Guys, I have never been so excited in my life! Yesterday Mark and I went to meet with a prospective new laboratory, who had a showroom in NY. We’ve been looking for the perfect lab for ages, it’s extremely difficult to find one that ‘gets’ you. Well, I think we’re found it.
This is what their offices look like. I swear!!!
I’m in lurveee. For the first time, I felt like I was in my own world – color, beautiful design, hearts, cats (!)… Aside from pretty much being the color gods of the industry, these guys have also worked with the very cosmetic brands I’ve looked up to and admired for ages. To be working with them is like a dream come true!!
Mark asked if he could have the poster after they were done with it, haha. No joke!
The whole thing was almost serendipitous: can you believe the woman we spoke with miraculously already knew about Lime Crime?! Her sister had apparently requested our makeup for Christmas. Ahhh! :D
I love Karen Elson. And doesn’t that sound like our motto??
Does this look like the lab for us? I think so!!!
So what do we need a lab for? Well, there are a couple of projects we’ve been dying to get out – some remodeling the old line, some new. One thing we’re working on is revamping our Magic Dusts range: based on your feedback, we are improving the formula, re-designing the packaging to be more consistent with the Lime Crime look & feel, and – yep! – bringing in new colors! I am stoked about the new shades and hope you love them! We are also looking into redoing the lipstick formula and removing the beeswax so it can be 100% vegan. What do you think of the idea? I am not making any promises just yet because quality and performance are above all things, but it’s definitely something I’d like to do.
Loading ...There are more projects on the horizon which I cannot talk about yet – let’s just say they’re going to be explosively awesome! Dates for the SpaceNK tour coming soon, can’t wait to see you all! xo
I love those rainbow kitties! They’ve been my desktop background for a while now..haha.
I’d be super jealous if you ended up with that poster.
It looks AMAZING!!!!
Like a dream place!
Oooh, more eyeshadows! This is good news for me as I don’t wear lipstick. Ever. I do have a fondness for bizarre eyeshadow, however… I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with :D
Wow, that office looks like a dream land (or a candyland). How fabulous! I’d be motivated to go to work is that’s what I had to look forward to (:
Im sooooo excited for you and your company!!! I so look forward to seeing what is to come. You continue to blow me away with your creativity. I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Lime Crime and can’t wait to get it!!! :)
Please save the honey bee and buy bee made products!
http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/
I respect Vegans and their morals, but the honey bee is dying! Without it we will lose pollen production for cherry trees, almond trees, raspberries, and so many other fruits and veggies!
Save the bee!
Steph Reply:
March 19, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I just have to a big high-five to Ashley for bringing up the poor honey bees.
I respect that vegans have their opinions and morals, but there are a lot of untrue myths about beekeeping (I grew up with bees!) that I feel have turned people against bee products. Responsible beekeeping is sustainable and kind to bees–if you take more of any bee product than the hive needs to be comfortable, the hive suffers. If you do a poor job of taking care of your bees, the hive suffers (or leaves!). And you basically lose your job. There are so many local beekeepers who treat their bees like gold.
We need bees–especially to support a vegan diet!! Pollinators (bees, butterflies, etc) are being devastated by human development and uncontrolled pesticide and herbicide use. Beekeepers give bees a safe place to live. And supporting local beekeepers means that they can continue to work as beekeepers and protect these amazing little creatures.
From a beauty angle, I have a hard time believing that a synthetic wax has the same healthful properties as beeswax.
Anyway, just my 2 cents!
Ashley Reply:
March 21, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Yes! Bees are not treated badly! Bees do what is natural to them! Make honey!
The bee population is dying from overpopulation and a mystertious disease affecting the Honey Bee. :[ It’s killing them off by the hundreds! We must do everything we can to save the honey bee!
Vegans, please do more googling on the honey bee and I hope it changes your stance on beeswax. It isn’t harmful!
