The Lip Lab Custom Lipstick Service Review

The Lip Lab is a chain in Australia where you can get your own custom lipstick made to suit your specifications. There are a few similar services overseas (Bite Beauty is a big one in America), but this is the only brand in Sydney as far as I know. There are 15 Lip Lab branches across the country so far.

I was invited to the lovely bright airy Lip Lab store on Oxford St in Paddington to get my dream lipstick shade made. I’ve been in love with nude shades recently, so I wanted to get a sheer satin nude that was would essentially be the lovechild of Marc Jacobs No Angel and the discontinued-in-Australia Revlon Lip Butter Pink Truffle (“they’re not the same, they’re similar“).

The Lip Lab’s Shauna made my lipstick for me. After listening to my description and peering intently at the lipsticks I brought with me, she measured out drops of various pigments onto a plate and mixed them with the shea butter-containing base with a palette knife to create my custom shade.

You can also add shimmers and sparkles at this stage too. I went through maybe 5 cycles of trying on little samples, walking to a brightly sunlit mirror, then coming back and sheepishly asking for it to be a tiny bit pinker or browner or just… more nudey. Shauna did a great job of interpreting my often vague instructions! Once I was happy with the colour, we looked at choosing some additives, including fragrance, SPF, antioxidants, lip plumper and anti-feathering ingredients. There’s a selection of about 25 fragrances which took me quite a while to get through, but I eventually settled for their most popular scent, pink champagne. Shauna wrote everything down and filed away my formula in case I wanted to reorder it later.

After blending the lipstick thoroughly, the formula was melted, mixed again, then moulded and put into a container. You get to choose the shape of the lipstick bullet, as well as the tube design and the name of your lipstick (by far the hardest part of the process!). The lipstick production process generally takes 30 minutes from start to finish, and while you can technically use your lipstick right away, they recommend that you leave it for 12 hours to properly harden and set.

Here’s my shade: Send Me Your Nudes. (I look a little scary in this pic, sorry about that! I was very sleep deprived and forgot how to make myself look friendly without looking frightening.)

A basic lipstick is $65, lip gloss is $30, and flavours and other additives are $3 each. As well as custom lipsticks, The Lip Lab also make custom lip glosses and soon, foundation as well.

Overall it was a very fun experience and I’m loving my new lippie! I think this would make a great group activity for a hens party or birthday, or just a makeup addict excursion. There are group bookings available where you can hire out the whole venue for a special event! It’s an awesome way to dupe discontinued or limited edition lipsticks as well, without the fuss of DIYing your own lipstick.

I was invited to the Lip Lab as part of a paid Instagram opportunity, but was not paid for this post or required to write it, I just wanted to share my experience in more detail. This post also contains affiliate links – if you decide to click through and support Lab Muffin financially (at no extra cost to you), thank you! For more information, see Disclosure Policy.