Clean Start Smart Mouth Lip Shine

(I was sent this to review but all thoughts are my own)

 

The lovely people at Dermalogica were kind enough to send me a sample kit of their Clean Start range. The rest is skincare and I haven't been using it for long enough to review yet.

I get very dry lips, I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's the constant lipstick wearing or the fact that i suffer from dry skin on the rest of my face but anyway the reason isn't important (so why am i discussing it?... dunno!). However I am not one of those people who applies lipbalm religiously. I tend to just apply it before bed everyday, or, if my lips are very chapped and sore, every now and then. My most used balm is Vaseline. Now i know some people swear by it and some despise it. I quite like it personally but the main reason i use it is that i can get a big pot for cheap and just keep it on my bedside table, it will last me months if not years and i don't need to worry about buying more balm. Of course I have tried other balms though, various brands through the years and, while some have worked better than others I've never found one I liked enough tokeep coming back to, apart from the Vaseline.

And then I tried this one.

I can honestly say that this is the best lip balm I've ever tried! I like so so much about it, but the main thing is that i honestly believe this helped cure my chapped lips practically overnight.

A while back, when I recieved this, I had awfully saw lips. Red and painful and chapped to the point that they were very near bleeding. I got this, put it on and my mouth instantlly felt soothed. I was pleased but didn't much more. But i kept putting it on and the next day i woke up and, while my lips were still a bit sore, they felt so, so much better and all the flaking skin was gone and healed. I was amazed. And then by the next day my lips weren't even sore again! Of course this could have been a coincidence, maybe my lips were just healing up anyway, but I reckon it's more likely it was the balm. 

I haven't had such sore lips since, but using this makes my lips feel softer, smoother and hydrated. 

Another great thing about it is the scent. It smells amazing! It'sweet, sort of candy-ish. to me it smells like a mixture of orange and vanilla (what i believe some people call 'creamsicle') It's not overpowering but not weak either, it's just about right. It doesn't have flvour though, just  a sweetness about it. 

However one slight problem I have with it is that although the scent isn't really strong it's still strong enough that I can't wear it at night, but that's just a little niggle.

The packaging isn't very exciting or cute or unusual but i like it anyway. The actual design is nice, quite straight forward and clean, with instructions and information on the back. The colour scheme of two oranges, black and white is nice and vibrant and sort of Pop-art-ish. And the uhh 'delivery system' for the balm is a small, plastic applicator thing with 4 small holes. You have to squeeze quite hard to get the product out, but to me this seems like a good thing as it means it would be unlikely to leak anywhere.

The actual balm is a liquid, basically the same consistency as a lip gloss. And that leads me onto the fact that this balm is designed to be a lip gloss as well. Now I don't really wear clear lipgloss (apart from on top of lipstick, and i haven't tried using this like that yet, but i will try to remember!) but I have seen it on my lips obviously. While it doesn't give you a super-plastic-like shine like some glosses it does give your lips a nice glossy shine and a juicy, wet look. 

So this has basically been enirely positive so far! But here comes quite a big negative: The price. This currently retails at £8.20 for 10ml. Now I've been using this for a while and there seems to still be lots left (as the packaging is opaque i can't actually tell) but I don't know how long it will last. And, well £8 is a LOT for a lip balm in my opinion. And so i don't know if i would actually purchase this myself. I love it, like i said it's the best lip balm i've owned, but i don't know if i could bring myself to spend that much on one lip balm when i could get 225g of Vaseline for £2.25 or a tub of Carmex for £2.50 (i haven't actually tried Carmex myself but i've heard from a tonne of sources that it is the holy grail of lip balms).

The Smart Mouth Lip Shine has the added advantage of acting as a lip gloss as well. If you wear a lot of clear gloss then i would highly recommend it as it will act as your gloss but heal your lips too. However as i said before I don't wear gloss that much.

So in summary: this is a fantatic product and if you can afford it I would highly recommend it, but it does seem too pricey to me.

Lime Crime Lipstick Review

Now before you wonder if i've lost my mind, i didn't buy these from Her, Claire picked them up from a blog sale for me to try, along with some full sizes of her repackaged eyeshadows so i can swatch more colours against their TKB counterparts and get rid of any ideas that i might be lying about what's in my Lime Crime sample baggies :) Thanks beauteous xx

While we got them for a cheaper price they were brand new (had only been swatched) so I'm going to  review these as if we'd bought them brand new and paid the £14 Space N charges for Lime Crime.

Again i'm not going to lie, i'm hugely biased against these products beause of my feelings towards the company and my personal experiences with it's founder, however i'm going to try my best to just focus on these products and be as honest as possible. If i love them i'll tell you, because i want to have integrity and if anyone reading my blog wants to buy them and doesn't care about what the company has done in the past i respect that decision. However if you feel like you can't take my word that i'm being honest, here are a couple of more unbiased reviews:

Temptalia's

Lipglossiping's

Now please go under the jump to hear my indepth thoughts.

Dear Anonymous Lime Crime lover:

Well i wanted to answer your question directly in it's own post, so anyone who was also wondering the same thing could see the answer.

So your question is:

'Anonymous said...

I don't get you, a while ago you said that Xenia apologised to you for insulting your mum and that you accepted her apologies but still you keep dragging the accident up again and again, did you accept her apologies or not? And do you know what that means? Please behave like a grown up! I think you keep talking about Xenia and Lime Crime because somehow you feel at the centre of all the drama being involved because one time, centuries ago, your mum bought some shit off of her ... got a life much?'

Which you wrote in response to this post:

http://lillianfunnyface.blogspot.com/2010/03/quick-lime-crime-drama-update.html#comments

Firstly i'm confused as i only mentioned my Mum's experience in that post once, in a very fleeting comment also chronicalling Limey's other scams, so i'm guessing you're just asking in general why i am still bothered by Lime Crime scamming people when she has apologised to me. Also you claim i am dragging up an 'accident'. Well while the dress being hemmed with gaffa tape might be an accident, insulting my Mum wasn't. How do you accidentally call someone an asshole?