I have just started using your lipsticks (I finally got enough money saved up to buy a few). I am currently in love with your lippies and will support you either way if you decide to go 100%vegan. To me it doesn’t matter just as long as it works and doesn’t drive up the cost. As far as the magic dusts go please, I beg of you, don’t discontinue any of the dusts. I am infatuated, head over heels, in-serious-stalkerlike-love with the magic dusts. It would be great to see more dusts added but please don’t discontinue any of them! The lab looks completely wonderful; like a dream come true. Is there any chance this lab will help you bring back your glitters? I have some of your glitters and never finished buying the rest of the line. Love you much Xenia! Keep us posted on the new lab adventures!!
Lots of Aloha,
ButacuP
That place looks awesome. Congrats!
congratulations on everything! the place is definitely you, I love it! The “No to Racism” poster is so cool, I feel like I could just move in there, it’s too awesome for words :D
Love the lab, cute cat! Please leave in the beeswax! I think lipsticks with beeswax leave my lips feeling nicer, and tend not to dry out so much.
The ethics and ingredients of the companies I buy from are very important to me. If it isn’t vegan I’m not that interested.
Thanks for asking!
Tammy Reply:
March 21, 2010 at 6:39 am
I agree with this — I’m not vegan, but I’m MUCH more likely to buy a vegan product. I’d rather feel good about my purchases all around :)
Melissa Reply:
March 23, 2010 at 9:55 pm
A company that makes vegan products can still be unethical. The two are not related. Also, just because something is vegan does not make it better for the environment. Pleather, synthetic waxes, plastics, etc all are really really horrible for the environment. If you want to do something ethical, reuse natural products that actually will biodegrade over time instead of their disgusting plastic synthetic counterparts which fill the landfills up and will never ever go away!
Poochie Reply:
March 25, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Melissa
I am responding because it seems you are responding to my comment. Yes, vegan and ethical do not equal the same things. Both the ethics of the company AND the ingredients are important to me. I look at both.
I am also not saying vegan equals better for the environment. I didn’t bring that point up at all. It is challenging to compare the impacts of factory farming to the manufacturing of synthetics.
I consider a wide range of factors in every purchase decision I make. One of my main factors is if the product is made from animal-based products because I am trying to eliminate supporting animal cruelty from my life. But that is just one thing I look at.
Cute, I love that fairytale poster. I wish you would make a lime green lipstick, but until then I’ll use the swamp green lipstick I got at my local craft store!
I don’t see the harm with beeswax since I don’t believe it harms the bees in any way to use it.
The lab looks amazing and I hope everything works out. Did it not work out with the last lab?
Poochie Reply:
March 25, 2010 at 1:46 pm
The use of beeswax and honey is avoided by many vegans because the belief is that it is not our place to take these from the bees because it was made by them for their use.
The process of collecting the wax and honey harms the bees because often bees are killed in the process.
What a gorgeous Lab! I love it BTW I like beeswax although I am not vegan, but I think it’s an ingredient that I prefer on my lipsticks and glosses.
I prefer vegan. I’ve never bought any Lime Crime products yet, but it tickles my fancy if you would make them vegan.
Great lab!
As for the vegan lipstick poll: I think it would be great if your lipsticks were vegan, as long as the texture, color pay off, etc. aren’t compromised.
I adore the current lipstick formula, please don’t change a thing! And you just changed the Magic Dust packaging – I’m confused, what else would you change? Would the whole packaging be pink/purple like the lipsticks? Please don’t discontinue any colours :( I loooooove the current range and want more colours from the same products. I’d love to see blushes, lip glosses and mascara too :)
Not using beeswax would be great and it would widen your audience to include more compassionate consumers.
Also, maybe an article soon on cruelty-free fashion? We all love shoes, but in a slightly altered reality we could all have pet minks and kitty-skin pumps!
Fake is fabulous…
“revamping our Magic Dusts range: based on your feedback, we are improving the formula, re-designing the packaging to be more consistent with the Lime Crime look & feel, and – yep! – bringing in new colors!”
OMG. THAT is greeeaaaatt news!! i can’t wait :D
Those Rainbow kittens are amazing!
*cough*Bring out a forest green lippy*cough* :D
x
Gorgeous lab!! *-*
I can’t wait for your Magic Dusts new range! I’ve already got them and they’re amazing, I can’t imagine en even better formula and more colours!
