I was just going to leave my last post as it was, just links and me saying 'this sucks' but I've been feeling all angry and need to rant! To apologise for the upcoming drama llama below the cut, here's Justin Bieber made from meat:
Showing posts with label Lime Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lime Crime. Show all posts
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Insert Lime based Pun
I know what you're all thinking 'Oh no, Lillian's going to bore us all with another rant about Lime Crime' and yes you're right. And I am truly sorry, I had tried very hard to keep my mouth shut through all her recent shenanigans because I didn't want my blog to be seen in any way as a complete attack on her and because I had more interesting things to write about and didn't want to give her the time of day. But well now she's decided to insult me. So I figured I should respond in kind.
I would also like to point out that while I have repeatedly called her a lying, cheating, sexist, offensive moron, and written posts on all the immoral and shady stuff she has done on my own blog and youtube videos (which I would argue she brought on herself) I have never done anything outright to bring her down. I have not gone around trying to convince Lime Crime supporters to listen to my story, I only posted on her blog once (in response to the person who said I hated Lime Crime because I was fat, my comment was deleted). I've not reported her to any consumer groups or spoken about her/left reviews on makeup forums.
And like I said, even though i have had LOTS of fodder in recent months I've chosen to not discuss them.
But now look what the stupid mare has gone and done:
'QUESTION
I'm not a hater or anything, just curious. Was the duct tape dress rumour true? The TKB thing I don't really care about because it's not like you mark the price up while reselling in cheap bags/whatever, although if I'm honest your prices are high
ANSWER
Glad you asked that -- it's about time that misunderstanding was put to rest.
7 years ago (gosh, I'm old!) I sold a beautiful, long velvet dress on eBay. It was vintage from the 1960s and, alas, came hemmed with duct tape. Since removing the tape would mean cutting off the bottom, I chose to preserve its length and list it "as-is". I did make sure to include a clear disclaimer about the item's condition -- I wouldn't want my customer to find duct tape as a surprise. The buyer received the dress & didn't seem to have a problem with it. Had they complained, I would've taken it back without a hinge -- but they didn't. Years later, a *friend* of the buyer's daughter posted on the internet a picture of the dress, trying to unfairly out me as a bad seller. I told that person what's up using strong language. They shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, as I was upfront about the dress from the beginning.
I have never spoken to the actual buyer of the dress. I would hope that if there was a problem with their purchase, they would have come to me and allowed me to take care of it.
Regarding Lime Crime, I have covered this in the past, but just to reiterate: our eyeshadows are custom-blended. We are very concerned with making Lime Crime affordable for every budget, with that in mind we do have sales. In fact, there is one coming up very soon! :)'
Oh just charming! Xenia I am SO sorry that my mother bought a shoddily made dress from you and forced you to call her an asshole, oh what a bitch I am! I particularly love how she puts the word 'friend' in asterisks which seems to imply either a) I did it myself, even though said friend posted on the community using her own livejournal, which she had had for several years (Oh noes, she has seen through my evil plan of pretending to be a girl from Canada for several years beforehand just so I could post mean things about her. Come on Xenia, not everyone loves sockpuppeting as much as you) or b) I have no friends D: Ouch, i'm all hot from my burn.
Her reason for not removing the duct tape is complete bollocks also, but more on that later.
Ok so seeing as Xenia is so keen to put this misunderstanding to rest, here's what really went down.
Many many years ago when I was a mere chuppy sprig of a lass I discovered Xenia on the internet. This was back in the days where she sold Lolita-ish style clothes under the name of Thunderwear. She had a livejournal (where she actually spoke about her life like she was a real person and not some weirdo who lives only to do fashion shoots in her own bedroom and pretend she invented mathmatical theorums before then claiming a few months later to be completely useless at maths) and i liked reading her posts and thought her style (which was a sort of Wednesday Addams meets EGL thing at the time) was cool. She seemed like a sweet girl and, besides her being in a truly appalling band, I saw no reason not to like her.
Over the years though she changed, or at least her internet presence changed, knowing what I now know about her I am not sure at all that she was ever a nice person. On the outside her style changed to basically be a lesser quality rip off of her friend at the time (the amazing designer and now fantastic makeup brand owner) Shrinkle. And at the same time her blog changed. No longer did she talk about her everyday life, boyfriend, Guinea-Pigs (i remember she had one who looked just like mine at the time) instead it became all about the Lime Crime brand, mainly adverts for auctions and so on. I eventually stopped reading her journal properly but still thought of her as a cool person and good fashion designer.
I bought a couple of pieces of her clothing, and while I liked the designs they all had something a bit shabby about them. For instance I bought a top that had decorative serging around the cuffs, hem and neckline and somehow the threads just started falling off (I don't even really know how she did that, I had to unpick some serging i did recently and it took forever!). I also heard some slightly suspect things about her business practices. But again I thought it was no big deal and continued to think of her in a good light, thought it was beginning to dim.
Then my Mum bought a vintage velvet dress from her as a gift to my sister. It arrived and from the outside looked lovely. So my Mum was happy, left Xenia good feedback and packed it away for Christmas. Now maybe my Mum should have examined the dress fully before it was too late for a refund, but you don't expect an item that looks nice on the outside to hold a horrible and ridiculous secret on the inside, do you?
So Christmas came, my sister got her dress and went to try it on. She came down with an odd expression on her face, we asked what's wrong to which she replied 'It's hemmed with gaffer tape!' (gaffer tape = what we call duct tape in England). My Mum looked and was slightly annoyed as she had spent quite a good amount of money on the dress, but we just laughed at it, thinking how completely stupid it was. A hem is so so simple and quick to do. (most sewing machines can do a blind hem, but even if they can't a normal stitched hem can be done in a few minutes, it's just a straight line!). It wasn't too big a deal, though we obviously said we'd never buy anything from Lime Crime again.
