Review and Swatches: Lime Crime Alchemy Collection

Hello!

I'm back! With a vengence, I must say. Beware, this is a detail and picture heavy post!

Today's review is on the Lime Crime Alchemy Collection. This came out fairly recently, and the whole set includes the Alchemy eyeshadow palette (5 duochrome eyeshadows), two opaque lipsticks (Serpentina and Poisonberry), and a mook (it's a photoshoot mini mag, basically).

The cover of the Alchemy Mook.

The Alchemy Eyeshadow Palette

Lime Crime Alchemy Collection Eyeshadow Palette (no flash used)

Lime Crime Alchemy Collection Eyeshadow Palette (with flash)

Lime Crime Alchemy Collection Eyeshadow Palette swatches (with flash).

 L-R: Incantation, Lucky Charm, Love Potion No.9, Spellbound, Divination.

Lime Crime Alchemy Collection Eyeshadow Palette swatches (no flash).

Lime Crime Lipstick packaging

Lime Crime Poisonberry Lipstick from the Alchemy Collection

Lime Crime Poisonberry Lipstick from the Alchemy Collection swatch

Lime Crime Serpentina Lipstick from the Alchemy Collection

Lime Crime Serpentina Lipstick from the Alchemy Collection swatch

Lime Crime Serpentina and Poisonberry Lipstick from the Alchemy Collection swatches

 Review:

• Eyeshadow Palette: this eyeshadow palette contains 5 x 1.5g of shadow and has a variety of bold shades. It retails individually for USD$34.99. It comes in a purple tin case, which is good- it's sturdy and easily stack-able.
• Incantation: rusty metallic coppery orange with gold shimmer. This was smooth, highly pigmented and easy to blend- I was very happy with this eyeshadow.
• Lucky Charm: forest green with silver shimmer. I was very disappointed with this eyeshadow. It's powdery, dry and poorly pigmented. It goes on sheer, which is at odds with the promo pictures and how strongly pigmented it looked in the eye looks in the mook.
• Love Potion No 9: light purple with green shimmer. This was a bit powdery, but with decent pigmentation.
• Spellbound: this is a white shadow with gold shimmer. It was pretty, and pigmented. I was happy with this one.
• Divination: this is a dark peacock blue/green with light blue shimmer. It was highly pigmented and smooth- very nice.
• Lipsticks: these retail individually for USD$15.99, each is 3.5g. I didn't mention it in my Glamour 101 Opaque lipstick review but the Lime Crime packaging is a sight to behold. It's very kitschy, very distinctive packaging. No-one can accuse Lime Crime of not putting effort into their products.
• Serpentina: this is a dark emerald green with light green shimmer. It pretty much lives up to its Lime Crime-provided swatch (on their website) and it is smooth, moisturising, highly pigmented and an absolute nightmare to take off. If you're wearing this, commit. Because if you try to take it off to put another lipstick off, you will have to take off all the makeup around your mouth and chin, too. I found that while it didn't make my teeth look yellow, it gave them a green tint. Not particularly attractive. This shade is a bit much for me. I'll save it for fancy-dress parties.
• Poisonberry: this is a berry purple with pink undertones. It's well pigmented (not as strong as Serpentina), smooth and moisturising. This again, lasts a long time. It leaves a nice stain on the lips when it's worn off a bit. This does make your teeth look yellow, unfortunately. I love the colour for a more dramatic lip, I'll just have to make sure I don't smile with teeth showing lol
• Mook: This wasn't a selling point for me, it's more of a take-it-or-leave-it item. It's got a couple of home-made recipes for lip scrub and the like but mostly it's a photo shoot. I would have much preferred the mook to be something along the lines of the Smoked Get The Look Book that came with Urban Decay's Smoked Palette. That had instructions on how to create looks with the palette. Suggested looks would be much appreciated at the moment, as my post-exams fried brain is struggling to think up a look to do with this palette.
• Cost: This retails for USD$49.99, with 7.5g of eyeshadow, 7g total of lipstick and a mook. The combined individual retail value of those items is a bit over USD$66.97 (I don't know how much to value the mook). That's cheaper than buying the items individually, but there are much, much better value-for-money sets out there (for eyeshadow alone, those would include the Urban Decay Naked, Smoked and Vice palettes; for a mix of lip and eye and face products, one would be theBalm's Balm Jovi).

Final Verdict: B-
Interesting eyeshadow colours and bold lipsticks but lacking in terms of value-for-money.

Have you tried this palette, or any of Lime Crime's other collections? What did you think?

Some of you may have noticed this banner at the bottom of my homepage:

It's a Lime Crime Affiliate Link. What it means is that if you go to Lime Crime's website through that link, and buy something, I'll get a percentage of the total purchase. It doesn't mean your purchase is more expensive to compensate for the Affiliate Link-ing, it's the same price as for everyone else! It just means that you'll be supporting me and the Bright Eyed Beauty Blog through your purchase. I also want to emphasise that being one of Lime Crime's Affiliates does not change my opinion on their products and it doesn't mean I get free products. I pay for all the products I review and I give an honest opinion- if I don't like it, I'll say so.

Also- for my American readers, Lime Crime is supporting the Hurricane Sandy relief mission over the next two weeks by donating a portion of their profits to the following charities:
November 05-11: American Red Cross. To help the people who require disaster relief including shelter space, meals, and medical aid.
November 12-18: AdoptNY.org. To help the displaced dogs and cats of NYC.
Please consider donating directly or supporting them through Lime Crime.

xo
Anna