Lime Crime Alchemy Collection Review and Swatches

Lime Crime, known for bright colors and unicorns, has taken on a darker side this month with the release of the Alchemy Palette, Poisonberry and Serpentina lipsticks. Shades that encompass not only the spirit of Halloween but of fall and the art of Alchemy. While these products barely fit into the image and line of products Lime Crime offers, it no doubt is a great addition to the overall collection

The Alchemy Palette contains 5 duochrome colors, meaning that, each shade has a shift of color. These shades are all shimmery and depending on how the light hits them you will either see the base color or the shift.  The names of these shades, inspired by alchemy and the dark arts, are (from left to right) Incantation (metallic copper with gold shift), Lucky Charm (forest green with a lighter green firefly shift), Love Potion #9 (purple with a mint shift), Spellbound (white with a gold shift), and Divination (slate blue with a peacock shift). These shades apply smoothly, aren't too soft, are opaque, blend easily, and last about 6 hours over primer. I personally did not find the color shift to be too apparent when applied unless i piled on the product. If the shift was a major factor for you then it will take a little bit of work to get it to look as it does in the swatches on the Lime Crime website. Aside from that set back these colors do go well together, have good pigmentation, and are of high quality (aside from shift). At $34.99 this palette is worth it.

Alchemy Palette from Lime Crime over primer with flash

Alchemy Palette from lime crime over primer in natural light

For comparison, the above are my swatches with flash, and natural light over primer and they look nothing like this swatch found on the Lime Crime website (in terms of vividness and shift). So as i mentioned above if you are hoping for these results be prepared to have to use multiple layers of product. This kind of makes me mad, since i like the colors and how they work together, but when compared with the expected swatch they seem to fall flat. I find the sites swatches to be a complete misrepresentation of these shades when applied normally.

Alchemy Palette from Lime Crime site.

The lipsticks from the Alchemy collection, Poisonberry and Serpentina, apply with a bit of shimmer. This is quite a change from the creamy colors you would expect from Lime Crime. I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of application but these applied just as creamy as the other shades. These have a soft vanilla scent which is very similar if not the same to MAC. I didn't notice any weird taste. These shades do tend to bleed into the creases of the lips to make sure to use a lip primer, balm, or exfoliate before applying these shades. This problem may only be isolated to those who have a lot of creases in their lips. Since they are a bit shimmery they aren't as opaque as other Lime Crime Shades. If the other sides are a 5/5 for opaque these are like a 3.5/5. It isn't terribly different, or something to complain about, but depending on your natural lip shade you may need to do a swipe or two extra.

Serpentina: Rich, shimmery, emerald green.

Lime Crime Serpentina

Lime Crime Serpentina

Lime Crime Serpentina with flash

Lime Crime Serpentina with flash

Lime Crime Serpentina in natural light

Poisonberry: Deep, shimmery, purple berry.

Lime Crime Poisonberry

Lime Crime Poisonberry

Lime Crime Poisonberry with flash

Lime Crime Poisonberry without flash

The Mook-
Since i bought the Alchemy set i received a complimentary Mook. A Mook is a book which features pictures of Lola Blanc and Doe Deere's cat, along with recipes for homemade beauty treatments.

On a side note, i have had issues with Lime Crime in the past regarding non reimbursement for having to return a broken palette but this problem has since been made right. I am glad that i gave Lime Crime a second chance to impress me. I hate having a "Love/Hate" relationship with a company whose products i appreciate but whose practices and behavior do not impress me. So it is nice to know that while this company can be bumpy at times, they will always make things right for their customers.