I have always said i am still biased. While she did offer me a very basic apology, it was about 5 years after the original comment was made. When she made the comment she sent me an email, which i have never posted until now (i'm just posting a little bit of it as some of it was bizarrely confessional and private and i don't want to embarrass her any more than she embarrases herself. This is the only bit that actually pertains to the duct tape dress and her comments):

'Hi. I figured I'd email you directly instead of commenting in your journal. First of all, I am sorry you didn't like the dress. Heck knows why I didn't fix it up. Maybe my sewing machine was broken that week, or maybe I just didn't know how to do it at the time. Or maybe I was just broke and desperate to sell it in as-is condition. I really can't remember.'

It then just goes on and on about the pressure on her to be the world's greatest fashion designer, and how people would commit suicide if they found out she was quitting fashion (seriously).

Do you see any hint of an apology for calling my Mum an asshole? I don't, i see an apology for selling a faulty dress, feebly excused by her saying she was probably just in a rush and needed money. In fact she doesn't even say she's sorry she did it, just she was sorry i didn't like it.

So after that point i stopped being a fan of hers (i was, even through recieving the duct-tape dress, right up until she called my poor mum an asshole) and shut up about her for years. Even through her charity scandal, up until about a year after she started selling her makeup.

When Lime Crime first started i had no idea her products (the eyeshadows, glitters and blushes) were just repackaged TKB as at the time i was completely ignorant about mineral makeup. I thought they were quite pretty but, because of my bad experience, wouldn't buy. But i didn't say anything about it, right up until i was actually tempted to buy her lipsticks, when i just told my story and asked my followers what they would do in my situation. I was then told about the repackaging, and decided to check it out and was shocked by what i found.

And yes, she did offer me an apology, as i said only after years had passed and she had accused me (and anyone else with any problem of her company) of being a jealous liar, and at the time i was rather happy that i at least finally got one. But then i was contacted by someone who had asked Xenia about the duct-tape/asshole incident to which she replied that it had never happened and i was lying. So not only is she again lying about me, but her apology was completely disingenuous.

Also, am i supposed to ignore everything else this woman does because she apologised once about what she said about my mum? She has lied and cheated almost consistently since her makeup company launched (as well as before), offered crappy products and threatened people who post bad reviews. Even if i had completely forgiven her for insulting my Mum, i'm not going to forgive her for these other things.

Even if she hadn't done anything else remotely shady, if her products had consistently been good, if she had amazing customer service and had responded reasonably to negative comments, even if she hadn't lied and changed things on her blog to claim she used her own brand, claimed her products were vegan when some are not, even then i would not be able to forgive her because, well maybe you don't care so much if people insults your mother but i do.  People can insult me and i'll shrug it off, but my Mum is different, insult her and i'll want to scratch your eyes out. This is the woman who gave me life and has nurtured me into adulthood. She is also one of my best friends. And furthermore the insult was completely unjustified, my Mum gave this woman money and didn't complain when she found what she bought was faulty. And then Xenia calls her an asshole because she was stupid enough to buy from her. Now maybe you would disagree, but i must say the small apology i did get wasn't really enough for me to get over what she did, let alone ignore all the other appalling things she's done.

And i do have a life, it's just a very small part of it finds her hilarious, shocking and appalling, so i like to chronicle it in my blog. Judging by the fact i had 42 comments on my last post about her (all apart from yours, mr/mrs anonymous, agreeing with me) people rather enjoy reading about this joke of a woman, so i'm not going to stop until she stops giving me fodder. I'm not the only person writing about Lime Crime, and i never write posts that are just bitchilly going on about how much i hate her and how noone should buy from her (in fact i've stated repeatedly that if you don't care about what she does then i'm not going to resent or dislike anyone just because we have a difference of opinion), instead i only post about her when she has done something new. That just sadly happens very often. If i knew of other brands doing such rediculous things i would write about them here too (and in fact i have). This is a blog about makeup and makeup brands. There are many more than Lime Crime that i don't like or have problems with and i have discussed them here too (Eyeko, Mac, the many etsy shops that sell repackaged mica, etc) it's just none are so shady, or at least are better at hiding it. The majority of my posts have nothing to do with her.

If you don't want to read about her then just don't, go and buy more of her crappy products and keep on closing your eyes, putting your fingers in your ears and chanting 'la la la' whenever some new awful thing she's done comes  to light, which at this rate should be sometime next week.

xx

Lime Crime - The Girl can't help it.

How long has it been since good old Limey was found doing something sneaky and dodgy? Well i posted about it last saturday, but let's give her the benefit of the doubt and say her awful newsletter went out on friday, so giving her a full week of not doing anything hilarious.

Now this, which was spotted by someone on the good old funny Examiner thread, is absolutely hilarious.

This is now the front page of Limecrimemakeup.com note how underneath the picture it claims 'Doe Deere is wearing opaque lipstick in Retrofuturist'

Ok, now let's go back in time to the beginning of October 2008, when (i believe) Lime Crime Makeup hadn't even launched yet (i think it happened around Halloween of that year, but i may be wrong) and The Candyfuture lipstick collection was a mere twinkle in Limey's eye. Here's an interesting post:
http://www.doedeereblogazine.com/articles/porcelain-doll-makeup-tutorial

So you were wearing a lipstick that hadn't been invented yet were you Doe?
Also check out the difference in colour from the original tutorial to the photo on the front of her webpage. The lipstick which was originally a slightly brickish orange based red is now a bright, blue based, pillar-box red.

Though this can't be proper proof as she still mentions a Revlon lipliner in the tutorial, this shows evidence that originally she was wearing a Revlon Lipstick:
http://i41.tinypic.com/b87kw0.jpg

But even if that person was discussing the liner, it doesn't make a difference, how has Doe managed to get a lipstick that didn't come into existence for another year, and then why change it's colour using photoshop?

Lol lol lol.

Quick Lime Crime Drama Update

Recently i've been writing up a big big long post focussing on showing evidence (as much as there can be with Xenia deleting everything she can on the net) of Lime Crime's various shady shenanigans (duct taped dress, calling my mum an asshole, shillbidding, fake charity auction, false claims about her products being vegan, attacking competitors like Sugarpill, sexism and stereotyping gay people, repackaging makeup, threatening to sue someone for a bad review etc etc etc) and that's taking a long time because i want to be as concise as possible and... well there's just so much to chronicle! (I'm still trying to be as fair as possible and not post anything just to be bitchy, like the utterly hilarious video to SF Disco she released that is saved on Claire's computer for the lolz) .

