If someone asks me about my favorites in any given makeup category, it's pretty rare that I can throw out a decisive favorite when it comes to specific products or brands. I just love too many things and I'm constantly reaching for and finding different favorite products. That said, if you ask me what my favorite brand for lip products is, I'm almost certainly going to tell you that it's BITE Beauty. It's been a few years since I first tried any BITE products and I've since been hooked. Of course, because of this, you can probably imagine how excited I was when I found out I was going to get a chance to try out the new BITE The Lip Pencil lip liners thanks to Influenster. I basically did a little dance.

So let us get to the reviews, shall we?

Shade 20 is a true beige nude shade that pairs really well with lighter neutral lipsticks, but can also work with more pink or peach based nudes to neutralize them a little bit. It came paired with the Amuse Bouche lipstick in Honeycomb, which is basically the perfect pairing, but I have tried it with other nude shades and it works really well. I think this would also be a good pencil to reach for to lighten up a shade that might be a little too deep. Because it's such a neutral tone, I think it'll work well with a lot of different shades.

Shade 044 is a deep chocolate burgundy shade, making it perfect to pair with a wide variety of vampy lip looks. Admittedly, this pulled me a little bit outside of my comfort zone, because I tend not to wear very vampy lips anymore, but I can definitely appreciate the need for a lip liner with a deep lip shade. This was paired with the Amuse Bouche lipstick in Whiskey, which I find to be a warmer than 040 but still a beautiful pairing. I've also tried it with more red and burgundy shades and it works really beautifully. I also quite like this to add depth to the outer corners of the lip or the inner rim to add a gradient effect to a lip look.

The formula of these pencils seriously blew my mind as soon as I first swatched them. Because this is a pencil that you sharpen, I was expecting the formula to be a little more dry than a twist up type liner, but this might be the creamiest lip liner I've ever used. The formula is ultra-pigmented, so you can really get a crisp line on the lips, and it ultimately sets so that it's not slipping and moving around on the lips. I feel like I can really tell how much time BITE put into getting this formula right, because it's just pitch perfect in all the ways I want it to be.

Like I said when I spoke about each shade, these do pair really perfectly with specific BITE lipsticks, but I do think you can play around to pair them with different shades to make your pencil go further. I decided to test this out with some of my favorite BITE Amuse Bouche lipsticks that I had in my collection and I really like all four of the looks that I came out with.

TOP ROW: Suggested Pairings

1. Bite The Lip Pencil in Shade 020* paired with BITE Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Honeycomb*

Honeycomb and 020 are a perfect pairing for each other to give a really beautiful nude lip that isn't too peach or pink but still manages to avoid looking like concealer lips on my skin tone.

2. Bite The Lip Pencil in Shade 044* paired with BITE Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Whiskey*

Whiskey and 044 are, again, a perfect pairing. This level of depth in a brown shade is definitely out of the box for me, but I think it actually looks really beautiful - and would be absolutely stunning on deeper skintones where this would read more neutral than necessarily vampy.

BOTTOM: Play Pairings

1. Bite The Lip Pencil in Shade 044* paired with BITE Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Nori

Nori is a stunning deep red shade that I think definitely calls for a lip liner, and I think 044 definitely paired well with it. It's definitely adding some depth to Nori and I had to blend them a little bit, but I think this is a great example of how these pencils can pair outside of their matched shades.

2. Bite The Lip Pencil in Shade 020* paired with BITE Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Pepper

Pepper is a favorite of mine and a shade that I reach for constantly and I wasn't really sure how 020 would pair with it, but I actually love the look it gave. It lightened up Pepper a little bit to give it more of a pinky nude look, which I love.

I think testing these out has really inspired me to want to try pairing them with even more different lipsticks to see how I can manipulate shades. Because these lip liners are so blendable, they're really perfect for that.

I'M OBSESSED. I mean, need I say more? I think this formula is absolutely perfect and BITE has seriously done it again. I definitely can't wait to pick up more shades from this collection, because I feel like this is the only lip liner I want to reach for at the moment and I think I need to make sure that I've got all the shades I need so that I don't have to reach for another. Seriously, I love them that much.

The BITE Beauty The Lip Pencil is available exclusively at Sephora and retails for $20CAD each!

Thanks for reading!