Hey there! This was just some fun I had with a Marie-Antoinette theme.
Being a Queen in a country where she had relatively no political power and seemingly endless means, she adopted an extravagant lifestyle to feel important. Her marriage was fruitless for the first 8 years, and she surrounded herself with parties with her court to distract her. She ended up having 3 children, one of whom died as a toddler. At the time, she was hated by a large group of the people of France because she used taxes to gamble, buy lavish dresses and shoes and gorge herself on gourmet meals while they were without work or food. A ridiculous sum of money was allegedly spent on the first son's funeral. However, today, we relate to her because of the importance we place on fashion and comfort in our culture. There is a sense of admiration and tragedy associated with her name for us. In a way, we see her as someone living a lifestyle that western society endorses and got punished for it. She is also the last and most famous Queen of France, overthrown during the revolution at the turn of the 19th century.
(Side note: Some historians believe the radical behaviour that lead to the Revolution was partially triggered by Ergot poisoning. Having bad crops, people could not afford to discard all wheat that was infected with the fungus. It is known to cause hallucinations, hysteria and paranoia. It is suggested even the Dancing Mania between the 14th and 17th centuries was related to Ergot contamination. Perhaps the tough economic conditions of the time with the possibility of Ergot poisoning quickened Revolution?)
On to the video! Perhaps I'll film another?
Products Used:
Face:
-Kryolan White Aqua Color
-Cover FX Full Coverage Cream Foundation #M40
-KIKO Orange eye pencil
-Anabelle white eye pencil
-MAC Cream Color Base in Premeditated
-Chanel Poudre Crystalline
Eyes:
-Urban Decay Primer Potion
-Inglot eyeshadow #496 (sparkly white)
-Sugarpill eyeshadow in Mochi
-Inglot eyeshadow #478 (light powder blue)
-Inglot eyeshadow #371 (bright shocking blue)
-NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk
-Sugarpill eyeshadow in Dollipop
-Inglot eyeshadow #362 (light bubblegum pink)
-Sugarpill eyeshadow in Buttercupcake
-MAC eyeshadow in Canary Yellow
-Inglot eyeshadow #391 (matte black)
-Mascara of some sort
Hay! I know I uploaded the video a long time ago but I figured I may as well update my blog now rather than never.
Face:
-Makeup Forever HD Foundation #123
-MAC Springshine Ombre Blush
-Nars blush in Orgasm
Eyes:
-Urban Decay Primer Potion
-Anabelle black eye pencil
-Sugarpill eyeshadow in Love+
-MAC eyeshadow in Embark
-Inglot eyeshadow #65 (for the lines)
-Sugarpill eyeshadow in Poison Plum
-Sugarpill Chromalust in Goldilux
-A mascara of some sort, probably Maybelline Falsies
Lips:
-UDPP
-Makeup Forever Aqua Lip Pencil #13c
-Revlon Lipstick in VaVa Violet
-OCC Lip Tar in NSFW
This article will be about the tasteless actions happening in a makeup company I personally love and support. But first...
Anyone know a company called Lime Crime? Ahh, Lime Crime...
What
started out as an exciting young artist selling pretty bright eye
shadows she "made" herself, turned into false advertisement, lying,
repackaging, poor customer service, harassment, and a shutdown of the
aforementioned product.
For a comprehensive history on Lime Crime and its founder, Xenia (Alias Doe Deere), CLICK HERE.
For a timeline of these events, CLICK HERE.
By the way, her "magic" dust has been discontinued. Funny how things work out.
In case these links disappear, I'll insert my favourite quotes and images.
That
first image speaks for itself. This second image is Lipstick and
Lightsaber's reaction to Doe's claim that she "made" her own eyeshadows
because she could not find any bright enough for her taste.
"On 4th November, Doe released this video of her calling us all big fat
liars and giant meaniebeasts for picking on her and being awful,
terrible bullies, spreading lies about her and generally damaging her
state of sparkly happy magical gleefulness, rolling in piles of cash magical fairy dust."
"Lime Criminal is their signature colour, here I swatched their "Magic"
Dust in Lime Criminal, versus three considerably brighter greens from Aromaleigh and Sleek.
In reality, "Lime Criminal" actually looks like more of a pale
goldenish sage than anything resembling a lime. Doe's also obviously
never heard of Ben Nye or Kryolan, who also make really bright, intense
make-up. (ETA: Readers have pointed out that Doe's early make-up
tutorials used Kryolan heavily. So... I guess she was just lying? Shock,
horror.)" -http://www.lipsticksandlightsabers.com/2010/01/lime-crime-beneath-glitter.html
This is why I love L&L:
"I Make All My Own Colours
(Wow, you invented your own spectrum of light?)"
This
Dough woman just set up this image for herself and marketed her
products based on her image. She had previously attempted this
transition with music and with closing design (sound familiar? She WAS
an admirer of Shrinkle...). My Personal favorite narrative about this
character is HERE. Honestly a must-read for entertainment alone.
