we like: Bite Beauty Cashmere Lip Cream

The Bite Beauty Cashmere Lip Cream formula is so interesting. It’s a cream-to-powder matte lip product that reminds me of a more posh, more pigmented version of the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream (which I also like a lot). Evidently it features unprecedented levels of pigment for this kind of texture, which I readily believe. This gives massive color impact in one swipe.

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Here is their blurb about how it works, which sounds so cool,

“The cream-to-powder delivery system is achieved with an advanced formulation of butters, waxes, and oils that all have different melting and absorption rates. The balanced combination of waxes and butters with the powder texture of silica develop a creamy and buttery application that quickly absorbs into lips while the powdered pigments remain on the surface to leave a matte finish.” (via Sephora)

Bite Beauty is a compelling (and relatively young) brand, all about nourishing ingredients, most notably high levels of the antioxidant reservatrol, also found in wine, presumably the reason behind naming so many of their colors after wines. They are one of a growing number of smart beauty brands out of Canada right now (Toronto). Their Luminous Créme lipstick, which I’ll talk about soon, is absolutely gorgeous, and their various lip pencils are excellent as well. Solid all around.

I picked up the color Sancerre, a bright raspberry pink. This is quite a dry cream upon application yet doesn’t dry immediately on the lips (is blottable for many (say, 15 or so) minutes, with increasingly faded results). The curious thing is that even if you keep blotting, though product comes off on the tissue, the effect on the lips doesn’t seem to change at all. That is, blotting truly removes only the excess, not part of the foundation of color you want to keep. It comes off on drinking glasses and whatnot as well, minimally, yet still without diminishing the effect of color on the lips, at least not for a good while. Pretty impressive for a formula that doesn’t promise to be long-wearing. It has an interesting flexi-fuzzy-tip applicator, a little longer and narrower than the standard doe-foot. More like a short mascara wand, and I think it works brilliantly.

We like.

weekend distraction: it’s all in the details

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This is, without a doubt, the coolest tag I have come across, and possibly the best safety pin ever.

I really must find a worthy use for this safety pin.

This utilitarian, strategically weathered ensemble is the price/product ID tag for the leather jacket* I got at AllSaints. There, for unabashedly staggering prices, you can find a great industrial chic aesthetic rendered in some of the softest and most luxurious fabrics around. The hefty price surely paid, in part, for this beautiful tag, but I find myself applauding AllSaints for it. This is branding and cohesive vision at its best.

*which will show you soon. It was so, so worth it.

Have you seen their storefront on Newbury Street? A massive matrix of vintage Singer sewing machines.

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Brilliant.