Friday 16 October 2009

Doh A Deere

So as you may have gathered from my previous post, i am not the biggest fan of Lime Crime Makeup, or indeed Doe Deere herself.
If you've missed the drama the problem with Lime Crime is that her mineral eye shadows (or 'magic dusts') are just repackaged pigments from wholesale companies, being sold for a much, much higher price but Lime Crime claim they actually formulate their own colours and say that there is no other makeup as pigmented and bright as them. Both of these claims are simply not true. And then to add insult to injury, when called out on the fact her shades are identical to ones available from wholesalers, she had the audacity to claim that THEY copied HER!

To find out more here are some good articles on the subject:

Lime Crime, So Ordinary it Should be Illegal.

Comparing Wholesale Micas to Retail.

No Originality With Lime Crime.

Mineral Mayhem v.20

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

Getting Duped.

Made me Giggle.

Lime Crime is a Ripoff, please read!

Thanks for everyones advice over my dilemma whether or not to buy her lipsticks. i have decided that, no matter how beautiful her lipsticks are (i'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe her pathetic new post claiming she had a big part of the production of them, unlike her eye dusts) there's no way i could fund her because of her lying, cheating ways and things she has done in the past (deleting bad comments and reviews about her, scamming people out of money they believed was for a charity, making shoddy garments in her fashion designer days and insulting my mother).

Anyway her most recent post really rubbed me up the wrong way.
Now let's just assume that what she's saying is true about the lipsticks, she worked with a lab, designed the colours herself etc etc, it's such a bloody vain, self congratulatory post (much like all of her blog) it infuriates me. Here are some quotes that were particularly untrue or irritating.

'The Opacity factor ended up being something I had to FIGHT for, tooth and nail. Having made millions of mediocre lipsticks, the lab didn’t quite understand why I wanted mine to be so pigmented'
Has his factory never heard of, i don't know, Mac for example? While Mac might not have the most unconventional range of colours, you can't fault their pigmentation!

'Indeed, in an industry that is supposed to be all about color, I felt strangely alone in my dedication to develop shades that were a little (or a lot!) outside the traditional spectrum. The typical color-developing process is quite uninspiring:

1. Client finds a ’sample’, usually another brand’s lipstick or eyeshadow
2. Lab matches it
3. Client tweaks color (darker/greener/more pigmented/etc) and sticks it in their own packaging.

That’s it. There are two things inherently wrong with this process. 1) Everyone’s making copies of each other’s stuff. 2) Nothing new is being invented, ever. Is it any wonder we have stores full of cosmetics that look exactly the same?!'


... Kettle, you are looking pretty damn black. She actually did WORSE than this with her eye dusts. Instead of getting a lab to match it, she just resold another brands eyeshadows!

'Is it possible to make neon lipstick? How about blue? Is it legal? Why isn’t anybody doing it?!'
Xenia, here are your answers. Yes, i have many neon lipsticks. Yes i have more than one blue lipstick. Yes it's legal and actually many people are doing it.

'You can imagine how crazy people thought I was for even asking these questions. In an industry that’s more about trends than creativity, coloring outside the lines is, well, …a crime. Imagine having to convince seasoned chemists that you indeed want purple that purple and pink that bright. In the end, I’m very glad I trusted my gut instinct and developed a range that helped set Lime Crime apart from other brands.'
Again, just not true. Many many companies have been making these sort of colours long, long before she decided to have a go at the makeup market.

Everything she writes about her makeup just claims that it is basically the only thing out there for people who want bright, unusual colours and it's just not true at all! While i will say her colours do look good and, from what i can see, good quality, they are all just photoshopped so who knows what they'll really look like on?

I have no real problem using photoshop for beauty photos, if you want to clean up your face, or a colour is hard to photograph i guess it's fine to adjust the photo a little to make the colour true to life. However what she has done is taken about 2 photos of her lip and then just coloured them in in photoshop. Or indeed at one point taken a photograph of Raquel Reed, photoshopped her 'Oh No She Didn't' on top and at least had the decency to say 'colour approximated'.

So if you're on the lookout for bright, unusually coloured lipsticks, but don't want to give money to a lying, self appointed 'unicorn queen' i've found quite a few places to try:

Firstly Stargazer:

Not only are these incredibly cheap (£3 or about $4.95) they come in a huge range of colours. From black and white to several different shades of bright pink, turquoise, blue, purple and orange and well as shimmery colours, a few bright lipglosses and glittery colours as well.
I have a few and i will admit they do not feel that nice on my lips, they're quite drying, however they are incredibly well pigmented and last a long time. You can't go wrong for 3 quid in my opinion. (also this website has a few shades on sale for 99p!)
It's been rumoured that her lipsticks are just repackaged stargazer, i have no evidence of that but you can get some pretty damn good dupes for a fraction of the price. I'd like to see her try and claim Stargazer copied her, since they've been around since 1978!

