A fun way to treat yourself or have a girls’ night out … Lip Lab has you covered! Lip Lab is a fully customizable lipstick experience; perfect for treating yourself, a mother-daughter activity, girls’ night out, or a party. The experience lasts about an hour and consists of four key steps. 

I booked one of the last reservation time slots of the day and my color expert helped explain the process. There are four key steps:

1. Choose your product(s) – lipstick, high-shine gloss, or lip balm. You also choose your finish if you are doing a lipstick- matte, satin, or sheer. 
2. Create your shade – you pick your shade and a color expert will mix until it’s spot on. 
3. Add a flavor – example flavors include  vanilla, rose, dark chocolate, pomegranate, mango, and mint. 
4. Name it and engrave it.

Step one, pick a product. I decided to get a lipstick and a lip balm. For my lipstick, I decided on a matte finish and we started step two, mixing the perfect shade. Lip Lab provides a color chart with 48 shades which you use as a staring point. Go bold, go neutral, or something in between! I started with a mauvy neutral. My color expert mixed the shade and I was able to sample it and see it against my skin tone. Shade #1 turned out beautifully but my color expert and I thought it could use a bit more pop so we adjusted it to include more of a purple hue. Lipstick shade #2 did not compliment my skin tone so we decided on shade #1. (No need to keep mixing if you love it!)

Step three, add a flavor. Flavors vary by location and Lip Lab has samples available for you to smell before you include them. I chose vanilla for my lipstick. My color expert weighed out each ingredient (base and colors), melted them down, then poured the hot liquid into a lipstick mold to form. The form is allowed to cool before the lipstick is removed and placed in the lipstick tube. After selecting my customized lipstick shade, it was time to repeat the same steps for a lip balm. I decided to stick with fairly neutral colors but did go a bit brighter for the balm, since it is more translucent, and chose pomegranate flavor. 

Last step, naming and engraving. You could go crazy creative here, the world is your oyster! I chose simple and used my name and initials to name my products. My color expert loaded my selected name and font style into the engraver and gave me a preview before starting the engraving. I watched as the engraving machine etched my lipstick and lip balm tubes. (This is admittedly exactly like watch the machine at the pet store engrave your pet’s name tag but more exciting because it’s your lipstick!) 

After happily spending an hour on my customized lipstick and lip balm, my experience came to a close. My color expert packaged my products and reminded me that my color information was in the system so I can reorder any time. Reorders can only be placed for the exact product, and any desired changes to finish or shade would require another color session. You can also match the shade of a discontinued product, just take that product to your color session and your color expert will work with you to match it perfectly. 

While you get to choose all the elements of your customized lipstick, you don’t actually mix it. The color expert is trained on color matching, both the art and the science. All custom Lip Lab products are physically mixed, poured, and manufactured on-site for you. I will add, I appreciate the level of hygiene and sanitation with this process as well. My color expert wore gloves and cleaned/sterilized each tool before and after use. (This is a pet peeve I have with a lot of cosmetic stores and the lack of hygiene!) 

Reservations are highly recommended per Lip Lab but I would say they are required. Your color expert is with you for the full experience and seating is limited. Lip Lab has a 10 minute grace period with reservations so no need to worry if traffic is a little backed up. 

Lip Lab products are cruelty-free, vegan, paraben-free, gluten-free, and talc-free. A full list of ingredients for each component of your lipstick can be found on Lip Lab’s website along with current locations. As of this post, there are 13 locations and I’m sure more will be coming soon! 

Scottsdale, AZ 

Irvine, CA 

Los Angeles, CA 

Napa, CA 

Washington, DC 

Chicago, IL 

Las Vegas, NV 

Brooklyn, NY

New York, NY 

Toronto, ON 

Nashville, TN

Austin, TX

Dallas, TX