But here's a quick update. For a while Limey has been relatively quiet, even allowing some bad reviews (such as Anastasia's fair but negative review) without feeling the need to sue or getting team Candy Future on the case. But now she's back again.

Temptalia, which is one of the biggest beauty blogs i know of, posted a review of Lime Crime lipsticks a few days ago which was really fair in my opinion. Christine who writes Temptalia was aware of the drama and negativity surrounding Lime Crime but refused to even comment on it, instead leaving the review to focus solely on the quality of the lipsticks which she was sent for free. Christine said there were things she did like about the lipsticks such as the packaging and pigmentation and said some colours actually applied very nicely, but overall her review seemed more negative, describing a lot of colours as 'chalky' or 'streaky', the formula was quite drying, the packaging felt cheap and she just felt they were overpriced. She provided lip swatches for all the colours and you could see what she meant, some of the colours looked fine but some looked very patchy and even looked dry. She gave them a C- overall.

Xenia commented on the thread in a way that actually made me feel like she wasn't that bad a person. She just said it was an individual experience and she was sorry that Christine didn't like the lipsticks but other people have loved them and that they had a no-questions asked returns policy (which certainly wasn't the case before, but at least this shows improvement in her customer service). This seemed like a fair and normal reply to criticism from a company and i actually thought it was quite decent of her.

However, it has now come to light that Xenia was not at all happy about this fair review as she wrote this in the latest Candy Future newsletter:


'Finally, we wanted to discuss a less-than-favorable review we received on Temptala.com. The review gave our Candyfuture opaque lipsticks a C- rating... We don't agree! Do you? Here is the link so you can see for yourself: temptalia.com/lime-crime-lipsticks-reviews-photos-swatches

We would like to encourage all of our futurettes who have had good experiences with our company and products to make yourselves heard. Please don't keep your happy opinions to yourself! Feel free to email Christine (Temptalia) at [Her personal email address] and share your positive Lime Crime experiences with her, let her know you disgree with her review, or leave a comment on the article letting everyone know your personal view on our products and company. Please be honest, respectful, and polite!'

So basically not only are Lime Crime asking people to spam the article leaving positive reviews to try and debunk Christine's views of the product, but are actually encouraging people to spam her personal email (she has a temptalia email account which presumably is what is viewable to people on the site, this one must be her personal address so i find it very creepy that Xenia is giving it out like she has the right) telling her she is wrong about a product that she has had for months! This can't be usual business practice can it? Actually asking your fans to  harass anyone who leaves a less than favourable review? People had already replied to the article saying they had experienced different things from Christine so did she really need to set the goons on her?
And what good is it going to do? Setting a bunch of fans on Christine telling her that somehow she was mistaken, the lipsticks didn't apply streaky, it isn't at all drying, they don't taste bad, she was somehow fooled by her own senses and really they are the worlds best lipsticks ever!!!!
At least as an afterthought she tells them to be honest, respectful and polite.

But what really disgusts me is the fact that this was once again a two-faced attack. She acted all sweetness and light to Christine, saying she was sorry she had a bad experience and still thanking her for the review, but behind her back she's telling people to gang up and debunk her fair review and send messages to her personal account. It's written as nicely as possible but to me it just sounds like a call to attack Temptalia.

Anyway i hadn't bothered to comment on Temptalia's review up til now as Christine obviously didn't want the drama mentioned on her review and i respected that. However seeing as Xenia is asking people to leave their honest, personal views about the company and it's products maybe i'll just do as she asks.

Also, i HATE her name is Xenia because my best friend is called Xenia too, so when i'm talking to Claire or someone i have to differentiate between the lovely Xenia and the low little lying money hungry Xenia.

Run out of citrus based puns!

So umm... Yeah the Lime Criminal has struck again.
A while back when i was still fuming at her terrible business tactics i started writing a big post detailing all the shadiness Xenia has been involved in throughout her business life, but i thought better of it. I'd rather my blog was a positive place and would rather spend my energy writing reviews and posts about companies and products i am actually interested in and decided only to post my proof that her products are repackaged. Well... let's just say be prepared for some mammoth posts of epic shadiness coming your way!

I have steered clear of posting on the examiner article (http://www.examiner.com/x-17390-Brooklyn-Beauty-Examiner~y2009m10d6-Is-it-a-Crime-to-Look-this-Good-Lime-Crime-Makeup) for a while now (though i couldn't resist it when someone suggested Shrinkle had paid me to bad mouth Lime Crime) because some of it just seemed ridiculous and i figured everything that needed to be said about Xenia's woeful business sense had already been said. But I have continued reading it because... well to me it's a bit like a train wreck, it can be horrible but i cannot look away!

If you aren't aware Shrinkle (or Amy) is a fashion designer who has just brought out her own (absolutely amazing looking) line of makeup (http://www.sugarpillshop.com/). Shrinkle used to be friends with Xenia when they were both making clothing for Xenia's Little Big Girl community. In fact it was Amy who kicked off Xenia's 'makeup artist' delusion by first introducing her to the big, bold world of Kryolan cosmetics. Xenia's first makeup tutorials used the Kryolan Amy had gifted to her extensively. Xenia also completely changed her fashion style from a more traditional lolita/kinderwhore thing to Shrinkle's brightly coloured, animal printed, 'trashy clothes for classy hos' style.

Eventually Amy got fed up of Xenia's shillbidding/selling dollar store sunglasses for a ludicrous markup etc and left (or was thrown out of, i forget) the Little Big Girl group, though has remained completely silent about what went on and any knowledge she may have about Xenia's backdoor shenanigans (slightly irritating cause i want all the goss, but also classy and good for her own business).

