I have been keeping an eye on some of the new releases from Lime Crime and getting an itchy mouse finger to add a bunch to my cart. I finally sealed the deal and this is what came home to me.

I picked up two lipsticks in My Beautiful Rocket and Airborne Unicorn, the entire collection of Carousel Lip Glosses, Medussa Magic Dust loose eyeshadow, two Fantasy Palettes pressed eye shadow in ChinaDoll and Palette D’Antoinette and three Uniliners in Quill, Citreuse, and Orchidaceous.

To keep from being hugely picture heavy, I’m going to break these down into multiple posts.

First up is the Uniliners.

Uniliners are colored liquid eyeliners in a range of colors that you don’t usually see from most companies. First of all, the packaging is beautiful. I’m not just saying that because purple is my favorite color either. I love the printed details on the box.

Look at the cute spiderwebs!

Left to my own devices, I probably would have purchased one of each color, but I was trying moderation out to see what it felt like and limited myself to three. I had to get the black, Quill, because I’m always looking for a black liquid liner Holy Grail. Orchidaceous was my next choice because, duh, purple is my favorite color and I haven’t seen this pastel shade of purple in a liquid liner before. Lastly, I had to have Citreuse for the challenge. This lime green/fluorescent yellow is so unusual that I absolutely could not resist its charms.

Quill, Citreuse and Orchidaceous

So, how do they look? The color saturation is amazing! Citreuse and Orchidaceous dry to a matte finish while Quill holds a bit more shine.

Mostly Matte

I think the matte nature of the purple and the yellow-green allowed a faster dry time than the more shiny Quill. When I dragged my finger across the swatches after they looked dry, about a minute, Quill smeared slightly while the other two stayed put. Once dried, I also noticed some purple sparkles in Orchidaceous, but these were very subtle and only noticeable under the full sun. You can see a bit of it in the picture below.

Quill smear

Here’s a look at Orchidaceous on the eye:

Orchidaceous Uniliner

The application was very smooth and, as I mentioned before, it dried so quickly I didn’t have any issue with bleeding. You can see it on my outer upper lashes, but this is due to my lashes getting in the way during application and not migration.

How’s that purple cat’s eye?

Full Face

Meow! This pop of color and easy application make for one great cat’s eye look.

Decryption:

Lime Crime Uniliners are vegan, cruelty free and made with science:

Each tube is 0.04 fl. oz. I was actually surprised by how small the tubes were, though it didn’t hinder application. The price is $13.99 each. To break it down, I’ll compare it with my other favorite black liquid liner Stila All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner. The Stila liner is 0.016 oz and $20.00 at Sephora.  Lime Crime has a reputation for being very expensive, but compared to another liner it is much less expensive.

Now, let me be clear about one thing. Uniliners are not waterproof.  In fact, when I washed away the swatches, Quill disappeared at the first sign of water, where the other two needed a cotton ball scrub along with the water.

I loved the names until I had to type Orchidaceous and Citreuse over and over again throughout this post. Quill is a much better name, much shorter and easier to spell.

When I wore Orchidaceous, I had no issues with bleeding and it stayed all day for about 10 hours. It did not leave my skin with the pulling/latex feel that other liquid liners like Urban Decay and Makeup Forever do. Nor did it wash off in globs like they do either.

I wish Quill had been closer formulated as the others. I would have traded off the slight gloss for a matte finish just to have the better dry and stay time.

There is more than a good chance that I will be picking up the Lazuli, Blue Milk and 6th Element in the near future. Lazuli is a duplicate for many on the market but looks bright and shiny and the other two are just so incredibly original that I cannot resist.

Do you like crazy eye liner colors? Are you willing to give Lime Crime a try?

I was actually shocked that there weren’t many dupes between the three collections. Instinctively drawn to vibrant colors, I have a tendency to think that a brown is a brown is a brown, no matter what hue or saturation. The proof is in the side by side comparisons. Let’s not tarry. Onward to the swatches!

Frosting was compared against Sin and Virgin from Naked and BootyCall from Naked 2. Sin was more peachy. Virgin, looking more silver, and BootyCall, looking more gold,  were just slightly off. I think if you mixed the two, you might get close to Frosting.