My sister apparently wasn't too keen on the dress as it ended up sitting in our house (Lyd lived in Birmingham at the time) for many years, with it's silver taped bottom, undisturbed until one day some friends of mine came to stay. They had both been fans of Lime Crime a long time ago too and we were all laughing at some of the nonsense she'd said recently or something when I decided to tell them about the duct taped dress. We all had a good laugh and one of my friends asked to take some pictures, I said sure. Said friend then decided to post them in a livejournal community called Meanestbastard.
Meanestbastard was sort of similar to Regretsy, only almost entirely about bad DIY clothing and a bit more meanspirited. Lots of people like Superyana and Shrinkle had been posted about but they all just either laughed or shrugged it off. Xenia however got a lot more coverage presumably because of her ridiculous reactions to petty comments about her clothes looking rubbish. She tried to have the community taken down, tried to get a 13 year old girl suspended from livejournal for breaking her copyright (which is hilarious seeing as recently Xenia has been called out for stealing numerous photos without giving credit), and either her or Mark sockpuppeted constantly with hilarious Xenia-is-a-God style compliments while also insulting Shrinkle as much as possible (something Xenia has also done recently) . However while all that is accurate, a lot of comments are just insulting 'she looks bad here' things, which really brought down the tone of the community to seem like a bunch of bullies, which is a shame as they had some very good points. The community proved that Xenia/Mark use sockpuppets, had admissions from members of Xenia's old fashion community confirming that she encouraged them to shillbid and attack other communities, brought the charity scandal into the light and so on. But some of the comments make it hard to take anything seriously.
However while you can see my friend's post is, while laughing at Xenia for selling a dress so sloppily made, not overly insulting. My friend didn't write anything nasty about her personally, just the dress. But I don't know, maybe the fairly innocent post just laughing at the duct tape hem was just the straw that broke the camel's back and she flipped out.
Xenia was furious and decided that the best way to defend herself was to shift the blame. She said that she hadn't put the gaffer tape on originally, she'd just sold it as is, so people shouldn't be attacking her which is an odd train of thought as she was the one who sold it. But anyway I digress. I forget what else was in her comment but the end was (I paraphrase as the comment was deleted by the oh so honest and transparent Doe Deere) 'I sold a dress hemmed in duct tape, someone was stupid enough to buy it, who's the real asshole here ;) '
(if you don't believe it really said that then look at the replies to her deleted comment, it's very easy to work out what she said)
Now Xenia has constantly said that the ebay auction for the dress had a clear disclaimer that it came hemmed with the duct tape. My Mum has always maintained that it didn't say it anywhere. However let's assume my Mum was mistaken and it did say it, and Mum knew what she was buying at the time and then forgot (giving my friend and I the wrong end of the stick). Frankly I'm inclined to believe my Mum, but let's just give Xenia the benefit of the doubt.
It doesn't make the fact that someone who claimed to be an amazing fashion designer either couldn't be bothered or didn't know how to hem a dress any less hilariously. And pretty much perfect for a community dedicated to bad DIY clothing.
So while maybe Mum was wrong and the dress was sold to her with a big, clear disclosure about it being hemmed with duct tape, that's really not the point. I and many other people I know don't actually care too much about the duct tape dress. As I said the reason my Mum never complained was because we all just thought it was stupid and funny, not anything terrible. The problem is her shocking behaviour in response. Calling my Mum an asshole was unforgivable. My Mum and me did nothing remotely wrong. I didn't post the pictures. I didn't say or do anything that could have been remotely harmful to her or her business up until her makeup line launched (and as I said the worst thing I've done is post in my own blog). Not only was the reaction shocking and entirely uncalled for but it said vast amounts about her business practices by insulting someone basically solely for being stupid enough to buy from her.
After that I was obviously furious. I recieved an email from her (more on that later) where she said she was sorry that we didn't like the dress but never apologised for insulting my Mum. I just ignored it. And then more and more horrible secrets about her started to come out. I just didn't want anything to do with her, and didn't say or do anything remotely to do with her right up until my first post on her on the blog about a year ago (despite the awful experience I'd had I was still considering buying her lipsticks, what a moron I am!).
The reason my Mum never spoke to her about it was because she couldn't give a flying fig about her. It was too late for Mum to get a refund and she could easily fix the hem herself so she just shrugged the whole thing off. If she knew that the seller of the shoddy dress she bought had called her an asshole she probably would have just laughed at it, she's that sort of person. However I am not the sort of person who can shrug off someone insulting my lovely Mummy. I am going to hold a grudge forever.
Now the incident happened a long time ago. I've been attacked before for bitterly clinging to the past (though obviously if you've seen even half of the shady crap she's been up to that she hasn't changed and that I don't only have one reason to hate her) but the fact is a while back when she emailed me with a very pathetic apology (she said 'I'm sorry if I offended you in any way' which is an apology but in the loosest possible sense as it sort of implies that I'm somehow pathetic for being offended by her insulting my Mum. I think maybe she's just completely unable to give a real apology and accept any blame whatsoever seeing as the apology I got after the asshole insult was just 'I'm sorry you didn't like the dress' not 'Im sorry I sold that dress' or 'Im sorry i insulted your Mum' ) I was ready to forgive her. I was very happy to finally have any sort of apology. But then someone contacted me to say that, while Xenia had been sweetness and light to me with her apology and email, behind my back she had said that the whole incident had never happened, so basically calling me a liar while lying through her teeth herself.
And now it's been brought up again by her and she's trying to suggest my friend (or me because her implication that it was really me, not my friend is pretty obvious) is the one in the wrong because she dared to suggest hemming a dress with duct tape was bad DIY.
