Very very very long overdue post lol. First time I wrote a review on a Lime Crime lipstick it was when I didn't even have a blogspot! If you want you can read on my tumblr here but the photos are all very bad and of course I am much better at blogging now. I think.
Please keep in mind that these are from progressive stages of LC's lipstick formulation. Most recent addition is Coquette!
The permanent 10 piece collection includes:
- Coquette, a pale peachy pinky nude. Paler than Benefit Lady's Choice, my usual nude.
- Countessa Fluorescent, a neon-bright cool toned pink. Very Nicki Minaj.
- Cosmopop, a medium whitened orange. Not peach, this is light orange.
- Great Pink Planet, a cool toned pastel pink. Seems similar to MAC Saint Germain.
- Retrofuturist, a clean bright red. See it compared to other reds here.
- Airborne Unicorn, a warm medium pinky purple.
- Centrifuschia, a bright fuschia pink. Stains super heavily! But that's ok, it looks pretty much just like the lipstick when it does.
- D'Lilac, a pale pastel lilac. This one is a tricky one to wear, but I managed to pull it off when coupled with insane bows and hair clips.
- My Beautiful Rocket, bright medium orange. More yellowy and pumpkiny than shades such as MAC Morange.
- No She Didn't, a neon tinged bubblegum blue. Looks great on pale skin (see Sherry in the About Me tab!)
I bought My Beautiful Rocket first, shortly followed by No She Didn't (which broke) and replaced by the company with Airborne Unicorn. Coquette arrived in my mailbox at the same time as the Carousel Glosses and the rest were bought at the same time as the eyeshadow collection (Sept 2010) to give you a sense of time. Earlier incarnations have been a little skippier and thicker than recent.
The formula, for me, has been consistently creamy and smooth with high pigment yield. Not one stroke opacity as formerly claimed, but about 3 will have your pout covered very well. Lipsticks are infused with a stain for prolonged wear and naturally, lighter shades will fade faster and stain lighter than deeper colours. Due to the heavy staining I can't judge the longevity of red/pink shades such as Centrifuschia, but Coquette lasts approximately 4 hours if I try really hard not to bite/lick/scratch my lips or eat.
I swatched the entire collection on the lips (obviously, haha) and none of the shades felt particularly heavy or drying. However the lighter shades like Cosmopop and D'Lilac seem to have a tendency to skip a bit, especially if applied over a thin layer of balm, but I am unsure if this problem has since been fixed since purchasing. Pastel colours are also a bit more fiddly to apply, but I find going slightly outside the lipline helps with that. A lip brush is highly recommended for more dramatic colours, personally I suck at going in straight from the tube. :(
Speaking of tubes, since the manufacturer has changed, so has the packaging itself, if only slightly. The holographic-ness of the unicorn has changed from a flakey flecky design, to smaller dots, to larger dots, The thing is, if you happen to have a lipstick that has two different designs on the top and bottom, you get a not so perfect fit...
Sadly the unicorn itself tends to go extinct too. After one day in my bag, starring Styletto...
But now, the moment you've been waiting for... swatch time!
And in the same order...
Coquette
Countessa Fluorescent
Cosmopop
Great Pink Planet
Retrofuturist
Airborne Unicorn
Centrifuschia
D'Lilac
My Beautiful Rocket
No She Didn't
Staining. YOWZA
Apart from the occasional packaging woe and not being able to wear the lighter colours, I actually like these and continue to reach for them, especially when a long-lasting colour is needed... just so long as I don't mind scrubbing lips the next day. Cest la vie.
