Lime Crime Scandals & My Experience

This post is going to be more serious than most because I've had a lot of people ask me what's going on with Lime Crime. I'm going to talk about my experience and the experiences others have had. I cannot prove or validate the experiences that have been shared by others because they are not my own, so take that as you will.



Lime Crime is a makeup company that I've known about since the early myspace days. They gained popularity for their bright colours and cute packaging. It wasn't long after first hearing of them that I started to hear about the scandals surrounding the company. Once again, I can't confirm any of these claims as they are not my personal experience.

One of the most commonly talked about scandals are the claims of Doe Deere (company owner) repackaging products. She is believed to have been repacking wholesale mica and craft glitter. Mica is a common ingredient in eyeshadow and is very cheap. Small amounts of mica powder being sold for around $16 dollars is a complete rip off as you can find large bags of mica being sold for less than that online and it would be the exact same thing. The rumour of craft glitter being sold for cosmetic use is way more than just a rip off, it's dangerous. There's different grades of glitter and not all of them are safe for cosmetics use, especially around the eyes and lips. Next is the issue of veganism. Lime Crime claims to be vegan and was called out for having non-vegan ingredients (such as beeswax) in their so-called "vegan products." The company's response was to remove those ingredients from their website without ever addressing the issue.

"You guys need to quit coming after me. Because seriously, it was YOUR fault that you idiots were stupid enough to spend $16 for a gram of product. But how can I blame you? My products are second to none in quality. Beautiful, whimsical colors in designer packaging. If you're too poor to buy my products, then go elsewhere and spend less and get a low quality product. You don't deserve to use Lime Crime. I'm actually thinking of making the LC Shop account registration invite/friends only because I DON'T NEED YOUR MONEY. If you wanna spend your money on low quality, mass produced pigments from M.A.C, go right ahead. It's no skin off my nose. I'll still be making more cash than most of you imbeciles. That's all I'm going to say. I'm not checking this post again. If you have anything else to say, too bad because I'm screening my comments, as I have no time for trolls. I have a LIFE." - Doe Deere

Possibly their biggest scandal to date was the security breach that is believed to have occurred from October 2014 to February 2015. This was due to them not renewing their websites security thus leaving their customers information unsecured, resulting in thousands of dollars being stolen. I would give them the benefit of the doubt on this because it's happened to other companies, such as Target, but once I learned the cause I was appalled. This wasn't a hacker making it past their security, it was the company choosing to not secure their website. This has resulted in people no longer being able to even be approved for student loans, thus being forced to leave college. That's a serious consequence for buying lipstick.

Most recently the FDA has issued a warning letter stating that Lime Crime is using ferrocyanide and ultramarines in their velvetines, which are commonly found in hair dyes and are not approved for use in cosmetics in the United States (Read entire FDA letter here). Doe Deer responded by saying it was a misprint on their labels and removed the ingredients from the website. The way this issue was handled is eerily similar to previously mentioned vegan claims.

Doe Deere herself is not someone who I would feel comfortable supporting. She is a well known racist and has had no issues in posting photos of herself dressed as Hitler. Lime Crime's China Doll campaign doesn't quite sit right with me either. She's been known to refer to anyone who criticizes her or her products as "haters" or "dumbasses." She has threatened people who have negatively reviewed her products with law suits and has been said to even supply one blogger with a script of exactly what they were allowed to say about her products. She has addressed every scandal by simply saying everyone is either "stupid" or "liars" without ever once addressing the issue or apologizing for it.

Lime Crime owner Doe Deere dressed as Hitler

Now onto my own personal experience with Lime Crime. I've ordered two products from them before, both luckily through Urban Outfitters website, so I can't speak much to Lime Crime's customer service experience. The products I chose were the Venus Palette and Cashmere Velvetine. I was completely in love with the swatches as they appeared online. I've come to realize that the swatches on Lime Crime's website are really nothing like the product in person. On the website Cashmere is shown as a light cool toned pinkish-purple "griege." In person it's dark purpley-brown. I see no real beige in this and I wouldn't really classify it as a grey either. Lime Crime does seem to alter the colours of their product images quite a bit. I feel like this colour looks very different on everyone and that is in part because the colour seems to be so inconstant. I have seen people with my exact skintone (NC10) wear this and it looks nothing like it does on me. Beyond that I received my tube half empty. The tube is already small within the frosted outer casing so you don't have much product in it to begin with. Most disturbingly, it seems to really hurt my lips. Once I started wearing this the health of my lips went on a decline quickly. I had to live in lip treatments because they looked sore, swollen and bruised. It took me awhile to realize that it was from the Velvetine. I looked like someone had beaten me in the lips. I now wonder if that has something to do with the banned ingredients in the products, but I can't really say. The product has since separated and is now filled with chunks and clear oily liquid in-between. I have never had any lip product perform that way, especially before expiration.

Lime Crime Velvetine in Cashmere

The Venus palette wasn't nearly as bad. The shadows didn't sit very well in the packaging and a few look as though they're falling through. Some of the shades were really powdery and arrived with an odd look of "pilling" as though they had already built up a layer of hard pan before use. Really nothing that would throw me off purchasing other than that I would expect a little more in the way of quality control. You wouldn't have to try too hard to dupe the shades. You are paying the price of a high end product and I really don't think these are worth it. 

(Left to right) Venus, Shell, Aura and Creation

(Left to right) Icon, Rebirth, Divine and Muse

All in all, I don't think this is a company that should be supported and I would never purchase from them again unless serious changes were made. There so many other companies putting out interesting comparable products.

Tl;dr - Lime Crime is a shady company with subpar, potentially harmful products.

HERE IS A LIST OF LIME CRIME DUPES