So I think I have the right to be angry about the whole thing!
So yes, I'm angry. And because of that I'm going to do something I said I wouldn't do. I mentioned earlier (and have mentioned a few other times) that just after she'd called my Mum an asshole she sent me an email. I have refrained from posting it up until now because it is so incredibly moronic and I'd rather have just let her shoot herself in the foot. However because I am so mad I want everyone to see how she managed to not only miss the entire point (apologising that we didn't like the dress when I was angry at her insulting my Mum), insult her 'fans' ('butter knife suicide? nice one Xenia) and turn the whole thing into a pity party for herself.
Also I think it's important and it proves she lied in her formspring. In it she says she purposefully left it hemmed with the duct tape to 'preserve the length', in the email she gives a completely different reason.
It may be a bit bitchy to post this, but frankly I don't care. She's insulted me and my friends and family too many times for me to care about respecting her privacy.
'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.
LJ is a wonderful place. Reading other people's thoughts entertains me immensely. But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback. And yes, I understand everyone has the right to bitch on the internet and blah blah blah but come on. It got to the point where I am not allowed to even be a *real person* any more without someone getting on my case. I'm not allowed to make mistakes without getting scorned by a stranger. I'm not allowed to look ugly without someone snapping a picture and posting it for everyone to laugh at. I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark. All I can do to stay out of trouble is to be is this perfect, bubbly girl with lime green eyeshadow and hot pink mini skirt. I just can't do it any more. I'm done with the limelight, (pun intended!).
I stopped selling on eBay 6 months ago. I don't really do fashion nor music either. I quit both in favor of a steady-paying job a few months ago. I'm getting rid of all my sewing stuff. You're probably wondering why I still haven't 'announced' it yet. Well, frankly, I can't think of a way to do it without coming off like an asshole once again. Imagine hundreds of emails from girls all saying how much you've inspired them 'to be themselves and to follow their dreams' and then bam, "Listen up kiddies, it's all a bunch of horse puckey and you'll be broke for the rest of your life, so forget it and conform now before it's too late." I don't think I'm special. In fact, I think what happened to me is very typical. But oh, the pressure! You know someone is gonna call me a traitor and a hypocrite and commit butter knife suicide because I no longer reconstruct t-shirts. lol
Or should I tell them the truth? How much of the truth? Should I tell them that if they think any of the top eBay designers make any real money, they're crazy? They all act upbeat and pretend to be successful because no one will buy from them otherwise. And the money you make slaving away 18 hours a day? You'd be better off working $10 an hour at a convenience store! It's freakin' depressing. As in, I was actually diagnosed with depression last year and am taking pills for it. O__O
Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this. I guess I feel like there must be someone who will understand. I am a nice person (seriously). I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart. I hate being in a public eye, that's why I left entertainment. There is a lot of pressure to be this and that, and to be nice and to smile when all you want to do is punch walls and die.
Sorry about this lengthy email. Don't worry, I don't expect you to fall in love with me all of a sudden or anything. In fact, you can still hate me if you choose - I'm used to it. :) '
And i do choose to still hate her! While some of the things she said wrote (if true) would be very sad, such as her having depression (I suffer from it and wouldn't wish it on everyone, not even her) there was no reason to bring it up. Talking about those things was just an obvious tactic to gain sympathy, without her actually having to do something crazy like apologise for her behaviour. And depression is not an excuse to do something horrible to another person.
And again it's everyone elses fault, not hers (I'm on pills because of you!). While I agree that some of the things said about her in the meanestbastard community were cruel my friends post was really not. And my Mother did nothing wrong, so lashing out at her was completely unnessecary. Mum didn't laugh at photos of her stupid makeup, Mum didn't do ANYTHING nasty to her. She says 'But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback' But my friend didn't really say anything too nasty, just 'this is a bit rubbish' basically and Mum did absolutely nothing wrong, so why shouldn't I be deeply offended by her nasty, bitchy, completely uncalled for comeback?
'I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark' well not when you insult an innocent person you're not!
Also: 'I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart' a) you DID do it, you sold the dress. b) it was not undeserved, it was bad DIY, the post was made on a community about bad DIY, simples. c) That isn't an excuse to call someone who bought a dress from you in good faith an asshole.
And her saying that she hates being in the public eye is just laughable.
In a way I am sort of thankful for Xenia calling my Mum an asshole. Before it happened I may have laughed at some of the more amusing things she said and did but I wouldn't have found about what a gooddamn lousy excuse for a human being she really is. I would undoubtably have bought into her candyfuture nonsense and possibly bought her crappy repackaged eyeshadows and awful formulated lipsticks. Also while personally I have a bias to feeling that calling my Mum an asshole is the worst thing she could do it isn't. In the huge list of horrible things she has done calling Mum a nasty name is pretty low down.
This woman has lied again and again to her customers, has repackaged her eyeshadows then blamed tkb for copying them. (confirmed by Audrey Kitching who worked with her), has tried to assasinate her competition repeatedly, has threatened to sue someone for a bad review then when the review was deleted and replaced with a nicely written apology claimed that wasn't good enough and made her put up a new retraction written by Lime Crime, has asked bloggers to delete negative comments, has given out a bloggers personal email in a newsletter and asked her fans to send emails disagreeing with her fair review, has then claimed said reviewer was not objective, posted horribly sexist remarks, admitted to stealing a jacket, blatantly shillbidded (and according to people in her old community used to encourage them to shillbid) and kicked people out of her old community for not being power hungry enough while talking about them behind their back and has (almost certainly) STOLEN FROM CHARITY (sadly links have been deleted over the years. Ask if you want the full story, but you might not believe me). Her history would be hilarious if it were fiction but sadly it is not.
She is a nasty piece of work. But I had tried to be the bigger person and stop writing about her.
