Lime Crime Make-Up Review & Tutorial!

Editor’s Note (11/15/2009): I have read the comments about the Lime Crime repackaging situation, both on my site and other sites, and I have been contacted by Doe Deere/Xenia about removing those comments from my blog.

I feel that removing those comments compromises my editorial integrity, along with the trust my readers have in me.  I had thought about deleting the posts, but that is also a passive reaction.  My opinions on the product, as shared below, remain the same.

I believe that the accusations against Xenia are harsh, and I do not take claims against small businesses lightly, especially when I share them on dramatis personae.

I encourage you to investigate and make your own decisions regarding her products.
Thank you, and if you have any questions, please email me.

At long last, my Lime Crime Makeup has arrived and I have had proper time to play with it!  The gorgeous Xenia was lovely enough to send me samples of Circus Girl,Prima Donna, and Siren.  I was particularly excited about Circus Girl and Siren, as good yellow and red eyeshadow is hard to come by!

I’m a huge fan of eyeshadow– of all the makeup available, it’s by far my favorite! The bolder the colors and higher the pigment count, the better. From MAC to L’Oreal Hip eye shadows and Ben Nye, my weapon of choice for a fun and fabulous night out is eyeshadow– the more the merrier!

♥ Pricing: Initially, I was a bit put off by the price of Lime Crime makeup; I typically don’t spend $10-15 on a single eyeshadow unless it’s a color I’ll often use and I’m able to test it beforehand. However, I know many a girl (and guy) who will drop good change on their makeup so I am not the standard! With Lime Crime not being in brick & mortar stores yet, it’s hard to gauge the quality by computer (luckily, Xenia does some amazing tutorials and photoshoots using her colors, which helps a lot!).

♥ Packaging: Since my Lime Crime eyeshadows were samples, they didn’t come in the official packaging, but in nice little black twist top jars.  That being said, I understand why Xenia said that finding the perfect packaging is the most challenging aspect of the creation process!  With a lovely loose mineral shadow, the particles are so fine that they are easily caught up around the edges and grooves that seal the lid and jar together– if you don’t open it carefully, this is an easy way to loose a substantial amount of shadow!  When I opened the jars, I made sure to delicately use my eyeshadow brush around the edges, so that I used the shadow there first, before going in to the jar itself.

♥ Product: I played with the shadows on two separate instances– the first was the back of hand/smudge of face attempt, to just gauge the color and application.  Circus Girl made my heart palpitate a bit, as it seemed to go on really uneven; I discovered on second application (the creation of Tropic Thunder below) that it doesn’t go on uneven– it’s just so shimmery its hard to tell how even it is!  Prima Donna and Siren went on just as I expected they would– true to color, smooth, with an incredibly even finish.  They looked beautiful on the skin, and I think the surprise was how much Prima Donna stole my heart!

When Xenia says these colors blend well– she’s not exaggerating in the slightest! In all honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever had an eyeshadow that blends so easily as these.  This is two-fold: blending is essential to clean, attractive looking eye makeup.  However, if you’re looking for certain colors to be defined against each other, you have to be careful not to overlay them.  When Siren went on over Circus Girl, the scarlet red quickly became a bold red-orange.

Tropic Thunder (or ‘How I Became Wonder Woman’):

With the makeup palate at hand, I wanted to create a look that combined a fierce tropical tribal warpaint style with a bit of a glam electroclash style. However, I think what I came up with looks a bit more like Wonder Woman mated with an extra on Stayin’ Alive (imho, the greatest Ultra Travolta film ever made!)!

I began by prepping my skin– concealer and powder around the eyes, and foundation all over. I know everyone says to do foundation last, but in my experience it just makes my eyeshadow smear more if I do it that way!

I started with Circus Girl, and used a medium sized eyeshadow brush to apply it from lash line to brow.  I put a lot on, dry, to make the pigment bold and vibrant.  With a dry eyeshadow brush, I then applied Prima Donna. With Prima Donna, I created a straight line going intersecting my eyebrow right below the arch; this line extended from lash line to hair line.  I filled the line in to the end of my eye, and created an arch that went above my my cheek.  I created a point below my cheek bone and a soft curve back up to my hair line.  I filled in this ENTIRE region with Prima Donna.  I pulled the point at the cheek bone in below my cheek a bit, to define my cheeks (since I wasn’t using blush).

With an DAMP angled eyebrow brush, I pressed it in to Siren.  I used the wet Siren as an eyeliner.  Because it went on over Circus Girl, it ended up very red-orange. I went from inner eye to outer, creating a very slight lift at the end of the eye.  In the inner corner of my eye, I ran my fingers together over the Circus Girl and Siren to create a bright orange pop that extended below my eyes.

I did a quick flash of black liquid eyeliner on my lower lashline, added two coats of mascara, and clumsily attempted to add red lipstick (I’m out of lipliner, so it didn’t work so hot ;).

Overall Score: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ (4/5)
Xenia has got a great product here, especially for a new line! For key colors, I would proudly and boldly wear her products; I’m hoping that the glitters, primer and finishing dust are of the same great quality that the eyeshadows are– I may be picking up the primer and finishing dust myself quite soon!