I mind either way if the lipsticks are vegan or not… as someone else said, i don’t believe the bees are being harmed, so no biggie. As long as they’re not marketed as “almost vegan”.
That all looks amazing! SO excited!!!
I really like vegan products, although I’m not vegan. So long as it won’t detract from the quality of the lipsticks themselves I think it would be pretty nifty.
I can’t wait for new colors since I have all but like… 2 or 3 of the current colors. I love the new lab, that is fantastical!
That looks *perfect* for Lime Crime! I wish where I work could look like that – instead we get beige walls, beige polos, dirty tile floors. Ah well, hopefully someday I’ll have a job as colorful as yours and an office to match ^_^
I really hope you launch green lipsticks!!!
The reason I haven’t bought any of your lipsticks is because they’re not vegan. So if you remove the beeswax, I will be all over that. :D I’m also excited about the revamp of the magic dusts. Yay!
I think you should have put a ‘no’ option in the poll as well… rather than just ‘yes’ and ‘doesn’t matter’, because perhaps some people feel very strongly about you *not* eliminating beeswax from your formula… perhaps not many people would have picked that option, but it would have been good to have it there.
Perhaps you could have a line of lipsticks that contain beeswax and a line that is vegan…
What would you use instead of beeswax?
Doe Deere Reply:
March 19, 2010 at 12:51 am
Beeswax would have to be replaced with something similar, but synthetic. I haven’t discussed it with my lab in detail yet, it’s just something we’re considering. :)
Yoshi Reply:
March 22, 2010 at 6:19 am
Oh okay. The ‘synthetic’ part is what I would have a problem with… is there any plant-based material you could use?
Any time I am feeling super down and unmotivated I look to this blog for inspiration! It is so wonderful that things are going so well for you!!
Gorgeous! It looks perfect!
I just recently purchased Retrofuturist and My Beautiful Rocket, and I have got to saw that I am in love!!<3 I can't wait to get more of your awesome products! And to see what surprises you have in store!
Cutest makeup lab ever! Anything with multicolored kitties is a-ok.
Eeep! I have so mny things to say, because this post really touched my heart. Why? Because as a consumer I feel part of the Lime Crime team! You engage so much in your customers, in colours, inspiring us and you (Doe Deere) are a person and do not hide behind your brand and you dare to communicate with both fans and haters.
Anyhow, I am so happy that you found this lab, and I really hope that everything will be as wonderful as this place looks.
For the vegan part I know that myself, I am not bothered by using animal products, but so many of my friends are vegan and I want to support and elp them finding vegan makeup. I think also that creating an all vegan range of makeup is in line with the brand values of Lime Crime Makeup.
Last of all, I have tried and tested all the lipsticks I bought and I love them. I think they are truly great and even though I’d like to see Lime Crime as an all vegan makeup brand I’d hate it if the being vegan reduced the smoothness, softness or opacity of the candyfuture lipsticks.
Ok, that wasn’t the last thing. Whoops!
I’ve had no trouble with the lipsticks bleeding, but I do have a problem with my lips being a bit too heavy pigmented to make an easy application of your lipsticks on the edges of my lips. Usually I take a little concealer around the edges of my lips to hide my lip colour when wearing D’lilac… but I would really love to have lip liner pencils that matched your lipsticks!
Edges and contours of lips are so hard for many people to do, and I think that lipliners are great because you can sharpen them often and get a preciseness that’s hard to achieve when applying lipstick out of the tube.
I know I could use a lip brush, but frankly I don’t like lip brushes and I prefer using lip liners.
PHEW! such a long comment ^_^
At least that was it. Thank you!
Doe Deere Reply:
March 19, 2010 at 12:53 am
Wow, so much great feedback! Thank you!!
Congratulations! Thy lab looks awesome! I’m so ecxcited for you and I am stoked about the changes you are looking into. I think it would be great if the lipsticks were 100% vegan; so many more people would try out your lipsticks! =)
I don’t necessarily mind if your lipsticks are vegan or not, I just hope that they will still be moisturizing with the new formula.
