When my coworker Hannah and I found out that Lime Crime’s Unicorn hair dyes had recently been re-released so that they would work on darker hair, there was no doubt that we were putting in an order. Both of us have naturally dark hair but are more than a little bit unicorn inspired – we spend our working days sending each other links to sparkly unicorn Christmas decorations and cat videos (I promise we work a lot too ;D).
I ordered the shimmering pink Aesthetic hair dye (which I am yet to try) then we found a code for Halloween which gave us a free Pumpkin Velvetine lipstick – win! I also chucked a gift set of 3 smaller lipsticks into the basket too because…I just wanted them, okay?!
I’m no beauty blogger, but I do love to wear lipstick. I’ve written about lipstick a couple of times here, in particular, my fave No. 7 Boots Match Made one.
But blogging about lipstick is hard though, people. I won’t ever underestimate beauty bloggers again. Have you tried taking close up photos of your lips before?! First the camera won’t focus on your lips. Then it finally focuses and you discover that your partially chapped lips (thanks 3 colds in 2 months…) don’t look so great close up. So you zoom out a little to remember that you literally only put make up on your lips so look…rather odd. Plus that bit of dry skin is now instantly magnified for the world to see. Also my lips/smile are totally uneven – the arch is higher on one side. And the skin around my lips definitely doesn’t look as smooth as all these other bloggers and ads I’ve seen – are they photoshopping? Are they using some secret magic app?! Then finally, I managed to get one good picture of one lipstick…and the lighting changed. So all the others were too dark to tell what colour the lipsticks actually were.
Personally I always prefer to see lipsticks on actual lips, but I can understand completely now why most people swatch on arms. So sorry not sorry.
Lime Crime
Before we get into the reviews, let me talk a little bit about Lime Crime as a brand. While I’m not a beauty blogger, I am surrounded by them so I remember back when Lime Crime first became a thing in the blogging scene and everyone was reviewing them. I reaaaallly wanted a piece of that for a while, then moved on and forgot about Lime Crime, so when they started popping up again recently, I was intrigued – I remember them! After a bit of research, it turns out there was a big controversy surrounding them that I somehow completely missed.
Anywho, they seem to be back on the scene today thanks to the recent matte lipstick trend taking off and their unicorn inspired packaging being exactly what every millennial needs to have right now. And I’m totally one of those.
On top of that, Lime Crime’s message is that they’re 100% vegan and cruelty free – something I didn’t know before. There seem to be a lot of articles claiming one way or the other about Lime Crime so I’m going to take that as a neither here nor there. So let’s get on with the actual review!
Just quickly to add – the delivery for these was a flat rate of $10.95 which seemed pretty reasonable for me, and they arrived very quickly – within a day of ordering! Plus the packaging was super pretty – I used it as a background for these pics and am keeping it for others in future.
Lime Crime Pumpkin Velvetine
All the Velvetines lipsticks come in a matte plastic tube with an applicator attached to a lid designed with roses on a red background. The point of the Velvetine formula is that is supposed to be very matte on the lips, like velvet.
The Pumpkin shade is really gorgeous and very wearable, if you’re into bold lipsticks anyway! It’s a deep red with a hint of orange that verges on burgundy. I know, that doesn’t entirely make sense, but that’s what it is. It definitely is a shade that’s reminiscent of autumn, fallen leaves and pumpkins. In fact, I’d say this shade of fall leaves shows quite well what’s inspired this lipstick colour. Plus it’s totally a Cheryl Blossom shade.
The lipstick goes on really easily and is highly pigmented. I literally needed a single thin coat which I applied to the bottom lip, smudged onto the top lip and tidied up round the edges. It quickly dries to a solid matte and stays in place well…like really well. Most lipsticks for me will come off when I rub them gently with a tissue, but this required proper removal! Although a giant burger I ate one evening while wearing it did cause it to come off in the centre of my lips.
The issue with most matte lipsticks is that they’re very drying, but I didn’t find that with this one at all. In fact, it actually felt like I wasn’t wearing any lipstick at all, which was kind of an odd experience!
If you want to see this one in place, I was wearing it in my Alice’s Pig Coat outfit post – see here too:
Lime Crime Cindy Velventine
The gift set I bought was the Blue Rose Velve-Tin which contained 3 mini lipsticks: Cindy, Vibe and Beet-It. All of these have the same packaging, applicator and formula as the Pumpkin which I’ve described above, so had the same wearing power and feeling on the lips.
The Cindy Velvetine shade is a sort of terracotta brown, a little darker than a dark beige with orange undertones. This one doesn’t totally match my skin tone as it makes me look a little washed out and pulls out my yellow tones, but would be great for those who want something quite nude on a darker beige skin.
Lime Crime Vibe Velvetine
Vibe is a super fun colour – it’s described on the site as Metallic Pinky Mauve, and I have to agree. It’s a little bit Barbie, with that frosted glittery look while still being matte. The pink is light enough that it’s fairly subtle – I’d say out of this bunch, it’s got the least impact but is the most wearable for day to day. The glittery sheen in it also isn’t gritty or over the top – it sits smoothly on the lips like the others.
Lime Crime Beet-It Velvetine
The Beet-It Velvetine colour is described as berry matte, and combining that with its beetroot inspired name, I think you’ve got a pretty good image of the colour on the lips. It’s a bold berry shade with slight blue undertones. I was worried about this one because they often look too vampy on my pale skin. Fortunately the pink tones in it are light enough to pull it away from that for me, but it’s definitely a bold shade that I won’t wear all that often.