Barry M:

Barry M have a smaller range of 'unusual' colours than stargazer but are a higher quality, with great staying power, a lovely creamy quality and fabulous pigmented formula. They retail for £4.25 (about $6.95) and come in a wide range of wearable colours, such as their new range of pink and red colours, but also a fabulous black lipstick, some neon pinks, orange, lavenders and glitters. They also have a lovely range of glittery lip glosses, as well as an opaque bright orange and bubblegum pink gloss.

Illamasqua:

Illamasqua have a lot of lovely lipsticks, but apart from silver, black, gold and white none are really 'unusual' for lipsticks, however their Intense Lipglosses come in a huge range of very exciting, ultra opaque but ultra shiny colours. White, black, blue, purple, acid green and even grey! I have started a collection of these and i can truly say they are the best lipgloss' i have ever used. Pricier than the rest at £12.50 (about $20), but still thats only $4 more than Limey's lipstick.

Mac:

Mac don't have any incredibly 'weird' colours, but the pro range has a few slightly more unusual, but still very wearable shades. For instance Violetta and Neon Orange. Also in the style black range there are a few various shades of blacks and other interesting colours. I'm not going to go into the quality, because everyone knows MAC are just great. £12 in the UK $14 in the US.


I've never tried these following companies so i can't vouch for the quality, but they have a lot of nice bright colours and i've heard good reviews from a lot of people.


Glitter to Gore:

The website is not great as there aren't any actual colour swatches, just photoshopped pictures and a photo of a selection of the lipsticks. Retail for $7.99 (£4.89)

Amphigory:

A lovely choice of colours including some very exciting glittery black, blue and green lippies. Also a good thing about this site is they specify which of the colours are actually 'handblended' by them. Various prices depending on the type of lipstick, the most expensive is $13.50 (£8.27)

Morgana Minerals:

a lovely range of darker 'gothy' colours like blues, purples and blacks and some brighter colours like turquoise. Again not the best swatches, but at least they show them actually on the lips. Also you can buy samples of these lipsticks, which i think is great! A full lipstick is $10 (about £6.13) or a sample to try is only $0.50 (about 30p)

Fyrinnae:

a wide selection of 'lip lustres', which they describe as similar to a lip stain. They claim they are very opaque and have some gorgeous colours from blue to turquoise to a lovely range of pinks and coppers. $4.50 (about £2.75) for a full tube or $2.50 (about £1.50) for a mini tube.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics:

I'm absolutely longing for some of these. They come in a wide range of really bright colours (stunning primary blue, yellow and red) but you are also meant to use them to blend your own colours and the results absoluely amaze me (some swatches are available here, here, and here.) They go on like a lipgloss but then dry to a satiny, lipstick-like finish apparently. $12.50 (about £7.70).

So i hope this helps you find some exciting new lip colours!

(also, [and this is a little bitchy, but hey she started it when she called my Mum an asshole!] does anyone else find her slogan 'so bright its illegal' annoying. It really irritates me. If it was 'so bright it should be illegal' it would be fine! But no, it actually claims 'its illegal' which is just a lie and pisses me off immensely!)

And incase Lime crime or a fan is reading this and just think i am jealous, i would like to assure you i am not. There are many people that i am jealous of, and would happily admit it, but in fact i tend to like these people a lot. For instance i am jealous of makeup artist Alex Box's talent, and her input into the Illamasqua makeup line. I do not dislike Lime crime because i am jealous of her, if she weren't a huge liar and hadn't insulted me i'm sure i would love her, and see her as a big asset to the makeup community. In fact i used to be friends with her, not proper friends but blog-friends and i thought she was lovely. I saw the fun, sparkly, interesting girl she portrays to readers of her blog now. Then she started copying other peoples designs, insulting people and trying to cheat people out of money and i saw her true colours.

23 comments:

  1. What an amazingly well thought out and researched post.

    I also found her recent post about the 'lab' quite convenient in timing. JUST as she's called out as a liar to the world, she dredges up some unbelieveble post.

