Watch how lipstick gets made in these mesmerizing gifs

Here’s a mesmerizing breakdown of how meticulously measured crushed pigments, essential oils, and more become luxe tubes of lipstick.

Have you ever thought about what really goes into your lipstick?

Despite claims that a woman eats seven pounds (three kilos) of lipstick in her lifetime, we always had a devil-may-care attitude regarding lip colour ingredients.

That is, until we (thanks to bitebeauty.com) learned precisely how lipstick gets made.

The experience was a callback to high school chemistry class, except this time around we were actually interested in each step of the process as opposed to relying on our lab partner do all the heavy lifting.

Here, find a mesmerizing breakdown of how meticulously measured crushed pigments, essential oils, and more become luxe tubes of lipstick. (Cue: Up those ooohs and ahhhs!)

Step 1 Milling the pigments

The primary ingredients found in lipstick are wax, oil, alcohol, and pigment. And of course if your brand is striving for high-performance colour with all-natural ingredients, you get this:

Unlike most beauty brands, all of Bite’s pigments are milled in-house using a triple roll mill.

Milling in-house gives the brand complete control over shades. Bite Products that are handmade by Bite Beauty in Toronto, Canada.

Step 2 Compounding the base

This is where they combine all the waxes, butters, and oils together to create creamy, hydrating lipsticks.

All of their batches are made in small lobster pots for no more than 3,000 lipsticks at a time. They melt these ingredients at a low heat in small batches to preserve the efficacy of the ingredients.

Once there’s a base, they add the scent and flavour.

Step 3 Mixing everything together

The last step before heading out onto the production floor is the mixing process.

This is where the artisanal workers slowly and carefully mix the colour and base together.

They often have to add dry ingredients like silica at this stage, which requires patience and attention to detail to ensure an evenly mixed finished product.

Step 4 Filling the tubes and packing ‘em up

Once the liquid version of the lipstick is ready, it goes out onto the production floor and is put into a line based on the product.

For the Amuse Bouche collection, they’re produced using a 12 nozzle machine to help evenly fill a 12 cavity mould.

Each lipstick is then unmolded by hand, checked for quality, and hand packaged.

Et voila!

The writer tweets as @SanyaHoon