Mineral Mayhem v2.0

Further to my disappointment with Lime Crime I e-mailed them, with a very lousy attempt at subterfuge to find out if they make their own colours, or not. The respondent replied quickly asking if I was the author of this article. I decided to come clean (I was surprised they'd even noticed it) and the following correspondence ensued.

Anastasia

Aug 27 (8 days ago)

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your prompt reply. Indeed, I am. Make a pretty terrible spy, wouldn't I?

I'm surprised a blog as small as mine makes a blip on your radar, but I assume that's because you track links. So, yes, I was hoping that LC did at least blend some colours and they weren't all carbon-copies, or perhaps the company has a response to one extremely dissatisfied customer, who feels incredibly misled by such an immersive and seemingly unique brand?
-Anastasia

Lime Crime Makeup

Aug 27 (8 days ago)

Hi Anastasia,

The observation you made is an example of how competitors follow and try to imitate something that's been successful. Colors cannot be legally protected so there isn't much we can do about that. However, we can continue moving forward, offer new products and hopefully set new trends - exactly what we are trying to do with our upcoming lipstick line, Candyfuture.

http://www.doedeereblogazine.com/articles/yes-she-did

I think you're a talented blogger who writes well and most importantly gives truthful opinions. If you would be interested in reviewing our lipstick (color of your choice), please let me know and I'll be happy to hook you up!

-Mark

Anastasia

Aug 28 (8 days ago)

Hi Mark,

I am up to date on the lipstick line - I read the blogazine often, and am still curious about it. As I say, I was certainly hoping to see a lot more originality from Lime Crime (and certainly not to end up with identical shades) so I still hold out hope for the lipsticks, although I do believe I'm now sworn off the eye products. I'll make a note to post your response to my readers, to present both sides, so to speak. That's not to say I'm going to endorse it or am entirely convinced. Still, irrespective of who came first - if I can get essentially the same product for $4 an ounce as opposed to $168 an ounce, it's not a particularly tricky decision.

The trouble is, it seems to me that when consumers buy Lime Crime products, they're not just paying for the brand name or product, they're paying for the expertise. Xenia appears as a woman who is independent, fashionable, and has her unique sense of style and flair - we put stock in her opinion and there is an unspoken expectation that any product she backs, is going to be something which benefits from her style and expertise. Something she, personally, has had a hand in creating. Of course, the website doesn't promise this, it is just my inference, and is definitely a triumph of marketing either way.

Thank you for the compliment; being called truthful is probably the nicest thing anyone can say to me. I think lying on your own blog is tantamount to deluding yourself, and would defeat the entire purpose of writing one.

Your point about trend-setting is a good one, and if nothing else, Lime Crime certainly does that. The content (blogazine, tutorials, Xenia's persona) it produces (even if it is just to benefit the business) contributes something entertaining and colourful to the cosmetic world. I'd be very interested in reviewing a lipstick - D'lilac probably, since good pale lilacs are few and far between, and I do hope that they are what we're hoping for - something new, high quality and unique.

-Anastasia

I haven't heard anything since, and for me, the jury's still out on Lime Crime. I haven't tried any lipsticks from wholesalers or mineral companies, so I have no idea if the Lime Crime ones will be unique or not, but the colours look promising. I certainly hope they're a new, unique product which lives up to the expectations I had for Lime Crime.

Personally, I feel like it's important for us to value our money, and choose what we spend it on carefully. Supporting re-packaging companies means that we're devaluing the time, effort and hard work that went into earning our pennies, when we just throw them away on something we could have had much cheaper. For that reason, I started to investigate the other mineral make-up company I've given a lot of business to, Beauty from the Earth.

I dug out all the wonderful TKB micas that T.R. sent me and compared them to my Beauty from the Earth minerals, looking for other very close duplicates.

Bearing in mind that I chose the BftE stuff I have and T.R. chose the TKB Trading, and the huge number of micas available, there could be many, many more matches if I actually looked for them on TKB and bought the appropriate samples to test (something I plan to do in the future).

As it is, I found the following three extremely close matches:

BftE Grape = TKB Grape Pop!
BftE Emerald = TKB Cyprus Green
BftE Mermaid = TKB Mermaid's Gold

They looked identical on my hand, except Mermaid was slightly darker than Mermaid's Gold. All had the same pearl/duo-colour. Any other differences in the photo will be because of the lighting.

There's another TKB mica which is very, very close to Mermaid and Mermaid's Gold, but a tiny bit lighter and less yellow, called Zion Views, which I forgot to swatch. They're all so close in colour I forgot which was which on my hand!

T.R. is very kindly sending me some more TKB samples, and I'll be buying my own at some point to try and match them to my BftE stash, as well as any colours that take my fancy!

[UPDATE: Beauty from the Earth have now labelled all their repackaged colours and discontinued the vast majority of them. The ones left are labelled as Primary Pigments. They also make over 175 of their own, unique colours.]