yet not overpowering shade I had in mind on a sample mixing sheet. It was perfect but too close to another shade of pink in my collection. Rachelle tweaked it again, and voila – the perfect shade of Beautygeoise pink I’ve been looking for most of my life.
With that ratio of colors perfected on the sample, the full-sized colors were measured, mixed and heated. The hot pink slurry was then poured into a lipstick tube-shade mould to cool and set while the next stage in customization was underway.
After naming your creation, Lip Lab offers a selection of lip stick tube styles in various colors, and several fonts. Of course, I chose a hot pink case and lowercase cursive font. Rachelle slipped the freshly printed case into the mould, and voila- my personalized tube of matte lipstick from A-Z, and put my formula on file for future visits!
In addition to lip sticks and glosses, Lip Lap has just launched a collection of Soft Blur Cheek Sticks also for customization and real-time blending. In need of a pink blush to match my lipstick, we started the process of choosing pigment, swatching, mixing and blending all over again, this time for cheeks. Within 10 minutes, while the formulation cooled and set, I noticed the staff arranging flowers and smelled them mixing mojitos for a party. Perhaps the most unique bridal shower venue I’ve heard of in a while, Lip Lab also hosts events.
For those who can not make it to the nearest Lip Lab location, several pre-mixed lip sticks, glosses, and liners are available online, as well as their new Soft Blur Cheek Sticks in 17 shades.
Happy Mixing!!!