And then she had to bring it up herself but make things sound like she was in the wrong and again just the victim of nasty bullying.
The hilarious thing is I basically predicted all this back in 2007 replying to her insulting Mum:
'If you reply to this i'm simply going to ignore it because i know you wouldn't do anything as crazy as offer an apology for your behaviour, you'd probably attempt to shift the blame back to me for having the nerve to stand up for myself when being insulted.'
To quote someone on the examiner article: 'calling somebody's mother a hideous name for buying something in good faith is not "telling them what's up, with strong language!" it's being an odious little reptile with no sense of how to act.'
What a complete cunt.
I would also like to point out that while I have repeatedly called her a lying, cheating, sexist, offensive moron, and written posts on all the immoral and shady stuff she has done on my own blog and youtube videos (which I would argue she brought on herself) I have never done anything outright to bring her down. I have not gone around trying to convince Lime Crime supporters to listen to my story, I only posted on her blog once (in response to the person who said I hated Lime Crime because I was fat, my comment was deleted). I've not reported her to any consumer groups or spoken about her/left reviews on makeup forums.
And like I said, even though i have had LOTS of fodder in recent months I've chosen to not discuss them.
But now look what the stupid mare has gone and done:
'QUESTION
I'm not a hater or anything, just curious. Was the duct tape dress rumour true? The TKB thing I don't really care about because it's not like you mark the price up while reselling in cheap bags/whatever, although if I'm honest your prices are high
ANSWER
Glad you asked that -- it's about time that misunderstanding was put to rest.
7 years ago (gosh, I'm old!) I sold a beautiful, long velvet dress on eBay. It was vintage from the 1960s and, alas, came hemmed with duct tape. Since removing the tape would mean cutting off the bottom, I chose to preserve its length and list it "as-is". I did make sure to include a clear disclaimer about the item's condition -- I wouldn't want my customer to find duct tape as a surprise. The buyer received the dress & didn't seem to have a problem with it. Had they complained, I would've taken it back without a hinge -- but they didn't. Years later, a *friend* of the buyer's daughter posted on the internet a picture of the dress, trying to unfairly out me as a bad seller. I told that person what's up using strong language. They shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, as I was upfront about the dress from the beginning.
I have never spoken to the actual buyer of the dress. I would hope that if there was a problem with their purchase, they would have come to me and allowed me to take care of it.
Regarding Lime Crime, I have covered this in the past, but just to reiterate: our eyeshadows are custom-blended. We are very concerned with making Lime Crime affordable for every budget, with that in mind we do have sales. In fact, there is one coming up very soon! :)'
Oh just charming! Xenia I am SO sorry that my mother bought a shoddily made dress from you and forced you to call her an asshole, oh what a bitch I am! I particularly love how she puts the word 'friend' in asterisks which seems to imply either a) I did it myself, even though said friend posted on the community using her own livejournal, which she had had for several years (Oh noes, she has seen through my evil plan of pretending to be a girl from Canada for several years beforehand just so I could post mean things about her. Come on Xenia, not everyone loves sockpuppeting as much as you) or b) I have no friends D: Ouch, i'm all hot from my burn.
Her reason for not removing the duct tape is complete bollocks also, but more on that later.
Ok so seeing as Xenia is so keen to put this misunderstanding to rest, here's what really went down.
Many many years ago when I was a mere chuppy sprig of a lass I discovered Xenia on the internet. This was back in the days where she sold Lolita-ish style clothes under the name of Thunderwear. She had a livejournal (where she actually spoke about her life like she was a real person and not some weirdo who lives only to do fashion shoots in her own bedroom and pretend she invented mathmatical theorums before then claiming a few months later to be completely useless at maths) and i liked reading her posts and thought her style (which was a sort of Wednesday Addams meets EGL thing at the time) was cool. She seemed like a sweet girl and, besides her being in a truly appalling band, I saw no reason not to like her.
Over the years though she changed, or at least her internet presence changed, knowing what I now know about her I am not sure at all that she was ever a nice person. On the outside her style changed to basically be a lesser quality rip off of her friend at the time (the amazing designer and now fantastic makeup brand owner) Shrinkle. And at the same time her blog changed. No longer did she talk about her everyday life, boyfriend, Guinea-Pigs (i remember she had one who looked just like mine at the time) instead it became all about the Lime Crime brand, mainly adverts for auctions and so on. I eventually stopped reading her journal properly but still thought of her as a cool person and good fashion designer.
I bought a couple of pieces of her clothing, and while I liked the designs they all had something a bit shabby about them. For instance I bought a top that had decorative serging around the cuffs, hem and neckline and somehow the threads just started falling off (I don't even really know how she did that, I had to unpick some serging i did recently and it took forever!). I also heard some slightly suspect things about her business practices. But again I thought it was no big deal and continued to think of her in a good light, thought it was beginning to dim.
Then my Mum bought a vintage velvet dress from her as a gift to my sister. It arrived and from the outside looked lovely. So my Mum was happy, left Xenia good feedback and packed it away for Christmas. Now maybe my Mum should have examined the dress fully before it was too late for a refund, but you don't expect an item that looks nice on the outside to hold a horrible and ridiculous secret on the inside, do you?
So Christmas came, my sister got her dress and went to try it on. She came down with an odd expression on her face, we asked what's wrong to which she replied 'It's hemmed with gaffer tape!' (gaffer tape = what we call duct tape in England). My Mum looked and was slightly annoyed as she had spent quite a good amount of money on the dress, but we just laughed at it, thinking how completely stupid it was. A hem is so so simple and quick to do. (most sewing machines can do a blind hem, but even if they can't a normal stitched hem can be done in a few minutes, it's just a straight line!). It wasn't too big a deal, though we obviously said we'd never buy anything from Lime Crime again.