Xenia then started both anonymously badmouthing Shrinkle under a sockpuppet account (links to all of these will be provided in my bigger post coming ASAP) and saying things in interviews obviously aimed at her: 'some people still behave dress like they were teenagers, i'm classy enough to have grown out of it' (i'm paraphrasing. Also hilarious considering she now dresses even more childishly than Shrinkle ever did).

Recently when Shrinkle's Sugarpill makeup company launched Xenia congratulated her to her face. All the while anonymous people were badmouthing Sugarpill on the examiner article. People suggested it could have been Xenia but there was no proof...

Until Now.

A few days ago someone anonymous started claiming that Sugarpill was repackaged by posting photos of La Femme private label cosmetics they'd photoshopped Sugarpill on top of (the palettes and things are similar or the same but the colours are completely different and unavailable at La Femme). This person has been discovered to be Xenia.

Xenia's camera details from her flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/limecrime/4340481099/meta/in/set-1159043

the details of the photo posted by the anonymous badmouther:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47566135@N06/4356500179/meta

As you can see the camera details are practically identical, but most telling is that the camera make and model is exactly the same and the dates on both cameras have been set as '2027' for some reason.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/Kateonastick/LimeCrimeCaughtOut.png

Oops, that was a bit silly wasn't it oh Unicorn Queen!

Also the anoymous posters flickr name is 'princessmoth'. Xenia once had a makeup tutorial called 'Moth princess' or something, as well as having discussed moths exclusively in her big sexist post a while back.

So that's absolute proof that Xenia is two-faced, having been nice to Shrinkle over twitter and so on, but slagging her off behind her back. So if you needed more proof that she lies, here it is.

Also if you were wondering, Sugarpills colours aren't available in the catalogue Xenia claims they are. And if you look at the photo details, it was taken on the 14th of february. Shrinkle didn't start sending parcels until the 15th so there's no way anyone could have had the actual product beforehand (unless Amy had given them to her, an idea which is laughable) so that just prooves it's a photoshopped photo.

You give unicorns a bad name!

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Doe_Deere

Edit:
if anyone needed further proof, for instance thinking that the photo of her and Poppy King could have been taken by someone else and sent in to Xenia or something, these photos of Xenia's hideous DIY jumper are taken with the same camera:
www.flickr.com/photos/limecrime/4313488811/meta/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/limecrime/4314224666/meta/
You can see the date on these is december '2026' so it all adds up.

Edit:

Today Xenia posted this:
http://www.doedeereblogazine.com/articles/lime-crime-makeup-certified-cruelty-free-donates-to-bideawee
which states she is now donating some of Lime Crime's profits to an animal charity. This is wonderful of course (maybe her conscience finally got to her about all that money she stole that was supposed to go to a shelter) and her makeup line has been certified as being animal testing free, wonderful too! But there's something else very fishy going on:
'offering vegan eyeshadows and lipsticks that are free of animal products with an exception of beeswax'.
Umm... if a product has beeswax in it it is NOT vegan! That's like saying 'this soup is vegetarian with an exception of ox tail'. Every single one of her lipsticks contain Beeswax, so it's not as if it's just a typo meaning some of her lipsticks aren't vegan. She's actually claiming that they ARE vegan, even though they contain an animal product.
And as well as this her eyeshadows are not all vegan, some contain carmine which is made of a certain kind of beetle. She even states on her website that some colours are not vegan (http://www.limecrimemakeup.com/pink-poodle-magic-dust-p-194.html) but now has conviniently forgotten that to appear entirely cruelty free.

I am not a vegan, i'm a vegetarian but i do try and steer clear of animal products when i can. There's nothing wrong with not being an entirely vegan company, but to imply you are (while oxymoronically admitting you use beeswax O_o) when you aren't is just despicable.

Lime Crime Versus TKB

Disclaimer:
i am not advising anyone to stop buying from lime crime if they wish to continue, nor can i say with absolute certainty that these swatches provide proof that the magic dusts are repackaged, this post is just to provide information and comparisons for anyone who wants it.

So as i'm still sparking with anger at the sexist, generalising antics of the self-appointed queen of unicorns *eyeroll* i would post my own swatches of her eyedusts versus TKB plain bog-standard wholesale micas, sold as an ingredient for eye-makeup for $1.50 for a huge sample bag (over a tablespoon).
I made videos showing swatches of these on paper in real time a week ago. At the time i made these videos (and when i made my most recent order from TKB) i hadn't checked the latest list of TKB dupes, so there are some i swatched which didn't match, but that's because i was going on an old list of the dupes.
The updated list is:
Pink Poodle- TKB cloissone red
Snow Queen- TKB Sparkle Turquoise
Elf- TKB apple green pop
Pompadour- TKB Colorona dark blue
Princess Caraboo- TKB Emerald
Primadonna- TKB Strawberry POP
Empress- TKB Grape POP
Nymph- TKB Hi-lite gold
Siren- TKB Hot Mama
Medusa- TKB Blackstar Blue
Circus Girl- TKB lemon drop POP
Fairy Wings- TKB Hi-lite violet
Enchant-TKB Blackstar Green
Shoe Addict- TKB Blueberry POP
Twilight- TKB Ballad Blue
Mermaid- TKB Coral Reef Blue
Duchess- TKB Indian Blue
Mirror Mirror- TKB Antique Silver
Dragon Scales- TKB Chameleon Glitter
Lime Criminal - Actually a blend! 50/50 TKB Lemon POP and TKB Green Apple POP

Next time i make an order i'm going to get the proper dupe of Dragon Scales and then will do a new video and swatches. Also i have a sample of 'vixen' which was one of the discontinued matte shades, which were rumoured to be unaltered oxides, pigments or ultramarines and so completely unsuitable to be used on their own as eyeshadows. I will see if i can find the match for that too.

Anyway here's my videos. There are some coming up showing them swatched on skin (and including the 50:50 blend for Lime criminal, not the incorrect dupes i show in this video.) , but i'm having trouble getting them on youtube for some reason.







If anyone is going to make a ridiculous comment about how I could have just put TKB in the baggies myself, if you watch the first video from the beginning you can see i bring the bags out of a closed envelope sent from the US. Also if anyone thinks that maybe Lorilyn who sent them to me might have just put TKB in herself, why would she have included 3 colours i couldn't match at the time? And on top of that, what on earth would i gain by lying about this?

