RubyHue Lipstick Review: Bite Beauty Crushed Chili

One of the bad things about crowning a favourite lipstick line queen in your heart when you live in NZ is the knowledge that it will inevitably be based in some distant, uncaring land.  Damn your Canadian eyes, Bite Beauty.  You forced me give my personal details to that spammy, bloodsucking omnisquid Sephora, a concession I already regret.

But that's my problem, not yours.  If you haven't caught wind of the unparalleled excellence of Bite's sticks yet, pull the dicks out of your ears.  It's not 2002.  There's no need to be wearing the questionable shit you bought at the chemist.  Throw that stuff away or regift it to your more ratchet friends and treat yourself to an Amuse Bouche shade.  There are different levels of coverage and moderate variations in finish, so read a few reviews to find exactly what you're looking for.  Or you could honestly almost pick one at random.  They are thoroughly lovely.

​Crushed Chili is from the LE Spice Collection, which contained some earthy bangers; I almost went for Hot Harissa but decided I needed more warm intermediate shades.  It was a good choice.  ​The texture alone is worth the $40 or so NZ bucks outlay- unctuous, comforting, impossibly pigmented, satin-smooth and kind to neglected lips.  ​

Optimal spreadability straight from the tube can be a little temperature-dependant with the denser titles in this formula, but I find Crushed Chili only needs a wee bit of finger work around the edges to achieve perfection.  It's a creamy dream with any sort of brush, applying like the best sort of expensive interior paint to dress the lips in clinging, pliant russet goodness.

How Bite achieves such durability with such a satiny texture is a question for the ages, but Crushed Chili settles down immediately and stays put through hours of lipstick-munting activity.  It clings.  I'm guessing that mysterious density doesn't so much resist wear as appear unperturbed until the last molecule is gone.  Without bleeding or settling into those disgusting fudge-clumps that so many other deep, earthy shades are reduced to.  It's fucking supernatural.

The finish is a very stable, flattering and consistent low satin.  While it may not be as glossy as these sun-warmed product shots imply, CC is still a few degrees away from what I'd class as semi-matte.  You can blot it off for a flatter look and that works too.

Colour-wise, Crushed Chili is infuriatingly ambiguous in the tube and I was pretty flummoxed as to exactly what to expect.  Don't squint yourself into thinking it's some sort of deep dusty peach or dark melon.  Behold yonder hand swatches in afternoon sunlight, especially the multi-shade ones at the bottom of the review; they tell the real story.

I included both a fairly true red and orange at either end for accurate reference.  ​

​Everyone knows MAC Chili; if you boiled that guy down, caramelising it, and added a splodge of tomato relish, you'd get Crushed Chili.  They're made of the same components, although the former is obviously yellower and lighter.  I'd call CC a slightly muted maple-russet, perhaps with some nutmeg grated into it.  MAC Spice It Up is probably the closest thing I own, but it's a Lustre, a great deal shinier and far less opaque under normal circumstances.  Nars Golshan is slightly redder but lies in the same vein.  

​It's a high rotation colour fam for me and I have a version in virtually every known finish.  Look into some reddish ochres today, brunette bitches.  They are intensely beautifying.  

Overall, it's pretty impossible to fault Crushed Chili, and lord knows I try to pop some shit on most things.  The price and availability aren't super-optimal, plus it's an LE so snatch it while you can; those bits suck, for sure.  That's all the nits picked.

L2R, MAC unless stated: Russian Red,  Bite Crushed Chili, Verve,
​Chilli, Taupe, Spice It Up, Nars Iberico

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