I Own 146 Lipsticks But I Only Wear This One

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I own a lot of lipsticks. I tried to count them and I stopped at 146 because I was getting concerned about my hoarding. Then I started trying to guess how old some of them were, which led me down a Google rabbit hole searching “bacteria in lipstick.”

Part of the reason I own so many is because of the job I have, which is to write about beauty products. But another part of it is because I save all the ones I get because I’m convinced someday I’ll become a lipstick person. The reality, though, is that I’m a lip balm aficionado who only occasionally wears lipstick.

When I do, however, it’s Bite Beauty’s Amuse Bouche, usually in Chai or Sake, which are both on the dusty mauve-y brown spectrum. (I’m also predictable in my color choices, but it comes in 45 shades if you like variation.) The formula is simply the best one I’ve tried in a long time. Bite Beauty specializes in only lip products, so I guess it’s not surprising that the company has mastered this category.

The Amuse Bouche formula is not matte, but it’s also not shiny or satiny either. It’s creamy with an opaque color payoff, and it’s the most comfortable formula I’ve used. It’s what I always hope super expensive lipstick will feel like but never does. I can always get away with one swipe, too, because the color is so pigmented. And less product on your mouth equals less of that gunky crusty feeling, which is one of the reasons I don’t wear lipstick that often. Oh, and it smells like a fancy Creamsicle, which is a plus for me.

It has decent staying power, particularly if I use it with an invisible lip liner and dust a bit of translucent powder over it. But I definitely have to cut back on coffee drinking when I wear it, and reapplication post-lunch is a necessity, as with any traditional cream lipstick. It contains a lot of oils, which is great for comfort but won’t make it as long-lasting as, say, a matte liquid lipstick. But it looks and feels a hell of a lot better than one, that’s for sure.

I should probably finally clean out my lipstick collection and declare this the winner.

Watch: The history of red lipstick