Anyway today i took some photos of swatches on my skin, both wet and dry. I didn't bother with Dragon Scales or Vixen because i don't have the matching colours.
In each photo the Lime Crime colours are on the left, the TKBs are on the right, colours applied dry at the top and wet at the bottom.

Lime Crime's 'Siren' Vs TKB's 'Hot Mama'







Lime Crime's 'Circus Girl' Vs TKB's 'Lemon Drop Pop'







Lime Crime's 'Medusa' Vs TKB's 'Blackstar Blue'







Lime Crime's 'Lime Criminal' Vs TKB's 'Apple Green Pop' and 'Lemon Drop Pop' mixed in equal qualities (i did this really quickly by just getting a teaspoon of each colour and shaking them together in the pot. I think mine has just a tiny bit more green in it than the Lime Criminal sample, but is basically exactly the same).







As you can see, there is (at least to my eye) not a single distinguishable difference. The colours are also all the same 'vibrancy'. While i'm no expert on mineral makeup, I would assume if they had at least had an eyeshadow base added it would make the colour paler (as the base is white), please correct me if i'm wrong.

I don't know how to feel about the colour 'Lime Criminal' While when i think of a 'unique, handmade eyeshadow' I certainly would assume the creator had done more than just mix equal parts of 2 wholesale micas, but on the other hand it does show that at least she has had the slightest possible hand in making one of her eyeshadows, by deciding to mix 2 colours. At least it is not a straight repackage, but it really is nothing to brag about.

I really wish i had a way to swatch more of the colours, but i certainly am never going to buy her eye dusts just to make the comparison!

Hope this was helpful.

Limety Crimety

http://www.doedeereblogazine.com/articles/lime-crime-vs-internet-bullies

God... i really hate that my whole blog is turning into one big entry about Lime Crime (maybe i should actually start a new blog dedicated to it?)

I'm not going to go into it fully today, or problem anytime soon as i am tired and busy.
Bascially now Lime Crime is sending out emails threatening to sue people if they don't remove posts reviewing her badly. Not just posts that are claiming her products are repackaged or whatever, just blogs that have given her products a negative review:
http://gothique.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/lime-crime

I'm very surprised i haven't received a letter from her 'lawyer', maybe it's because i live overseas? Or maybe because i haven't got any of her products (yet) to review badly.

Anyway i'm certainly not going to let her bullying tactics stop me. I have more to say about this disgusting censorship of peoples blogs, comments etc. And i am definately still going ahead with my TKB/Lime Crime comparison video when my sample shades arrive. And, even though i really would love to just tear her apart, i will be truthful because i have integrity. Also as it will be on video people will see if i'm lying!

I've also recieved some comments from Lime Crime fans recently. I will reply to them if i have the time. However one of them really annoyed me. My mother is not an idiot for trusting an ebay auction and why on earth would i lie about it? I really don't understand what reason i could have for making the story up. If anyone could tell me i would genuinely like to know!

The link to the good old duct tape dress post is here:
http://community.livejournal.com/meanestbastard/76936.html

While Xenia has deleted her comments, the replies make it pretty clear what she said.

I have said again and again in these posts that these are just my opinions, that if you still want to support lime crime i am not out to stop you or get at you! I don't see why, according to Lime Crime i am a bully. People get bad reviews all the time, i don't see why in these cases we are just 'internet bullies'.

And again, for people still doubting the duping allegations (and again these are just allegations as noone can have definate proof without somehow getting evidence from Lime Crime herself):
http://s946.photobucket.com/albums/ad303/LimeyCrimey/?action=view¤t=LimeCrimeSwatchesAmbient.jpg

Expect a longer, more in-depth post on the subject soon. And i would actually like to apologise for this stupid drama cropping up again and again!

Lime Crime Drama!

So i got a reply to my last email (which you can read her:

'Lillian,

I do appreciate your remaining civil through all this hostility and vitriol. I do make mistakes and I am willing to acknowledge them, which is why I wanted to speak to you on the phone (that offer still stands at my expense).

I too was appalled by some of the comments on my blog attacking you, and I responded and later removed that thread entirely because it was hurtful and inappropriate. Petty, malicious sniping against ANYONE is not what my blog is about.

I am committed to developing new products that excite me, and hopefully excite others. I stand by my eye shadows and lipsticks and have given as much insight into my process as is possible and I feel I've been more than fair in satisfying reasonable curiosity. I would disagree with you that I claimed anyone with a complaint against me is a liar.I think I was quite clear about what the lies are. We address customer complaints swiftly: we re-designed our jars and sifters so they are less messy and have doubled the amount of product we offer in response to customer input. If a customer informs me that he/she received the wrong or defective item(s) or the shipment was lost I do not brand them a liar for having the temerity to complain, I do whatever I can to make it right - including issue refunds if necessary. I'm human, but I try to learn from mistakes and correct them.

I didn't attack or insult any of these people personally I simply said their claims are false, defamatory garbage, which they absolutely are. They are the ones who brought the personal venom and the endless "gotcha!" distortions into this.

I'm here to share on a positive, colorful blog and make positive, colorful makeup. I genuinely live and breathe this. I hope you'll accept my offer to call you, otherwise please accept my apology for any hurt feelings.

I've not seen or met you, but I'm sure you have a fabulous beauty all your own (as all girls do!) and I regret that you were exposed to such negativity on my blog.


Xenia'

So once again she was civil and polite, but didn't actually add any new evidence to prove her argument, and stuck by her claim that anyone saying she repackages, whether or not they have their own evidence, are lying and being vicious.

Also a couple of days ago i got a comment on my youtube video from someone who asked her about the mum-asshole thing and Xenia told her i was lying.

So anyway here's my reply:

'Xenia,
Thank you for your offer to phone me. I shall have a think about it but I am afraid I probably will not take you up on it because i have a fear of talking on the phone. Also honestly i do not think there's anything that either of us could say to the other that hasn't already been said.