    A few people pointed out to me how EXPENSIVE it would be to have a private lab formulate a lipstick in such a limited run as hers. Where would an unemployed wannabe get that cash? Certainly she hasn't made THAT much ripping everyone off with her shadows?!!

    And two, the photo looks like it's staged in a phlebotemy lab. No colors, no lipsticks, nothing to back up the story.

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  2. Thank you Gothique
    I found myself laughing when i saw her lab post, it's so pathetic and obvious she's trying to cover her tracks.

    You're right, in the photo she claims she's testing samples on her hand but you can't see anything! And I hadn't thought of the fact of how expensive it would be to make such a small run of makeup, even bigger companies who've been around for longer hand-make their lip colours.

    Still at the moment i'll give her the benefit of the doubt about the lipsticks. It still doesn't make her any less of a lying, nasty bizyatch.

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  3. Great post. I'm a dissapointed fan of hers...
    I found her back when she had her old limecrime website, and I thought her tutorials were great. But after hearing about how shes cheated people out of money, and has repackaged her eyeshadows, I don't look up to her for inspiration like I once did.

    I gotta ask, why did she call your mom an asshole? Thats such a no-no!

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  4. I LOL'd at her newest blog entry too, especially the part where she trash talks other makeup lines for tweaking colors instead of inventing new ones. HELLO? This from the repackager who isn't even creative enough to mix her own colors? LOL! And I thought the same thing as Gothique, that the timing of that entry was a little too perfect. Very desperate I might add.

    Yesterday she Twittered "Someone asked me how I deal with criticism. Quite well actually. The best way to improve at your game is to listen to your fans!" What a downright lie. Several of her fans have received nasty responses from her when they've expressed their disappointment upon finding out that she's just a repackager. I wouldn't call that dealing well at all, LOL!

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  5. Hi Ash
    Yeah, really she's a very dodgy person. Even before it all came out that her pigments are just repackaged she did something really suspect. She sent free samples to makeup gurus on youtube that were about twice the size of the product she actually sells! So people would see videos with those samples, be convinced to buy them and then recieve a product that was half the size. It's just bad business!

    She called my Mum an asshole a few years ago when she was a fashion designer. Basically my mum bought a dress from her that turned out to be hemmed with Duct tape. We found this quite shocking and really funny but being repressed english types didn't complain or ask for a refund or anything. Then a friend of mine posted photos of the dress on a forum about bad DIY fashion, to which limecrime replied 'i sold a faulty dress, this girls mother paid $100 for it, who's the real asshole ;)'
    so not only was she insulting my Mother, but she was basically saying 'i sell crap to people who are gullible enough to buy it'.

    Purplecutie, i thought that tweet of hers was hilarious too! I really want to see the nasty things she's been saying to people, i completely believe that she would. Also someone pointed out something to me, all colours have to just come from existing pigments and just be tweaked, you can't just invent a new colour! The thing is while i own about 15 red lipsticks from various companies, not a single one is an exact match.

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  6. What a bloody idiot, who the hell would hem a dress with duct tape?? I can't even put into words how rediculous that is. What was she thinking?
    If I had been in your position I would have caused a shit storm over and gotten my money back. Very shocking.

    I used to be such a fan...but all of this coming to light has made me second guess everything she "stands for."

    I make lipglosses for fun, and the thought of using straight repackaged mica never crossed my mind. All of the fun comes from making your own colours!

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  7. I can definitely recommend Morgana Minerals Lipsticks and Fyrinnae's Lip Lustres. I have lots of both. Fyrinnae Ryunome is awsome, as is Morgana's Ice Queen and Nightshade.

    Lime Crime's lipsticks are not unique. MAC used to make a frosty lavender called Miss Moffit, and of course, there are Nyx lipsticks too.

    Thank you for sharing your story with us about what she did to your mum. That's horrid.

    Thank you for linking to my blog post, as well.

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  8. Ash:
    i know it's just stupid isn't it? I just learned to sew a few years ago and hemming is not a problem at all! There's so many different ways to do it if you don't want to hand stitch an invisible hem, it was just an amazing act of laziness!

    In my opinion the worst thing about her is that she deletes or tries to delete anything that makes her look bad. For instance she deleted all the comments she left insulting my mum.

    She's incredibly good at marketing herself so you should never feel bad for being taken in by her.

    Phyrra said...

    Thank you very much for your comment. I'm definately gonna try some fyrinnae and morgana makeup soon.