My sister apparently wasn't too keen on the dress as it ended up sitting in our house (Lyd lived in Birmingham at the time) for many years, with it's silver taped bottom, undisturbed until one day some friends of mine came to stay. They had both been fans of Lime Crime a long time ago too and we were all laughing at some of the nonsense she'd said recently or something when I decided to tell them about the duct taped dress. We all had a good laugh and one of my friends asked to take some pictures, I said sure. Said friend then decided to post them in a livejournal community called Meanestbastard.
Meanestbastard was sort of similar to Regretsy, only almost entirely about bad DIY clothing and a bit more meanspirited. Lots of people like Superyana and Shrinkle had been posted about but they all just either laughed or shrugged it off. Xenia however got a lot more coverage presumably because of her ridiculous reactions to petty comments about her clothes looking rubbish. She tried to have the community taken down, tried to get a 13 year old girl suspended from livejournal for breaking her copyright (which is hilarious seeing as recently Xenia has been called out for stealing numerous photos without giving credit), and either her or Mark sockpuppeted constantly with hilarious Xenia-is-a-God style compliments while also insulting Shrinkle as much as possible (something Xenia has also done recently) . However while all that is accurate, a lot of comments are just insulting 'she looks bad here' things, which really brought down the tone of the community to seem like a bunch of bullies, which is a shame as they had some very good points. The community proved that Xenia/Mark use sockpuppets, had admissions from members of Xenia's old fashion community confirming that she encouraged them to shillbid and attack other communities, brought the charity scandal into the light and so on. But some of the comments make it hard to take anything seriously.
However while you can see my friend's post is, while laughing at Xenia for selling a dress so sloppily made, not overly insulting. My friend didn't write anything nasty about her personally, just the dress. But I don't know, maybe the fairly innocent post just laughing at the duct tape hem was just the straw that broke the camel's back and she flipped out.
Xenia was furious and decided that the best way to defend herself was to shift the blame. She said that she hadn't put the gaffer tape on originally, she'd just sold it as is, so people shouldn't be attacking her which is an odd train of thought as she was the one who sold it. But anyway I digress. I forget what else was in her comment but the end was (I paraphrase as the comment was deleted by the oh so honest and transparent Doe Deere) 'I sold a dress hemmed in duct tape, someone was stupid enough to buy it, who's the real asshole here ;) '
(if you don't believe it really said that then look at the replies to her deleted comment, it's very easy to work out what she said)
Now Xenia has constantly said that the ebay auction for the dress had a clear disclaimer that it came hemmed with the duct tape. My Mum has always maintained that it didn't say it anywhere. However let's assume my Mum was mistaken and it did say it, and Mum knew what she was buying at the time and then forgot (giving my friend and I the wrong end of the stick). Frankly I'm inclined to believe my Mum, but let's just give Xenia the benefit of the doubt.
It doesn't make the fact that someone who claimed to be an amazing fashion designer either couldn't be bothered or didn't know how to hem a dress any less hilariously. And pretty much perfect for a community dedicated to bad DIY clothing.
So while maybe Mum was wrong and the dress was sold to her with a big, clear disclosure about it being hemmed with duct tape, that's really not the point. I and many other people I know don't actually care too much about the duct tape dress. As I said the reason my Mum never complained was because we all just thought it was stupid and funny, not anything terrible. The problem is her shocking behaviour in response. Calling my Mum an asshole was unforgivable. My Mum and me did nothing remotely wrong. I didn't post the pictures. I didn't say or do anything that could have been remotely harmful to her or her business up until her makeup line launched (and as I said the worst thing I've done is post in my own blog). Not only was the reaction shocking and entirely uncalled for but it said vast amounts about her business practices by insulting someone basically solely for being stupid enough to buy from her.
After that I was obviously furious. I recieved an email from her (more on that later) where she said she was sorry that we didn't like the dress but never apologised for insulting my Mum. I just ignored it. And then more and more horrible secrets about her started to come out. I just didn't want anything to do with her, and didn't say or do anything remotely to do with her right up until my first post on her on the blog about a year ago (despite the awful experience I'd had I was still considering buying her lipsticks, what a moron I am!).
The reason my Mum never spoke to her about it was because she couldn't give a flying fig about her. It was too late for Mum to get a refund and she could easily fix the hem herself so she just shrugged the whole thing off. If she knew that the seller of the shoddy dress she bought had called her an asshole she probably would have just laughed at it, she's that sort of person. However I am not the sort of person who can shrug off someone insulting my lovely Mummy. I am going to hold a grudge forever.
Now the incident happened a long time ago. I've been attacked before for bitterly clinging to the past (though obviously if you've seen even half of the shady crap she's been up to that she hasn't changed and that I don't only have one reason to hate her) but the fact is a while back when she emailed me with a very pathetic apology (she said 'I'm sorry if I offended you in any way' which is an apology but in the loosest possible sense as it sort of implies that I'm somehow pathetic for being offended by her insulting my Mum. I think maybe she's just completely unable to give a real apology and accept any blame whatsoever seeing as the apology I got after the asshole insult was just 'I'm sorry you didn't like the dress' not 'Im sorry I sold that dress' or 'Im sorry i insulted your Mum' ) I was ready to forgive her. I was very happy to finally have any sort of apology. But then someone contacted me to say that, while Xenia had been sweetness and light to me with her apology and email, behind my back she had said that the whole incident had never happened, so basically calling me a liar while lying through her teeth herself.
And now it's been brought up again by her and she's trying to suggest my friend (or me because her implication that it was really me, not my friend is pretty obvious) is the one in the wrong because she dared to suggest hemming a dress with duct tape was bad DIY.
So I think I have the right to be angry about the whole thing!