I also want you to know i never blamed you for the vicious comments aimed at me, if one of your fans dislikes me for whatever the reason it has nothing to do with you. However when you deleted the thread containing her comments you also deleted the link to my blog, which i don't care about but will probably give people fodder to claim you are censoring again since it stops your fans from reading about my experiences.

However, i have watched your video again and you definately do say that anyone who is claiming you are repackaging is lying and spreading 'malicious rumours'. While i agree totally that people who have been saying things like 'i would spit in your face' are completely out of order, most of the people who have made claims about your eyeshadows being identical to wholesale Mica's were fans of yours who bought your products and then discovered they already owned them, having bought them from a different company.

The problem is that while you have denied the rumours of repackaging you haven't offered any explanation as to why you can get the exact same colours from other places. The examples you used on your video were the only colours from your range which had not had 'confirmed' duplicates and still they were incredibly similar and looked as if they had been applied in different ways (your swatches looked like they had been foiled). Also i have seen emails from you to customers who have asked about the repackaging rumours where you have heavily implied that it is the other companies that have been copying you. For instance Mark sent this message to Anastasia from Lipsticks and Lightsabers:
'The observation you made is an example of how competitors follow and try to imitate something that's been successful. Colors cannot be legally protected so there isn't much we can do about that'
the competitors who you claim are imitating you have been in business a lot longer than you, as have their products which you are accused of repackaging, so i don't see how they could possibly have copied you. This makes your argument seem suspect, which in turn makes your claim that you orginally formulated the colours seem less likely.

Your video showing how you made eyeshadow also did not prove anything as it showed you matching the colour Twilight, not actually how you formulated the original recipe. In fact you did not even use a recipe, meaning it took you a few tries to create the correct colour match, i hope you are able to see that in some peoples eyes this will look suspicious as if you did indeed send your original formulation to a lab you would have had the recipe down in black and white.
It was very similar to this video from TKB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVTcidHMA20
where they teach you how to match an existing colour.

While i am sure the majority of your customer service is conducted in a perfectly sensible and fair manner i have heard of examples where you have refused to refund people after their eyedusts arrived damaged. I have also heard from innumerable sources that only 4 and 5 star reviews are allowed on your site. People have posted lower rated ones which have never appeared, while their higher rated ones show up. All this goes towards fueling the rumours that you are hiding a lot from your customers.
While you, as a business, have the absolute right to not give away your trade secrets i hope you can see that these practices do nothing to foster trust in customers. Particularly those who want to give (or already have given) to your business but feel they may be being mislead or even lied to. When people cannot trust you on one matter they cannot trust you overall.

Although I forgave you a long time ago for the insult you branded my mother with, the experience has left me very skeptical about your business practices and more inclined to believe dissenters who have nothing to gain by insulting you and were in fact fans before they bought your products.
However i realised that i really should see the evidence for myself so i have bought the TKB colours and am being sent some samples of your eyedusts from an ex-fan of yours so i can compare the two. I will tell the absolute truth and capture the first time i see them together on video and with photographs. If i do find that they are not identical, even if there is only the slightest difference, i will tell the truth because i have no reason to lie about it and destroy my integrity as a blogger. Also as i will have plenty of photographic evidence people would be able to see for themselves if i was lying.

Also I have been told by someone who watched my youtube video about my experience with you that she emailed you asking if what i was saying (about the 'asshole' remark) was true and you denied you ever said it, implying i was lying. If you had simply forgotten or were unsure that would be understandable, but to outright deny it when the proof is easy to find is not only shifty but makes the rests of your claims look less valid.
Also it makes me trust you less because even though you've been very nice to me and apologised you are then denying you did anything wrong behind my back. Of course the person could be lying herself, or have got the wrong end of the stick, but again i am more inclined to believe her due to that old breach of trust.

I hope you can see that some (in fact most i have seen) of the people doubting your company have no reason to be malicious and so instead of just branding them liars it would be better if you actually addressed their concerns and explained why your colours are so similar to the wholesale micas instead of just dodging their questions and saying they are out to spread rumours about you. If you were to offer an explanation and treat everyone with respect i'm sure you would be respected in return.

Lillian'

I have some samples of her eyeshadows on the way to me now.

Phew

I've finally finished replying to everyone's comments.
I wanted to just thank you all so much for your support and kindness. Hopefully now the drama will be gone from my blog for a long time, but someone has been kind enough to say they will actually send me some samples of Lime Crime eyeshadows so i can see for myself just how similar (i.e. identical) they are to TKB wholesale mica, so i'm afraid this isn't quite the end!

I feel a bit silly now because i did let Mary's comments get to me.
Firstly, i actually am a bit self-concious of my weight at the moment because i've gone up a dress size since last year, so being called fat, turkey necked and so on by a perfect stranger was not pleasant anyway.
I was bullied pretty much throughout my whole life until i was 18 and went to art college. Firstly because i was fat and a boffin, then in high school because i was weird and liked different music, clothes, etc from everyone, and then in sixth-form (when i assumed most people might have grown out of such things) for being weird again. I have however been proud of myself because, no matter what people have said or done to me, i've been true to myself and never compromised or pretended to be anything i'm not, and i've acted with dignity and never sunk down to name calling in retaliation.
Also I have a mental illness, Social Phobia and Social Anxiety Disorder, that makes me constantly worry that i am going to be attacked in some way in social situations. It makes me incredibly paranoid about what people think of me. It's basically like being constantly incredibly shy. In public i am unable to speak or approach anyone, even people i know. When i first started blogging i was too shy to comment on anyones journals even, and making my first video was a huge step. I've also been suffering from depression for the last year (though that is mainly under control now).
Up until now everyone in the beauty community that i've encountered have been incredibly kind, supportive and encouraging. Even though i'm no real makeup artist, and certainly can't compare to many of the others out there, everyone has seemed genuinely interested and even thankful for my opinions. I can't tell you how much it means to me everytime i get a new follower here or a new subscriber on youtube. I've never been able to share my opinions in public before, but now through this community i feel i'm finally able to actually do something that might be helpful to other people, even if it is just as trivial as giving my thoughts on a lipstick.

So i guess this Mary thing just frightened me a bit, that maybe this world i'd been so enamoured with had an ugly side that would be just as cruel to me as the strangers who shout rude things at me in the street.