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  9. That Buzzworthy MTV story is now deleting all negative comments. What the hell is that about? Freedom of speech is part of being an AMerican. But I guess MTV is now corrupted as well.

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  10. Lime Crime makes makes me sick! Especially how she portrays herself in her blogs, its a little too sickly sweet and so easy to see through her self-proclaimed queen status. Yuck Im so glad Ive learned of all of this before being conned into buying. And Im so sorry to hear about your mom, thats just wrong on sooo many levels!

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  11. Haha, I'm glad someone else finds the slogan obnoxious. I thought I was the only one!

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  12. Anon:
    The Buzzworthy story stopped deleting negative comments i think, at least there are some there, but there haven't been any new comments for about a week, which is a bit odd.

    AFEcoMom:
    It's just funny if you've known her for years. She disappears from the internet now and then and then reappears with a new alter-ego (a bit like David Bowie only more lame) this one is the sweet, kind makeup guru who's making the world a better place by... keeping a blog with some pretty pictures.
    And thank you, i figure it's relelvant because if she was capable of such bad customer service back then she certainly still is.

    Kat A:
    It just irks me so much! 'so bright it's illegal' NO! It's not illegal! Shame on her, even lying in her slogan :Psaid...

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  13. I have to say though, not every slogan in the world is true and it's just a small point none of us can fix and shouldn't get too worked up about it, otherwise we'll have to start attacking a million more companies with false slogans. It's just advertising.
    I wouldn't buy her products basically on the fact that they're far too expensive and as you've pointed out, there are far cheaper alternatives.
    However her blog is a fun read when it's just about makeup or outfits.
    Otherwise I try to remain pretty neutral over the whole shenanigans of this duplicate issue.
    Em.

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  14. FaceFront Cosmetics has bombbastic eye colors!
    Plus they give you 5grams for 8 dollars!
    And if you don't like the color you can send it back or exchange it!

    I swear lime crime girl just took occ lip tars and made them into lipsticks!

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  15. Oh GOD Scratch the "bombbastic" I meant something along the lines of freaking awesome fantastic!

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  16. She's re formulating some of her eyedusts. Maybe a step in the right direction. Welcome to the market, doe, you complained yet now you're being forced to put adhesives in your TKB.

    There are some that won't be back. Funny because she said "they are selling out fast" then she's giving them away free with a $50 dollar order.

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  17. I just today viewed one YT video, that led me into investigating further into this woman and her company. I was already convinced that I would never purchase her products a couple of years ago when I saw what she charges - absolute bollocks to that. But after hearing about the duck taped hem, and just now reading her response to a dissatisfied customer that began with "Sweetie", I will NEVER purchase! and I will warn my own subscribers against doing so. She is condescending, patronizing and arrogant. I sincerely hope that many of these young women who are drinking her koolaid, wake up and switch to Gatorade sooner than later. Thank you for your well worded blog post and warning about her, and thank you for providing more fiscally prudent options :)

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  18. Lime crime is an amazing brand and everyone commenting is just jealous. You don't know what your talking about. Stop paying out Doe Deere because you're unhappy with your own pathetic lives. Leave her alone. How would you feel if everyone was writing such nasty comments about YOU. Stop acting like children and GROW UP. This woman is living her DREAM which is more than any of you can say.

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  19. I think that everyone needs to just listen to themselves and listen to how stupid they sound. Doe Deere has her OWN brand of makeup. What do you guys have? Nothing.

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  20. I appreciate your honest review of this company. I have purchased many of their products, and to be honest, I dont really care if they are "repackaged" or if the owner of the company is as rude as you think she is (even though in interviews she comes of incredibly polite and well-mannered). The lipsticks and eyeshadows are functional, pigmented and come in cute packaging and what else do you really need in a makeup product?

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  21. I am indeed dissapointed..... and I am sorry to hear about what she did to your mum.

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  22. People need to realise that this happened FOUR YEARS AGO and Doe Deere has since cleaned up her act. She pissed A LOT of people off over it, but she did fix her shit and she has learned how to shut her mouth,now she's going the direction she SHOULD have gone in the beginning. Everyone saying that we dont know what we're talking about, shut the fuck up.

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  23. Except she hasn't cleaned up her act at all, Mermaid Atlantica. You're pissed people are saying you "don't know what you're talking about"? Check out Doe Deere Lies sometime, or at least do a little research. Lime Crime is facing- TWO- lawsuits atm, and as of this week has stolen someone's html coding for their website without credit or payment. Doe Deere is not cleaned up, just better at fooling gullible people.

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