So yes, I'm angry. And because of that I'm going to do something I said I wouldn't do. I mentioned earlier (and have mentioned a few other times) that just after she'd called my Mum an asshole she sent me an email. I have refrained from posting it up until now because it is so incredibly moronic and I'd rather have just let her shoot herself in the foot. However because I am so mad I want everyone to see how she managed to not only miss the entire point (apologising that we didn't like the dress when I was angry at her insulting my Mum), insult her 'fans' ('butter knife suicide? nice one Xenia) and turn the whole thing into a pity party for herself.
Also I think it's important and it proves she lied in her formspring. In it she says she purposefully left it hemmed with the duct tape to 'preserve the length', in the email she gives a completely different reason.
It may be a bit bitchy to post this, but frankly I don't care. She's insulted me and my friends and family too many times for me to care about respecting her privacy.
'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.
LJ is a wonderful place. Reading other people's thoughts entertains me immensely. But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback. And yes, I understand everyone has the right to bitch on the internet and blah blah blah but come on. It got to the point where I am not allowed to even be a *real person* any more without someone getting on my case. I'm not allowed to make mistakes without getting scorned by a stranger. I'm not allowed to look ugly without someone snapping a picture and posting it for everyone to laugh at. I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark. All I can do to stay out of trouble is to be is this perfect, bubbly girl with lime green eyeshadow and hot pink mini skirt. I just can't do it any more. I'm done with the limelight, (pun intended!).
I stopped selling on eBay 6 months ago. I don't really do fashion nor music either. I quit both in favor of a steady-paying job a few months ago. I'm getting rid of all my sewing stuff. You're probably wondering why I still haven't 'announced' it yet. Well, frankly, I can't think of a way to do it without coming off like an asshole once again. Imagine hundreds of emails from girls all saying how much you've inspired them 'to be themselves and to follow their dreams' and then bam, "Listen up kiddies, it's all a bunch of horse puckey and you'll be broke for the rest of your life, so forget it and conform now before it's too late." I don't think I'm special. In fact, I think what happened to me is very typical. But oh, the pressure! You know someone is gonna call me a traitor and a hypocrite and commit butter knife suicide because I no longer reconstruct t-shirts. lol
Or should I tell them the truth? How much of the truth? Should I tell them that if they think any of the top eBay designers make any real money, they're crazy? They all act upbeat and pretend to be successful because no one will buy from them otherwise. And the money you make slaving away 18 hours a day? You'd be better off working $10 an hour at a convenience store! It's freakin' depressing. As in, I was actually diagnosed with depression last year and am taking pills for it. O__O
Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this. I guess I feel like there must be someone who will understand. I am a nice person (seriously). I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart. I hate being in a public eye, that's why I left entertainment. There is a lot of pressure to be this and that, and to be nice and to smile when all you want to do is punch walls and die.
Sorry about this lengthy email. Don't worry, I don't expect you to fall in love with me all of a sudden or anything. In fact, you can still hate me if you choose - I'm used to it. :) '
And i do choose to still hate her! While some of the things she said wrote (if true) would be very sad, such as her having depression (I suffer from it and wouldn't wish it on everyone, not even her) there was no reason to bring it up. Talking about those things was just an obvious tactic to gain sympathy, without her actually having to do something crazy like apologise for her behaviour. And depression is not an excuse to do something horrible to another person.
And again it's everyone elses fault, not hers (I'm on pills because of you!). While I agree that some of the things said about her in the meanestbastard community were cruel my friends post was really not. And my Mother did nothing wrong, so lashing out at her was completely unnessecary. Mum didn't laugh at photos of her stupid makeup, Mum didn't do ANYTHING nasty to her. She says 'But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback' But my friend didn't really say anything too nasty, just 'this is a bit rubbish' basically and Mum did absolutely nothing wrong, so why shouldn't I be deeply offended by her nasty, bitchy, completely uncalled for comeback?
'I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark' well not when you insult an innocent person you're not!
Also: 'I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart' a) you DID do it, you sold the dress. b) it was not undeserved, it was bad DIY, the post was made on a community about bad DIY, simples. c) That isn't an excuse to call someone who bought a dress from you in good faith an asshole.
And her saying that she hates being in the public eye is just laughable.
In a way I am sort of thankful for Xenia calling my Mum an asshole. Before it happened I may have laughed at some of the more amusing things she said and did but I wouldn't have found about what a gooddamn lousy excuse for a human being she really is. I would undoubtably have bought into her candyfuture nonsense and possibly bought her crappy repackaged eyeshadows and awful formulated lipsticks. Also while personally I have a bias to feeling that calling my Mum an asshole is the worst thing she could do it isn't. In the huge list of horrible things she has done calling Mum a nasty name is pretty low down.
This woman has lied again and again to her customers, has repackaged her eyeshadows then blamed tkb for copying them. (confirmed by Audrey Kitching who worked with her), has tried to assasinate her competition repeatedly, has threatened to sue someone for a bad review then when the review was deleted and replaced with a nicely written apology claimed that wasn't good enough and made her put up a new retraction written by Lime Crime, has asked bloggers to delete negative comments, has given out a bloggers personal email in a newsletter and asked her fans to send emails disagreeing with her fair review, has then claimed said reviewer was not objective, posted horribly sexist remarks, admitted to stealing a jacket, blatantly shillbidded (and according to people in her old community used to encourage them to shillbid) and kicked people out of her old community for not being power hungry enough while talking about them behind their back and has (almost certainly) STOLEN FROM CHARITY (sadly links have been deleted over the years. Ask if you want the full story, but you might not believe me). Her history would be hilarious if it were fiction but sadly it is not.
She is a nasty piece of work. But I had tried to be the bigger person and stop writing about her.
And then she had to bring it up herself but make things sound like she was in the wrong and again just the victim of nasty bullying.