Sin, Virgin, BootyCall, Frosting

Almond went up against Virgin and Naked from Naked and Foxy from Naked 2. Virgin was obviously too shimmery for this matte, but I wanted to see the color. Naked was too dark and brown toned while Foxy was a darker yellow.

Virgin, Naked, Foxy, Almond

Toffee had a run for its money with Naked and Buck from Naked and Tease from Naked 2. This were all just so close with Naked being too light and Tease being too pink. Buck was the closest, but it actually was slightly darker than Toffee.

Naked, Buck, Tease, Toffee

Onyx didn’t win the battle as the blackest black. Of course Creep is packed with silver shimmer so that ended this duplicate comparison right away. Blackout and Onyx were so close, but Blackout was the darker of the two.

Creep, Blackout, Onyx

Sunset had me amazed. I thought surely there was a dupe for it amongst the gold shimmer choices. I tried Sidecar and Half Baked from Naked and Chopper and YDK from Naked 2. While Sidecar and YDK were amazingly close dupes for the other, they were both too pink gold to come close to Sunset. Chopper was too coppery. This left Half Baked which was the closest but shifted just a bit more on the antiqued side of gold while Sunset was brighter with a pink shift. You can definitely see it in the second picture that was taken indoors.

Sidecar, Half Baked, Chopper, YDK, Sunset

Indoor Shot of Sunset Comparison

Trophy stood alone when compared to Sin and Sidecar from Naked and Verve from Naked 2. Sin was still too peachy, Sidecar looked more coppery bronze and Verve was silvery gold. Not even a close match here.

Sin, Sidecar, Verve, Trophy

Latte has some shimmer but was a bit more brown than the metallic counterparts in the other palettes. Sidecar and Toasted from Naked were much more darker bronze. Chopper and YDK from Naked 2 leaned too far dark and light copper than Latte.

Sidecar, Toasted, Chopper, YDK, Latte

Glow had a run for its money. Half Baked from Naked and Naked 2 was pretty dead on though in some light it shifted with a copper glow next to Glow. Smog from Naked was too dark bronze and Suspect from Naked 2 was too light to come anywhere near the golden goodness of Glow.

Half Baked, Smog, Suspect, Glow

Foxy brings this comparison home and stands alone. I pitted Smog and Toasted from Naked and Snakebite and Busted from Naked 2 against this Foxy shade. Smog rang a little too golden and Toasted was lighter. Snakebite looked closer to Smog than Foxy and Busted was much too dark to even be in the ballpark.

Smog, Toasted, Snakebite, Busted, Foxy

Well, there you have it. I feel confident in recommending She Wears It Well for those of you who have Naked and Naked 2 palettes already. I think you will enjoy the “in-between” colors of both. For those of you who don’t want to shell out over $100 to pick up both Urban Decay palettes, I think She Wears It Well is a great compromise. You get nine similar tones for $34. What I can promise is that none of the SWIW shadows have the glitter fall-out issue that many of the Naked and Naked 2 shadows have.

What do you think? Is it too close to Urban Decay for you or are you in love no matter what?

This product was sent for consideration.

Now, onto the manicure!

The polishes I used:

Clear Basecoat: Zoya Anchor

Color Basecoat: Essie Blanc

Tip Spun Color: Essie Braziliant

Second Spun Color: Zoya Areej

Third Spun Color: Cult Nails Feel Me Up

Last Spun Color: Zoya Mira

And, ta da:

Spun Sugar Manicure

Essie Blanc was the perfect basecoat because boy is this polish streaky and all of that unevenness gets covered up by the pretty texture on top. No muss. No fuss.

This manicure is ideal for older and thicker polishes that you haven’t gotten around to restoring and thinning. Feel Me Up worked the best because it was a thicker polish to begin with and seemed to dry a little faster to get to that string phase quicker. Essie was next, but for some reason the strings were thick instead of thin and the application just glopped onto the nail. For the Zoya polishes, I had to cheat a little bit and mix in some Seche Vite to speed up the drying and thickening process. There’s a little pro tip for you! Another pro tip is be patient. This is a manicure that require time and patience. The Seche Vite sped up the process, but there is a lot of wait time in between doing the fun parts and making a mess. Oh yeah. It is messy too. I found it less messy than the Splatter Mani, but you will need a protected surface and some polish remover handy to clean-up around the edges.