I definitely love that I can get fabulous colors with your lipsticks without having to dry out my lips
do your lipsticks contain carmine?
because nearly all reds do and it is made from crushed beetles so your lipsticks would still not be vegan.
often it is listed as carmine, carminic acid, Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470, or E120
taylor Reply:
March 19, 2010 at 2:19 am
it’s totally possible to do vegan red lipstick! check out urban decay’s if you haven’t found any…ALL of their lipstick are vegan!
The lab looks awesome!!!
I’m vegan, and that’s the reason I have not purchased any lipsticks from you.
If they were vegan, I’d probably have the whole range!
Personally, I am a vegan that does purchase bee products and eats honey. A lot of us do. It is important to buy organic though, the pestisides they put into the hives and on neiboring fields are killing the bees (and doing a world of other harm).
Please, please, pretty please make more lipstick colors! I LOVE No She Didn’t and I would love to see more out there colors. An emerald greene! And a golden yellow that makes you look like you’ve kissed the yellow brick road! I am so, so over the whole pink-red-coral-deal and ready to move on!
i say yes to making the lippies vegan because then they’d appeal to a whole slew of new people :D also, can’t wait to see the new colours!!!
Oh, it looks lovely! Everything, the colours, the hearts, all small decorations!
I went to a consert last night, I don’t know if you have heard about MIKA? Anyway, his consert kind of made me think of you! It was lots of colours, balloons, glitter, sparkle, beautiful costumes, amazing songs! <3
I’m actually kind of excited about this, and I honestly hope this doesn’t start any arguements, but I personally have swatches of dupes from TKBTrading from your magic dusts, and it really disappointed me as I’ve followed you from your livejournal, and pre-sky salt days, and I really liked what you were doing then! I’ve refused to buy any of your products after I found dupe swatches from a wholesale company but since you said you’re listening to feedback and changing the magic dusts, I feel a little spark of hope and might try them.
I’m so excited for you! There’s nothing more uplifting than knowing your products are going to soar!
Also I believe it’s smart to go vegan with your lipsticks.
You know what?
I’ve been giving this some thinking and I would probably prefer that there were beeswax in these instead of something synthetic that might be environmentally hazardous.
Maybe if you gave us some more information on how beeswax is made/collected etc and what kind of synthetic substance you would replace it with and what exactly is in it.
[...] Yep. Totally wore this to a meeting with a prospective lab partner! [...]
Please make your lipsticks vegan! The use of bee products is not vegan, contrary to what some commenters may believe. Eliminating *all* animal products from your cosmetics will open them up to a whole new market. Like other commenters, I have not purchased any lipsticks yet because they contain beeswax. Get rid of the beeswax, please, because I am dying to get my hands on some Retrofuturist!
Ashley Reply:
March 21, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I never said it was vegan. But the bees are dying because people are protesting them being kept and without them Vegans will lose lots that goes with their diet.
The honey bee is dying. We need to buy natural bee made products to keep it alive!
Nice, those kitty’s remind me of Juicy Couture puppies, BUt LOVELY , if that is where you fit in and feel it, then i say go for it! I think you should be around things you love and like to feel more inspired and happy, LOL!! YAY….so nice❤✿
oh yay, so happy for you.
P.S.I mentioned Lime Crime at Urban Outfitters in a recent post. :-)
http://stylesymmetry.com/2010/03/18/links-a-la-mode-ifb-weekly-roundup-67/
I don’t know much about the vegan products, but I think it would be a crime for people not to be able to use your make-up! And I know so many people who have such a horrible time of finding good make-up because they will only buy vegan products.
I’d would be sooo happy if your lipsticks were vegan! I’d buy one of every color. It doesn’t hurt anyone to have them vegan (just makes some of us love you more)!
As a vegan, I particularly appreciate companies who make an effort to be vegan. A lot of products are vegan by default, but I always notice when a company goes out of their way to create and keep products vegan I’m very impressed.
Most of the time, people don’t care if a product is vegan or not. But if you can make a product vegan you’ll have a guaranteed sale to the vegan branch of shoppers, as well as your non-vegan shoppers.