The hilarious thing is I basically predicted all this back in 2007 replying to her insulting Mum:
'If you reply to this i'm simply going to ignore it because i know you wouldn't do anything as crazy as offer an apology for your behaviour, you'd probably attempt to shift the blame back to me for having the nerve to stand up for myself when being insulted.'
To quote someone on the examiner article: 'calling somebody's mother a hideous name for buying something in good faith is not "telling them what's up, with strong language!" it's being an odious little reptile with no sense of how to act.'
What a complete cunt.
Monday, 3 May 2010
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:
Now please go under the jump to hear my indepth thoughts.
Sunday, 4 April 2010
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:
- 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: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
Friday, 2 April 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, 27 March 2010
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.
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.
Friday, 19 February 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
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.
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.
Friday, 22 January 2010
if you cant do the time don't do the (lime) crime
So i've been trying to stay out of the whole Lime Crime drama for a long while now. Some of the things people were saying about her were just mean and had nothing to do with her products. But you know what, now i sort of want to join them in childish name calling because of this post of hers:
http://www.doedeereblogazine.com/articles/my-rainbow
First things first, i don't think it's a good idea in business to slag off other companies, especially huge ones like Mac who have an enormous fanbase and so on. For goodness sake. There is no conspiracy to keep woman wearing safe, neutral colours.
The reason there are so many 'beige' colours in the make-up industry is because they sell. Women obviously want them and buy them, or they just wouldn't saturate the market. While of course there is a market for blue lipsticks or whatever, it is a niche market, if they were popular enough to warrant it all companies would be making them and every woman on the street would be wearing them.
And of course companies are interested in profit. Everyone, even tiny companies, is interested in profit in some way otherwise they would just give their products away for cost value. And she's one to talk seeing as her mark up from pouring wholesale mica into jars is probably rivalling some of the giants of the cosmetics world.
Once again she is claiming to be on a mission to 'free the rainbow' because noone ever in the entire history of the world has made colours as exciting as hers (she even has a little diagram that she made herself to show how all other makeup industry professionals think. If you look at the diagram though it's interesting to notice that other than 'oh no she didnt', 'airborne unicorn' and 'styletto' all of her lipstick range itself falls into these 'common lipstick shades'. Fuschia, orange, pink, pale orange and lavender are all inside the area she's marked off). Now of course this is just bollocks, if you're looking for bright, unusual eyecolours you can find them pretty much anywhere, but with neutrals mixed in and if you're looking for unusual lipsticks i already made of list, which in itself is just scraping the tip of the iceberg here:
http://lillianfunnyface.blogspot.com/2009/10/doh-deere.html
And, even if you ignore companies which specialise in making bright, unusual colours, companies that usually do stick to 'safe' colours do range out into the realms of exciting, unusual colours. How about Chanels recent collection that contained a black, dark red and even blueish purple lipstick. Or the estee Lauder sparkling black lipgloss from a few years ago. Hell even 'No 7' do a lipstick i'm crazy for called 'Gay Geranium' which is a neon coral. Now to me this seems like quite a daring thing to do, to be from a brand that people think of as being safe, everyday makeup and then bring out something like a black lipgloss. To me this seems like even more of a risk than companies like Illamasqua bringing out a silver lipgloss because they risk alienating their regular customers.
I have 2 sisters. One is like me and loves wearing bright, unusual colours, my other sister prefers to wear neutral colours most of the time. Does this mean that unlike me and Lydia, Laura has been brainwashed by those horrible sexist men of the makeup industry who want to turn anyone beige for... some reason i don't understand. Am i a more interesting, unique and creative individual than my sister because i sometimes wear green lipstick and shes wear nudes? What do you think?
As an amazing commenter said in her thread 'people like my sister are not moths'.
Then this post takes a horribly offensive turn, to me at least.
'Everyone knows the story of Wizard of Oz. Dorothy and friends set off to find the amazing Wizard of Oz, who allegedly runs the Emerald City and has the ability to grant them their wish. I always wondered if there was some kind of a Wizard pulling the strings in cosmetics, someone who decides which shades are ok and which too crazy. And then I realized how ridiculous that was. There should be no Wizard! We should be the ones to decide what colors we want to wear! Someone is holding the rainbow hostage – and so I set off to find out who.
What I discovered that there, indeed, was a Wizard. And he happened to be of sexist tendencies. Did you know that MAC, Estee Lauder, Lancome and most major makeup companies are run by men? That’s right: the industry that makes products for women is dominated by men – and not the fabulous gay variety, either! These male CEOs cannot possibly know what women want, so what business do they have to dictate our beauty trends??'
Oh noes! Those awful men are holding the rainbow hostage!
And not gay men either, horrible straight men! They don't even wear makeup! Unlike all those fabulous fairies, every single one of whom flounces around in ruffles and glitter saying 'ooh ducky'. i don't mean to alarm you Doe but not EVERY gay person is Quentin Crisp!
Not only does she manage to be horribly stereotypical to gay men but also horribly sexist towards men. Just because i don't wear mens clothing doesn't mean i have no valid opinions or knowledge about it! And just because men don't wear lipstick (although how does she know? All those top men CEOS might be transvestites and try out their own cosmetics!) doesn't mean they cant listen to women and produce products that women want! Just one instance of this would be Fyrinnae, an absolutely amazing makeup company. It has beautiful lipsticks (in every shade of the rainbow), colour-changing eyeshadows and so on and so forth. And guess what, it's run by men!
Imagine the uproar that would happen if a man working with, let's say aftershave or mens razors for example, something with products aimed solely at males, was to say that women shouldn't be allowed to be in charge of these sort of companies. There would be uproar, and rightly so.