If you hate textured manicures, be brave!  This is not a smooth finish and you will probably be drawn to rubbing your fingers over the surface of the nail over and over.If you absolutely can’t stand the bumpy texture, you are in luck!  I applied Seche Vite over the entire nail on my thumb and index finger. This made the strings soften and blend a bit together. Like Cris said in her post, it is almost like a water marble effect.

I actually prefer no top coat for full texture action!

Softer Texture on Index Finger

I kinda love this mani in a retro 1980′s puffy paint sweatshirt kind of way. I still have some old Loreal Jet Set and Maybelline Express polishes (also from the 80′s) hanging around. I think these will be quite good at achieving that string texture.

What do you think of the Spun Sugar Manicure? Will you try it?

When I was in Paris last summer, I had a splendid time browsing the beauty products in the pharmacies, and I bought a tube of La Roche-Posay Mela-D.

French Version of Mela-D

Mela-D uses kojic acid and LHA to reduce the appearance of dark spots.  I was delighted with the product and immediately regretted buying only one tube.  It had a pleasant texture and smell; it was light and non-greasy, despite an SPF 15.  I used it either alone or under my daily moisturizer.  It seemed to do what it promised.  What would I do when I ran out?

A few months later, I was thrilled to find Mela-D in the La Roche-Posay section of my local CVS.  I bought a bottle immediately.  It had different packaging, but I didn’t think much of it.

US Version of Mela-D

I got home and opened the tube.  The product was yellowish, greasy, and smelled like sunscreen.  After checking the French and US La Roche-Posay websites, it appears that the French version of Mela-D uses La Roche-Posay’s patented sunscreen, Mexoryl® XL (drometrizole trisiloxane).  A further web search indicates that while Mexoryl® SX (ecamsule) has been approved by the US FDA (and is included in the popular Anthelios line), Mexoryl® XL has not been approved by the US FDA.  The US version of Mela-D does not even appear to use Mexoryl® SX, and instead lists avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, oxybenzone as the active sunscreens.

Left: US Mela-D; Right: French Mela-D

I ran out of my original tube of French Mela-D recently.  I must admit, because of the smell and texture, I haven’t used enough of the US version to see if it lives up to it’s promise of less spots.  Fortunately, a friend traveled to Paris and brought back a new tube.  I am using it sparingly.

Let us know if you’ve had a similar experience with products purchased from far-away lands!

Let’s take a look inside!

Here she is in all of her limelight.

Heavenly Neutrals

The left side of the palette holds the sparkling shimmers that glitter with hints of precious metals.

Shimmering Left Side

The larger middle shade, in Sunset, is stunning.

Sunset in the Middle

And to complete the collection, here are the left side mattes.

Right Side Mattes

And now for the swatches!  The claim is that “This palette can be worn dry for a sheer wash of color of wet for an intensified finish! ” So, for each of the shadows, I have a dry, wet and an UD primer swatch for comparison.

All swatches L to R: Primer, Wet, Dry.

Trophy is white gold shimmer. It is perfect for brow highlighting, upper lid brightening, blending and softening the other colors.

Trophy

Latte is coppery bronze shimmer. This is great for the lid, pulling into the crease and lining the lower and upper lashes.

Latte

Glow is a straight on antiqued gold shimmer. This color is all about the drama. Want a little bit of a Midas touch? Sweep Glow all over the lid and up into the crease.

Glow

Foxy deepens into an unforgettable bronze shimmer with touches of copper when the light hits it. Use this for a metallic smokey look that accentuates the crease and lid.

Foxy

Sunset is full on copper gold exactly like the last rays of a sunset. Layer it on wet for a bold look or sweep it on dry for just a touch of sun and sparkle.

Sunset

Frosting wants to belong to the right hand side of this palette and straddles the edges of both matte and shimmer. It is a peachy pink neutral and could barely be seen on my pink toned skin when applied dry. It is still subtle with primer and I had to really layer it up with the wet application to get it to show up on camera. This is your go-to highlighter for the brow and I could also recommend it blended into your blush to get some great contouring.