It also just hit me hard as, through the allegations about Lime Crime i have tried to be as fair and diplomatic to her as possible, even though she had personally insulted me in the past so i might have more reason than others to want to slander her name (I was in fact disgusted by some of the comments about Doe, particularly regarding her appearance and someone who said she was probably lying about being bi-polar. Those things had nothing to do with her product or business practices and was just purely nasty) and yet not only was Doe lumping me, and anyone else with legitimate complaints or worries about her company, in with people who were just viciously and rudely attacking. And then Mary decided to pick on me in particular, calling me a troll when all i have done is posted in my own blog and occaisionally posted a comment on the Examiner article.

I was also just disgusted that anyone could think that just because i am a bit plump i could not have any valid opinions on the matter! I know she was probably just saying it to be cruel, but from what she wrote it really seemed like she actually believed what she was saying, that i would just be jealous of Doe simply because she is thinner than me.

However i'm happy to say that i, genuinely, am not upset at all by her comments anymore. After reading them over (Doe has now deleted all the comments from or about Mary *eyeroll*) the absolute stupidity of her comments has hit me and now i find thw whole thing very funny! Especially how she claimed i was lying about being an artist, why on earth would i do that? What is there possibly for me to gain by it? It boggles my mind.
And yes, i am a bit larger than i would like to be, but it's really not very important in the grand scheme of things. I still think i'm attractive, and more importantly i am kind, fair, polite and have a good sense of humour (this is fast becoming a would like to meet!)

Anyway i just wanted to once again thank all of you. It has meant so much to see new friends willing to defend me and happy to listen fairly to what i have to say.

I'm preparing to do a giveaway just to say thank you for following me, so watch this space :)

Oh for gods sake

'Wow . . . what a power trip you’re on, “I could have made her life hell.” That’s sad, Lillian. Get over it.

And about these “allegations” coming out . . . you’re part of the problem! You’re accusing her of repackaging with no proof, which —HELLO— is LIBEL! You are old enough to know what that is and to also know that Xenia should get a lawyer for that kind of shit.

You claim to be an illustrator, so why is your blog so unartistic? Are you too dense to figure out how to use Photoshop or Illustrator? 12 year olds can use those programs. Maybe you couldn’t get into University?

You have no talent so you try to suck the energy from someone who is working hard for her success. How lame.

BTW . . . you have a right to clogged arteries. So go enjoy those crisps and cakes, girl! Just know that if you put yourself on camera while you’re being a jerk, some people may notice.'

Mary won't let me reply to her on Doe's blog, so i figured i would do it here.

I'm not on a power trip, i'm just sharing my experience. When i wrote 'i could have made her life hell' i mean i could have joined in the name calling, helped get her paypal account closed after the charity thing, just continued insulting her all these years etc etc. The fact is i didn't.

If Xenia wants to sue me she can go ahead. All i've said is that I agree with the many others who have found exact duplicates to her eyeshadows. The proof has been shown in other blogs.

I am an artist and illustrator but i use traditional media, inks, pens, pencils, paints and so on. I can use photoshop a little, but not well and i'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm not too interested in digital art so have seen no need to learn it well.

Another reason why my blog doesn't look artistic is that i don't care what it looks like, it's here for me to write in. Also i'm too busy trying to make a career for myself with my art, the blogs i have are just a hobby, so i'm not going to spend time and effort on them when i can be making art i can actually sell, or trying to get exhibitions and so on.

And yes, i did go to university, Wimbledon College of Art, which is widely regarded as a fantastic art school. And I graduated. If you must know i got a 2:2, which is good, but not excellent, but i am happy with it.

And you know what, if i had some some cake and crisps in the hosue i would be all over them. Because i like them.

Thank you to everyone who has left me encouraging comments about this, i will make sure i reply to you all later. But right now i have to go suck the energy from other thin, successful people.

Xenia's reply

I must say i was actually very surprised by Xenia's reply. First of all i expected to be ignored, or if not, to be attacked. However i will say that actually she has responded in a very fair and diplomatic fashion to me. Here's what she has said so far:

In reply to the email i posted last night


' Lillian,

If you'd like to speak to me over the phone about this, I would love to call you. Let me know where to call.

-Xenia'

to which i responded:

' I don't think that would be practical, i live in England.
I honestly have no personal vendetta against you, i was discussing you with my friend the other day and we both agreed that had we not been around for so long, and seen the drama and scandals with you involved, we would be huge fans of yours. I'll admit i love your whole aesthetic, if i had not been insulted by you i probably would have bought your entire candyfuture line.
If you look you'll see that i didn't even mention my problems with you in the pass until after the repackaging rumours came out, so please don't think i have been trying to sabotage you from the beginning.
I understand that you have to stand up for your company, so of course rebuke people saying your product is duped (i'm still not convinced about your eyeshadows, but i have seen swatches of your lipsticks and i agree that they are not just repackaged) but please don't call people, some of whom are ex-fans of yours liars.
Lillian'

and then she replied with:

'Lillian,

I'm really sorry if I offended you in any way. What I was referring to in the video is an email someone posted recently, pretending to be me, calling my customers idiots, etc. If I lashed out at you in the past, it was very reckless and rash and I hope you can forgive me for that. I am human and make mistakes, but I learn from them too. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to make this right.

-X'

So i must say in a way i am impressed because i was fully expecting to get a nasty reply. And it is nice to have finally, after many years, got an apology for what she said. However she did not address any of my concerns surrounding the video and how she was calling anyone who had made a complaint against her a liar.

I then sent this email:

'Xenia
Firstly i'd like to say thank you for replying to me, i honestly expected to be ignored and thank you for not being hostile towards me. I understand that when your business is being called into disrepute it is hard to keep your emotions out of it. I guess that's what the 'asshole' thing was about but, pathetic as it might sound, it did hurt me deeply and because of the implications (that my Mum was stupid for trusting you) i have found it quite relevant to the new rumours surrounding your eyeshadows and your customer service. When you buy from a small company (as i did several times from your clothing line) trust is a very important factor and my trust was lost with those comments.