Gender and sexuality have nothing to do with empathy with other people. I can imagine what men want, what might sell to men etc but because i'm in a lesbian relationship does that mean i know about better than a straight woman?? (or maybe it doesn't count with me because i'm bisexual, and thus not 'manly' like a gay man is 'womanly' in her opinion) No, of course not.
Sheer, utter, generalising, sexist, stereotypical nonsense.
So well done Doe. Now not only do i think that you're a big lying scam artist cheating people out of money, but a sexist person with awful ideas about what a gay person is.
http://www.doedeereblogazine.com/articles/my-rainbow
First things first, i don't think it's a good idea in business to slag off other companies, especially huge ones like Mac who have an enormous fanbase and so on. For goodness sake. There is no conspiracy to keep woman wearing safe, neutral colours.
The reason there are so many 'beige' colours in the make-up industry is because they sell. Women obviously want them and buy them, or they just wouldn't saturate the market. While of course there is a market for blue lipsticks or whatever, it is a niche market, if they were popular enough to warrant it all companies would be making them and every woman on the street would be wearing them.
And of course companies are interested in profit. Everyone, even tiny companies, is interested in profit in some way otherwise they would just give their products away for cost value. And she's one to talk seeing as her mark up from pouring wholesale mica into jars is probably rivalling some of the giants of the cosmetics world.
Once again she is claiming to be on a mission to 'free the rainbow' because noone ever in the entire history of the world has made colours as exciting as hers (she even has a little diagram that she made herself to show how all other makeup industry professionals think. If you look at the diagram though it's interesting to notice that other than 'oh no she didnt', 'airborne unicorn' and 'styletto' all of her lipstick range itself falls into these 'common lipstick shades'. Fuschia, orange, pink, pale orange and lavender are all inside the area she's marked off). Now of course this is just bollocks, if you're looking for bright, unusual eyecolours you can find them pretty much anywhere, but with neutrals mixed in and if you're looking for unusual lipsticks i already made of list, which in itself is just scraping the tip of the iceberg here:
http://lillianfunnyface.blogspot.com/2009/10/doh-deere.html
And, even if you ignore companies which specialise in making bright, unusual colours, companies that usually do stick to 'safe' colours do range out into the realms of exciting, unusual colours. How about Chanels recent collection that contained a black, dark red and even blueish purple lipstick. Or the estee Lauder sparkling black lipgloss from a few years ago. Hell even 'No 7' do a lipstick i'm crazy for called 'Gay Geranium' which is a neon coral. Now to me this seems like quite a daring thing to do, to be from a brand that people think of as being safe, everyday makeup and then bring out something like a black lipgloss. To me this seems like even more of a risk than companies like Illamasqua bringing out a silver lipgloss because they risk alienating their regular customers.
I have 2 sisters. One is like me and loves wearing bright, unusual colours, my other sister prefers to wear neutral colours most of the time. Does this mean that unlike me and Lydia, Laura has been brainwashed by those horrible sexist men of the makeup industry who want to turn anyone beige for... some reason i don't understand. Am i a more interesting, unique and creative individual than my sister because i sometimes wear green lipstick and shes wear nudes? What do you think?
As an amazing commenter said in her thread 'people like my sister are not moths'.
Then this post takes a horribly offensive turn, to me at least.
'Everyone knows the story of Wizard of Oz. Dorothy and friends set off to find the amazing Wizard of Oz, who allegedly runs the Emerald City and has the ability to grant them their wish. I always wondered if there was some kind of a Wizard pulling the strings in cosmetics, someone who decides which shades are ok and which too crazy. And then I realized how ridiculous that was. There should be no Wizard! We should be the ones to decide what colors we want to wear! Someone is holding the rainbow hostage – and so I set off to find out who.
What I discovered that there, indeed, was a Wizard. And he happened to be of sexist tendencies. Did you know that MAC, Estee Lauder, Lancome and most major makeup companies are run by men? That’s right: the industry that makes products for women is dominated by men – and not the fabulous gay variety, either! These male CEOs cannot possibly know what women want, so what business do they have to dictate our beauty trends??'
Oh noes! Those awful men are holding the rainbow hostage!
And not gay men either, horrible straight men! They don't even wear makeup! Unlike all those fabulous fairies, every single one of whom flounces around in ruffles and glitter saying 'ooh ducky'. i don't mean to alarm you Doe but not EVERY gay person is Quentin Crisp!
Not only does she manage to be horribly stereotypical to gay men but also horribly sexist towards men. Just because i don't wear mens clothing doesn't mean i have no valid opinions or knowledge about it! And just because men don't wear lipstick (although how does she know? All those top men CEOS might be transvestites and try out their own cosmetics!) doesn't mean they cant listen to women and produce products that women want! Just one instance of this would be Fyrinnae, an absolutely amazing makeup company. It has beautiful lipsticks (in every shade of the rainbow), colour-changing eyeshadows and so on and so forth. And guess what, it's run by men!
Imagine the uproar that would happen if a man working with, let's say aftershave or mens razors for example, something with products aimed solely at males, was to say that women shouldn't be allowed to be in charge of these sort of companies. There would be uproar, and rightly so.
Gender and sexuality have nothing to do with empathy with other people. I can imagine what men want, what might sell to men etc but because i'm in a lesbian relationship does that mean i know about better than a straight woman?? (or maybe it doesn't count with me because i'm bisexual, and thus not 'manly' like a gay man is 'womanly' in her opinion) No, of course not.
Sheer, utter, generalising, sexist, stereotypical nonsense.
So well done Doe. Now not only do i think that you're a big lying scam artist cheating people out of money, but a sexist person with awful ideas about what a gay person is.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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.
'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.
Friday, 6 November 2009
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 :)
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 :)
Thursday, 5 November 2009
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.
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!
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!
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