Frosting

Almond is a yellowed matte neutral. This is very light and again barely shows up with the dry application. Though, for you darker complexion starlets, this will be a very dramatic color. For the rest of us, we can utilize it for blending and highlighting.

Almond

Onyx is a black matte. You can’t have a neutral palette without including a black to add drama and line the lids. I deviated from my swatch pattern slightly to see how well the thin side of the brush worked as a liner. Below is L to R: Primer, Wet liner, Wet, Dry. It’s not bad for a black, but use it wet or with a primer if you want any color payoff.

Onyx

Toffee is a taupe matte and is quite versatile in all the swatch techniques. Under a primer, it is rich and earthly. Applied wet, it is perfect for the crease to create a great smoked look. And, a dry application will give you many, many blendable looks.

Toffee

Decryption:

You might be saying to yourself, “Not another neutral palette.” I know because I thought it too. However, once I got into the swatches, I was pretty amazed that these colors seemed pretty differentiated from other neutral palettes that I own (*cough* Naked, *cough* Naked 2). Don’t believe me? I’ll show you comparisons in the next post!

Here are the claims:

The She Wears It Well palette consists of 9 versatile, matte and shimmer high-pigment eye shadows that offer long-wearing, crease-free color.  This palette can be worn dry for a sheer wash of color of wet for an intensified finish! The matte shades have a velvety smooth finish for a crease-free eye while the shimmer shades are clinically proven to firm, hydrate, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkle. She Wears It Well retails for $34 and is available at Anastasia.net and Sephora.

I’ll be honest, I feel you are wasting your time with most of these colors if you rely on a dry application. They certainly aren’t terrible when applied dry and if you want a very soft and subtle look please proceed. But, I want my shadows deep and dramatic. If you are like me, stick with a primer or wet application. Being a shimmer connoisseur, I’m more drawn to the left side than the right side mattes. But, these are great mattes. They are not powdery, like many others I’ve encountered and blend beautifully with what, I would agree, is a velvet smooth finish. I had absolutely no issues with creasing and with a primer application, these babies held on to my lids for a good ten hours straight.

As for the claims of hydrating and reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, I want to see the clinical study. These are made with:

Youthful SynergyTM Complex in Shimmer Shades Brown Algae – A key ingredient that smoothes, firms, hydrates, and revitalizes the appearance of skin. Diamond Core Powder – Diffuses light for a soft focus effect. Sea Whip Extract – Soothes the skin Macadamia derivative – A natural hydrator capable of holding up to 300% more water in the skin. Powerful antioxidants of Vitamins A, B, C, E, and F.
Balkan Botanical Infusion®

I can’t refute that brown algae, sea whip extract and macadamia derivatives sound convincingly effective. But, being that I work in a clinical study industry, I’m always a skeptic. Again, I want to see the clinical study efficacy parameters. I don’t have many eye wrinkles so I don’t count on seeing dramatic results and my eyes certainly weren’t dry after all day wear and removal. I think I’d have to wear these every day for many weeks to fully test the claims.

I dug around and found the following on http://www.mybeautyclinic.net/ :

Clinically proven results:
Clinical result reported at 1 hour is:
• 29% increase in skin hydration. Clinical results reported at 4 weeks are:
• Appearance of fine lines and wrinkles on upper eyelid and brow area are reduced. 
• Appearance of upper eyelid puffiness is reduced.Consumer test results after 4 weeks of use:
 70% noticed reduction of the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles on the eyelid

 77% noticed eye area appears illuminated

 83% noticed eyelid appears smoother

70% noticed eyelid appears firmer

 68% noticed hooded lid appears less visible

 83% noticed overall eye area appears lighter/brighterClinical test results after 4 weeks this eye area appears:
      • Firmer
      • Smoother
      • Lighter
      • Less Puffy

Results may vary, though significant results were seen after 1 hour of application.

Stay tuned for another follow up post with five inspired looks and see if “She Wears It Well”!

This product was sent for consideration.