I am now being insulted by someone on your blog. I understand if you have to delete the comment i posted in reply but really if you could i would like you to keep it up. I didn't say anything insulting about you in it, i just wanted to point out that is is ridiculous to say that the reason i might have a grudge at you is simply because you are thinner than me. Again i would like to point out that, while i may well have a grudge against you because i was hurt by your comments in the past, i did not say anything about you until after people began discussing your customer service and problems with your products. I did not dredge this up myself to create dama, i just shared my own opinions and experiences when people were starting to wonder.

Again i am sorry that things have got so ugly (i think some of the things that have been said about you are awful and shameful) , but people need to know the truth and i'm still not convinced about your eyeshadows, having seen exact duplicates and also some replies from you claiming that the wholesale companies are competitors trying to duplicate what is popular. If you do repackage some products it would not be fatal to just admit it, in fact I and a lot of others would gain a lot of respect for you. As you are a small company just starting up it would be completely understandable. There's nothing wrong with admitting a mistake and moving on. However the huge problem with the video you made is that you are claiming that anyone who has a complaint against you is a liar. I've heard from many people who were fans of yours, bought products and then discovered that they already owned them, purchased from other companies. Even if you are somehow creating the exact same colours as these companies yourself, and not simply repackaging, that still means they are not in any way unique.

In the name of fairness i have not tried any of your products and can only go by what i have seen on other blogs (and i have seen photos where the colours look absolutely identical) i do not have the money to purchase to try for myself. However i do think that it is well within my rights to write my own opinions on my blog without fear of being attacked or called a 'hater'. I also found it unfair as now i, who have had a legitimate reason to doubt your company, have been lumped in with people who are pretending to be you or simply insulting you on things that have nothing to do with the product. I have completely stayed out of the name calling and in fact have been appalled by some of the comments made about you.

I hope that in the future you begin to make your own unique products and that there will be some exciting new things to see, but i know that I, and many others because of this drama, would be very hesitant to purchase from you no matter how brilliant your products become.

Lillian'

I'll keep you posted if i get a reply. I must say that at the moment i am actually feeling a lot less hostile towards her, perhaps simply because i finally got an apology and because she seems less objectionable in comparison with the girl who said i was just jealous and fat!

'Woah!

This Lillian Low person is really disturbing. Holding an Ebay grudge for years? That’s pathetic and creepy. I think she’s just jealous because she’s getting chunky beyond rubenesque and doesn’t seem to have as much talent as Xenia. What a pity she has to get hits on her blog through libel.'

Ah, now this person has worked out my little secret i guess i'll have to come clean.

I was lying in all my previous posts, Xenia is an angel, the hundreds of people who also remember her comments in meanestbastard are just my pawns.

The real reason that i dislike Xenia and her products is that she is thinner than me! I am on a personal vendetta to take down anyone who weighs less than me!

For goodness sake...

Yes i guess i have held a grudge for years, and ok if people think thats 'pathetic and creepy' then fine. I think most people would hold a grudge against companies that personally insult members of there families, but apparently i'm in the minority. The fact of the matter is that while i could have brought this whole thing up right at the beginning when Xenia brought out her makeup line, but i didn't because i gave her the benefit of the doubt. The only reason i brought it up at all was because i thought i had valuable information when people were asking questions.

To say this is all because i'm jealous of her (why, because she's in a completely different career from me? Because she gets more hits on her blog? Because i'm fatty-fat-fat-fat?) is just plain silly.

If people don't want to believe my story then that's fine! If people want to believe it but still keep buying Xenia's products then go right on ahead! (in fact i was possibly going to before the whole repackaging thing reared its ugly head) but please don't claim that i am lying because i am jealous and fat.

Yes i may have 'turkey neck' like she claims in another comment, but that does not mean my opinions are going to be sullied just because the company is run by a thinner woman!

Melon Felon

I was going to let it go. I had no more reason to insult Lime Crime now that i've shared my story. I was getting bored of all the drama and even thinking people were going too far.
But now i hope they continue their childish calling or whatever.
If you haven't seen it, Xenia has posted a video calling out against us 'haters' (i.e. people with legitimate criticisms of her product) about the 'lies' we are spreading about her. What particularly irked me (obviously she wasn't going to come out and admit the repackaging scandal) was that she said people were lying about her bad customer service.

i am literally shaking with anger at the moment.

How dare she say that we are all liars?
While i can say, yes i do have a personal reason to be against her, but is she claiming everyone out there, even people who had never heard of her before, or ex-fans have now just decided to lie about her in order to start a huge international slagging match?

I couldn't let it lie, so i had to write to her.

'Years ago, back in your Thunderwear days i was a friend of yours. I thought you were a great, sweet girl and you were kind to me.

The reason i'm writing you is to do with your latest video post. In it you claim that you have never insulted your fans or were mean to others.

However you once sold my mother a dress hemmed with duct tape and then insulted her by calling her an 'asshole' over livejournal when someone posted photos of it. You probably don't remember this at all, but i certainly do. My mother and i never complained to you, and it wasn't us who showed the photos or insulted you, and yet you said a horrible thing, insulting not only my Mum, but anyone who bought your products.

I was around during the whole drama with you surrounding the charity auctions and so on, i could have really been horrible about you as revenge, but no, i never insulted you on any public forum. I gave you the benefit of the doubt time and time again, even after you had been outwardly horrible to me and my family and never apologised.

When i first saw your makeup line i thought the colours looked beautiful, and would have bought things immediately if it weren't for what you have said to me in the past. And now all this business has come out, i must say i am more likely to believe the opinion that you are a cheater simply because of what i have experience.

I am a blogger and, yes, i have written about my experience and also what i've heard and seen in photos about your eyeshadows. I have never said i was certain though, and have always maintained that i have no proof whatsoever about your lipstick formula. I have been as fair to you as it is possible for me to be, even though i was personally affected by you in the past.

I still have proof of what you said, and there are lots of people around who still remember it to, so please don't lie.

Yours

Lillian Low'

Oh and here is an absolutely fantastic post reviewing her new lipsticks:
http://gothique.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/lime-crime-lipstick-a-review/

A few new videos

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.