It’s been six months since Bite Beauty discontinued cult favourite lipstick “Amuse Bouche”. The brand’s reasoning behind the mass discontinuation of products was that it was reformulating its products so that each and every one was vegan (no doubt to home in on the “clean beauty” fad that’s been hammered in our faces for the past year).
The brand made its triumphant return on January 10, 2020, leaving many beauty lovers underwhelmed, to say the least.
Gone were the colourful Amuse Bouche lipsticks in favour of the most boring, blah shades of nudes and purple matte lipstick crayons. (I’m quite partial to Negroni – but it’s the only “colourful” product in the entire range of matte lipsticks.)
The brand also launched a powder that no one asked for and yet another CC cream foundation, despite the fact that every brand under the sun is already doing the sheer, dewy foundation thing. Market over-saturation, people!
Bite also called the foundation “Micellar Foundation”, which my brain immediately associates with Micellar water. I know, I know, micelles are a whole different thing, but still, I can’t help but marvel at the logic of naming your base product after the thing that takes it off. It’s like calling a beverage “Sleep Coffee.”
My main beef is with the Amuse Bouche lipsticks. Where the heck are they?
And, namely, why would a brand completely discontinue its best-loved product for more than six months? Can you imagine if Ralph Lauren stopped selling Polos or Starbucks stopped selling coffee beans? It’s an extremely odd choice, made even weirder by the fact that their Instagram manager keeps saying that the product will be released “later this year.”
When is later this year? Why the coyness? And more importantly, did 2016 permanently fry the brains of makeup execs or are we ever going to return to some semblance of “normal” ever again?
I always liked that Bite Beauty did one product, and they did it damn well. Expanding into new territory is yet another transparent cash grab from the good folks at Kendo, and I’m tired of it. The average consumer is not a beauty guru, and doesn’t need a billion foundations and powders to choose from.
Just give me back my Radish, and soon, please.