Tools of the Trade

Titania, Lunachat, and Karabela are big fans of MAC, and they let me try a Paint Pot in Reubenesque and Mineralize SoftFinish in Soft and Gentle before I went out on the town for dinner one night.  I applied three layers of the Paint Pot on my eyelids with my fingers.  I set the eye shadow with one layer of the Mineralize SkinFinish, also applied with my fingers.  To define my eyes, I used Boots No. 7 Amazing Eyes Pencil in Bronze and Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Mascara in Espresso.

Day -- Close-Up of Eye

MAC Paint Pot in Reubenesque is a rosy bronze cream shadow that has a very nice texture (no mess in the bike bag!) and is easy to layer for a subtle look.  I think it brightens my eyes and makes me look more awake.

Day -- Full Face

For an everyday look, I used Bare Minerals Pretty Amazing Lip Gloss in Oomph.  It’s a barely there pink gloss that is very close to my natural lip color, but adds a nice shimmer.

Day -- Close-Up of Bare Minerals Pretty Amazing Lip Gloss in Oomph

For an evening look, I turned up the heat with NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Baroque, a very pretty blue-based red.  Frankly, I think I’d wear this during the day, too.

Night -- Close-Up of NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Baroque

Night -- Full Face

What is your go-to look?

To celebrate, I applied the Union Flag Nail Rock designer nail wraps I bought at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London earlier this summer.

Union Flag Nail Rock Designer Nail Wraps

Unlike Sephora for OPI Trend Tips that are strips of nail lacquer and are removed using nail polish remover, the Nail Rock nail wraps are heavy duty stickers that you can peel off.  The package says they last for up to 10 days.  We shall see; I have yet to test them in the shower or doing dishes.  I’m already noticing some peeling at the edges.  But even if they don’t last, I won’t be disappointed.  It’s a fun look for the start of London 2012!

Celebrating London 2012

Happy Olympics!  Citius! Altius! Fortius!

Close-Up of the Cosmos

I started this post prior to news of Sally Ride’s death on Monday at the age of 61.  It was going to be full of Star Trek references.  But since I will forever picture Sally Ride hovering weightless aboard Challenger with a look of sheer joy on her face, I thought it would be better if this post on space-inspired nail art was a tribute to her.

Sephora’s YouTube Channel has some great tutorials on nail art, and I tried their “Space Cadet” look.  Sephora used colors from their Sephora by OPI line, but I happened to have similar colors in my collection.

Nails Inc. (Black Taxi); Sinful Colors (Gorgeous); Butter London (Lillibet's Jubilee); Deborah Lippman (I Love The Nightlife)

I used my Deborah Lippman 2-Second Nail Primer and Rehydrating Base Coat, then applied two coats of Nails Inc. Black Taxi as my night sky.  I let it dry a bit, then one nail at a time, applied a few drops of Sinful Colors Gorgeous (a shimmery aqua) and Lillibet’s Jubilee (silvery purple) and made “S” shapes with a toothpick to create a swirling galaxy.  It helps to spread the drops out as much as possible with the toothpick as you’re swirling, otherwise this layer can be thick and take longer to dry.  I also recommend letting this layer dry for a few minutes longer than normal, otherwise the next step can cause some wrinkling.

To add twinkling stars, I used Deborah Lippman I Love The Nightlife glitter.  I applied a coat over the swirls first, then applied a coat over the entire nail.

Swirling Galaxies

Godspeed, Sally Ride.  Thank you for letting a generation of young women know that we could shoot for the stars.  We are forever grateful.

I used:

Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Basecoat

White Base: Essie Bone Chilling from the Addam’s Family Morticia’s Nails Collection

Red Stripe: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet

White Stripe: MAC Frost from the Glitter & Ice Collection

Blue Stripe: Revlon Blue Mosaic

Top Coat: Seche Vite to seal in all the glitter goodness

And there we go. It is mostly overcast today, but I found a few moments of sunshine to get that glitter to sparkle!

Patriotic!

I hope your Fourth of July was relaxing and enjoyable.

 Updated: July 5th. 

I kept staring at my nails all morning and got this incredible craving for these:

Firecracker, Firecracker, Boom, Boom, Boom!

Weird, huh? 

I think they used to be called Rocket Pops when I was a kid. One more thing that diminishes with our Space Program cut-backs I guess.