Real vs. Fake LimeCrime Velvetines

It's well-known that alcohol and shopping don't always mix, but sometimes when you've had a few glasses of Jim Bean you forget that age-old wisdom and find yourself browsing Mercari looking at discounted makeup. It was when I stumbled across a LimeCrime velvetine for half the cost of regular retail AND free shipping that I did damage. I fell in love with the shade called "Bleached", a warm nude and this item the seller claimed was real, just without the box. 

I bought it within a minute of finding the listing, believing her story of the cost being low due to the missing box. Then, right afterwards I noticed a comment that somehow I hadn't noticed. It read "Is it legit?". That's when I realized I had stumbled into the world of copycat makeup. I had forgotten that not just certain brands could be copied, ALL popular brands of makeup can be copied. Velvetines are in high demand, and people are very good these days at passing things off as real.

When it arrived in the mail I immediately tore into my package and inspected the goods. I own 3 real velvetines from previous purchases - two from LimeCrime.com and one from DollsKill.com. At first glance it looked the same, but after a couple minutes there were some glaring differences. I decided to do some research and sadly I write this knowing now that I have purchased a fake velvetine, and hopefully my research and experiences will help prevent you from doing the same.

What Research Says

1.) If there is no flower on the top of the cap, it's not real

Reality

1.) Two of my 3 real velvetines don't have flowers on the caps. Either LimeCrime or Dollskill sent me fakes or not all the batches of real velvetines have them.

What Research Says

2.) All the tags on the very bottom have to be the same with bold print and hot pink color.

Reality

2.) My shade Utopia purchased directly from LimeCrime has a different kind of sticker on the bottom than the other two. It's not a big deal to me but apparently there's not 100% consistency with all real velvetines.

What Research Says

3.) Fakes have shinier caps than the real velvetines.

Reality

3.) It took a bit of staring, but yes, the "Bleached" shade which is fake has a slightly shinier cap than the other 3 real ones.

What research says

4.) Fakes have more space between the bottom and the product.

Reality

4.) "Bleached" very clearly had more space between the bottom and the product.

What research says

5.) I couldn't find anything on the smell difference, but to me real velvetines smell like sweet clay. All the lip products from limecrime have a sweeter smell.

Reality

5.) "Bleached" smelled like chemicals. Nothing sweet about it - dead giveaway.

Even though I knew that "Bleached" was a fake, I didn't mind at first because I thought I had gotten a wonderful dupe for half the cost, until I wore it. I couldn't take it and after half a day at work I ran to Sephora to borrow a makeup wipe and scrubbed it off of my lips. It was terrible. It was very opaque, provided great coverage, and the color was beautiful. It lasted through eating and drinking without so much as budging, but the deal-breaker you ask? It never dried down. It stayed very sticky, causing small patches of color to come up if I would press my lips together too tightly. I couldn't forget about the stickiness because with every word I was reminded with my lips sticking together and then slowly peeling as I went to say something else.

One half day of sticky lips was enough for me, and now it's going into the trash.

30 Days of Lips + Looks: Day 5 "Lip Love"

Day 5 "Lip Love" - MAC/Lime Crime

MAC "Pink Pigeon" - $16.00

Lime Crime "Futurist" - $18.00

Since I did an ombre eye look yesterday I thought it'd be fun to try an ombre lip look. I love both of these lipsticks - they're really pigmented and beautiful. I love color so this was really fun for me to try. I've seen a lot of ombre lip looks in magazines so it was fun for me to experiment with this look, and because this was a more bold look I kept the rest of my makeup basic. I don't see myself every wearing this look out since it's not really practical, but it was so much fun to do. It was easier blending the bottom lip vs. the top lip for some reason though.

LimeCrime: The Controversy

I discovered LimeCrime last year when I was stumbling around bored on Instagram one day, quickly falling for their dreamy-like pictures and colorful vegan products. It wasn't long before I was scrambling to buy from them, and I was of course over the moon when I (finally) received their products weeks later. I've mentioned them in more than one post/video, and they were everything I wanted in cosmetics, until about two weeks ago.

I follow many different makeup artists on Youtube/Instagram/Twitter, and two weeks ago I came across a video from Manny Mua talking about how he was boycotting LimeCrime. Curious, I hunted through a few other artist's pages only to find similar cries of boycotting and distaste with LimeCrime due to hacking. I was instantly confused: there had been no headlines on the company's website, no emails in my inbox, no videos from the company - nothing. Maybe I had missed the tweets and pictures, as that can happen with how fast everything is updated nowadays, but after Googling "LimeCrime controversy", I was hit with pages upon pages of customers crying out in anger over the way the company handled problems with their checkout process, shipping, and all-around general business practices. It turns out the website had had some long-brewing issues that finally boiled over and thousands of people had had their information stolen. Unfortunately, while it doesn't make this situation okay, ever, it does happen, and often. It happened to me back in high school with my first-ever online purchase. It happened just a little while ago to people who tried to buy the Jaclyn Hill palette from Morphe, and even Sony was hacked not too far back. 

My husband and I back in February noticed a fraudulent charge to our account for several hundred dollars worth of sports games. Neither one of us plays sports games, and neither one of us could figure out how anyone got our credit card information since we're always so careful. It wasn't until reading about the backlash against LimeCrime and the outcry over the company's practices that it dawned on me my debit card information had been stolen when I checked out on their website. We got the charges dropped from our account almost instantly, we got new cards and were lucky that no permanent damage was done. Everything worked out smoothly on our end, but I've read some horror stories where people's lives, and bank accounts, still haven't recovered from the scandal.

I have spent hours and hours over the last two weeks reading what people have said regarding the company and what happened, and I've come to one very certain conclusion: I am not boycotting LimeCrime. Yet. I am also not supporting them. I am not going to go into my bathroom to toss my glitter and gloss into the trash. I am also not going to hop onto their website and order myself anything new. I will be here neutral like Switzerland (without the good chocolate sadly). Reason being: 75% of what I've read about the owner and the company seems to contradict itself. There are certain things that keep popping up, like a possible grudge against the owner of SugarPill cosmetics, that there was a band and selling DIY on LiveJournal before makeup, possible controversy regarding whether or not the cosmetics were repackaged and sold as LimeCrime when they're not, etc. Many of the websites I've read have claimed to tell only "facts" about what was said regarding the website hacking and business practices, but then one person's "facts" and quotes contradicts something on someone else's.

With that being said, many major makeup personalities know LimeCrime's owner personally, and have come out with testimonies as to how she regards her customers and the company's products. A company can be fixed and a brand can come back from the brink of extinction, which is why I will not boycott LimeCrime. I had to wait 2+ weeks to receive my items, and my credit card information was stolen, so yes, I had a less than fabulous experience with the company, but aside from those things I don't feel enough hatred towards LimeCrime to publicly shame & boycott them. Thousands and thousands of people ranting across the internet however does make me think twice about hopping on to purchase from them, but the company, while embroiled in controversy right now, can turn around. This is why I will use up their products I own and simply wait to see what happens in the future. Things might continue to go south for the company and their reputation, or things might change and get better.

For now, I will remain Switzerland.