My first review: the Alchemy Collection.

Hi everyone!

So.. to kick off this new blog I am reviewing my most recently bought products; the Alchemy Collection from Lime Crime. This is an honest review, I am not affiliated with the Lime Crime company whatsoever.

They looked very promising! As you can probably see in this layout I love greens. So anything with a nice lush green in it is a plus. And oh, how I love the green in the palette (called Lucky Charm) and that luscious green lipstick, Serpentina! I have been lusting after a lipstick like that for AGES but somehow people seem to think that green is the least favorite colour to have on your lips. I have no idea why they think that because it is downright awesome. If you take the right green it doesn't yellow your teeth at all, which is basically the same as when choosing normal/nude colours. Before I descovered green lipstick I used black lipstick and dabbed green glitter on top. As long as you don't choose a glitter that's too light that will work with any colour and give you fabulous lips!

I wasn't really interested in the other lipstick (Poisonberry) but Lime Crime had an offer for their complete Alchemy collection, which was basically getting one of the lipsticks for free. So, why not?

I have already bought their Chinadoll palette and I use it almost every single day. I had high expectations of this one!

So, here the official swatches from Lime Crime's website.

The palette

Poisonberry

Serpentina

So, I got my package a few weeks ago and the swatches (no photoshop, except for some lightning correction) looked like this:

Wow! What a difference! Especially the palette.

I don't really see the duochrome which is clearly visible in the official swatches. The palette also has alot less pigmentation than I expected. It is surely metallic though. After a few uses of this palette the colour payoff started to increase, as if it needed 'loosening' up a bit.

The orange (Incantation) definitely has the most pigmentation though it also appears a bit crumbly. The colour sure is something that I haven't got a dupe of.

The green one (Lucky Charm) has a very subtle metallic sheen but isn't unlike other greens I have and I was a bit disappointed about the colour payoff.

The purple one (Love Potion No. 9) has the least pigmentation. I can't really see the mint shift and I think it feels like it is too harshly pressed (unlike Incantation).

The creamy colour (Spellbound) is the most useable colour I think and also the most dupeable. It's a common thing to use a creamy white as a highlighter. It has a nice payoff and a subtle shimmer. I like this one!

And the last one is a teal blue colour called Divination. I didn't really like it in the official swatch and I still don't really like it. But then again I don't really use alot of blue, except when it's really bright.

Now for the lipsticks:

Serpentina lived up to everything I hoped. It doesn't bleed, has a gorgeous green sparkle in it that is impossible to photograph (you can't also really see it in the official swatch). It does not stain at all, which is a good thing for a green. It doesn't really stay on for a long time but I think that's also a colour thing since green is almost the opposite of a natural lip colour, so your natural lip colour will come through easily.

I love it and I've been wearing it alot lately. I find it a surprisingly wearable colour (after you've got used to the ZOMG it's green bit) and it looks really good!

I also think that of the two lipsticks, Serpentina goes best with the colours of the palette.

On the other hand, I didn't really like Poisonberry, the purple. It sure is a nice colour and it looks good, but it stains like an idiot (I could see the stain on my hand after 3 days still) It is a bluish purple with a bright pink base (and stain). So if you like to have bright pink lips for a couple of days, you should buy this.

I also found that the lipstick starts to look rather flakey after about an hour of wearing it on my lips. The bluish purple starts to wear off in flakes and so the bright pink shows through. Not a pretty sight.

I also have the Lime Crime lipstick that's supposted to stain the most (Centrifuchsia) and Poisonberry stains even MORE. Be prepared XD

After swatching I also had to do a look with the Alchemy collection.

I found that it wasn't really easy to use the colours together (except for Spellbound) because they're all kind of the same tone. So for this look I used the entire Alchemy collection and Lotus Noir from Chinadoll. You can spot Poisonberry in the grapes, which afterwards wasn't a good idea because of the bright pink stain that wouldn't come off, lol.

After playing around with the palette for a few weeks I found that I don't really like the palette on it's own though the colour payoff loosened up alot after using it a couple of times. However, if you have a black with it, it is a great palette for smokey eyes with different colours. Spellbound works as an excellent highlighter and with the rest of the colours you are able to create almost any smokey eye you want.

So, my advice for Lime Crime today is: make Poisonberry stain less and swap the purple for a black like Lotus Noir!

That's it for today, guys! :)

Thank you for reading!

xoxo

Miss Absinthe