Now,
Lime Crime is not the only company, big or small, that deserves a whack
on the hand. A couple years ago, MAC released a collection called Rodarte
which tastelessly objectified conditions for women in Juarez, Mexico.
Rather than creating a collection with bright vivid colours and names to
celebrate Mexican culture, or exposing their reality with charities
like Viva Glam, they came up with a scary promo image with a sickly,
malnourished-looking white girl, with washed-out, pale shades bearing
unacceptable names like Sleepless, Ghost Town, and Factory. Oh, yeah. FACTORY.
What the hell does this picture have to do with Mexico?
Based
in California, this exciting brand was founded by a bright, creative
woman called Amy, or "Shrinkle". With a sparkling reputation based on
her unique DIY clothing and sales of Kryolan on her ebay profile, she
had a great background to market her company. The trademark of her
products was high-impact colour, unique range. Lovely products, which I
have reviewed HERE.
While
the concept of bright colours is not unique, Sugarpill drew attention
with smart marketing, a clear foundation of high quality products, and
Youtube makeup gurus with huge audiences advertising their shadows
virtually for free. Pre-Sugarpill, as I mentioned, Shrinkle sold Kryolan
herself, but mentioned a desire to control the texture, colour and
ingredients in products. The solution was to develop her own products.
The time between the "tease" of her products and the official launch of
her company was perfect. Just enough to get the hype out there to a lot
of people without making them frustrated by inaccessability.
The release of their Heartbreaker Palette
last May was also preceded by lots of marketing, teasing and hyping up
for a while. Annoying, but tolerable. (The only thing about that palette
that was heartbreaking was how long I had to wait, repeatedly, for that
little "out of stock" button to go away.) They seem to have a problem
keeping their high-demand products in stock....
Anyone
who checks up on their site semi-regularly will know this isn't a
one-time thing. Maybe Amy bit off a little more than she can shew if she
can't keep her products in stock?
When they first
launched, Sugarpill said they would gradually release new products once
they were on their feet. And they did, withing 5 years of launching,
release false eyelashes and the Heartbreaker Palette. Kind of
skimpy in the span of 5 years, but I can't judge because I never owned
my own business. However, why stick just to eye shadow? There is a huge
opportunity for Sugarpill to branch out into eyeliners, mascaras, lip
products and cheek colours based on their strong-selling eyeshadows.
Again,
their choice, but it seems odd to me given how people literally go nuts
for their products. Releasing different products would be a no-brainer
to me. It's not like they have no other option like Lime Crime, whose
eyeshadows lost all credibility and had nothing else to sell but chalky,
overpriced lipsticks. Sugarpill would make a killing if they branched
out.
Now, here is a link to a blog post made LAST JUNE about the new products Sugarpill was supposed to be releasing
"in a few weeks". They gave people at IMATS a sneak peek of three new
collections: Elektro Cute, Cold Chemistry and Sparkle Baby.
Let
us pretend for a moment that these new collections do not contain
colours that are incredibly similar to previous-existing shades in
Sugarpill's 13- colour range. (Frostine seems similar to Mochi an Lumi, Hotsy Totsy and the new pink loose shadow looks like Dollipop, Candycrush looks like Paperdoll, the dark blue pigment looks like Royal Sugar, the lime green pigment looks like Acidberry and a bit darker than Absinthe...) WHY tease loyal customers with new
products if they are not close to ready to being sold??? Promoting is
one thing, but one year of promising these products to no avail is very
frustrating.
And now, they have released this new
Chromalust called Asteria (which is remarkably similar to the peachy
shade in the new Sparkle Baby palette), of which only 1000 were made to
be sold at PHMExpo. Is it just me, or is the vast majority of their
clientele outside of LA, and thus unable to purchase this shade?
As a commenter on Sugarpill's Facebook page said:
"You've been leaving us dangling with Cold Chemistry
and Sparklebaby for years now (it's been at least 2). Then you released
Cold Chemistry at IMATS LA and we all thought, oh well at least that'll
go up on the site soon. Nothing. WHERE IS IT?! Same with
Sparklebaby...where is it? Obviously both are ready, formulated and good
enough to sell now. I love you guys, I love when I get packages from
you, I love the little note on my invoice and the extras inside, but
THIS?! This isn't cool. Exclusives are fine for convention and I
understand the logic behind doing them, but when you do those and
NOTHING else, not fine. Please, carrot on a rope trick will stop working
very very soon".
YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE NOT HAPPY WITH YOU.
This limited
edition colour, along with their inability to keep their products in
stock or release their new products within a year of announcing it, is a
bad move. I am disappointed, given all the hype Shrinkle's eyeshadows
have attracted, and the fact that I absolutely adore the shades I have.
They shouldn't ride on the hype from their original eye products forever.
Hope they get their act together soon, because if they read their
customers' comments on their Facebook page, they would see a LOT of
frustration and disapproval.
