lime crime 10th birthday palette (swatches + review)

My experience with Lime Crime is admittedly limited. I've actually only tried a few of their lip products (read my review of two Velvetine's shades) and an eyeshadow palette (the Pocket Candy set looked like an old-school Polly Pocket). When I came across the Lime Crime 10th Birthday Palette at a steeply discounted price, courtesy of Winners, I decided to give it a whirl. The colours looked bright, vibrant and over the top. Immediately that made this palette stand out from the others in my currently overloaded makeup collection. Since I am always aiming to incorporate bolder colours into my makeup looks...this palette seemed like the perfect choice.

Lime Crime 10th Birthday Palette: Packaging

The best place to start is always with the packaging. As you can see from the picture above, it has a nice bright sky background with two unicorns printed over top. It is a cute and eye-catching design...yet no where on the palette does it actually say what the eyeshadow set is called. Literally nowhere. I had to Google it just to find out the name! Definitely a bit odd and not what I am used to but there you have it.

When it comes to the actual physical packaging, it is fairly standard. The shadows come in a cardboard case and there is a large mirror inside with a magnetic closure on the front. That being said, I wouldn't exactly call this sturdy. The reason? The 10th Birthday Palette was damaged at purchase and one of the shadows was largely destroyed. Yes, this was bought at Winners (for anyone outside of Canada, this is similar to Marshalls or TJ Maxx), so there is always an element of risk involved...but sturdier packaging would've prevented this issue.

Shade Selection and Pigmentation

There is a lot of colour going on here! One look at this palette and it screams fun, whimsical, and bold. Since adding more colour to my makeup looks is something I am actively working on...this seemed like the perfect palette. In terms of the shade selection, this is a knockout. There are just so many lively colours to choose from. That includes pinks, oranges, blues, greens, yellow, purple, and well...every colour of the rainbow you can imagine. There are also several different finishes here. They range from shimmer to matte to full blown glitter. If you are someone who likes variety, this is certainly a palette to consider. Before I get into the pigmentation of this set, take a peek at the swatches below....

As vibrant as the shades appear in the palette....they don't necessarily perform that way. That isn't to say the shades aren't good. But honestly, some of them aren't. Several are wonderful and have lots of colour payoff but others are difficult to work with and come off rather patchy. The top row of colours is the most consistent and offers a lot of beautiful colours. That being said, fall out is a problem so I would recommend doing your face makeup after applying the eyeshadows. The second row is quite hit or miss. That bright blue was the one that excited me most but it performed terribly. It is chunky, patchy, and will not apply properly with a brush. Even using a sponge and my fingertips wasn't enough to give it the intensity and performance I anticipated. The two green shades work well but that yellow is more like a slightly translucent gold.

As for the last row of eyeshadow shades, this was another source of disappointment. The first shade offers very little pigmentation or enough shimmer to warrant its poor performance. That light purple doesn't do much (and is difficult to work with). The pink-purple next to it is decent but sadly that was the shade that was broken so not much of it remains. The last shade in the palette can be built up to achieve intensity but it does require a fair amount of patience as it can become patchy and look muddy. When it comes to the shade selection, this palette is wonderful. However, when it comes to performance, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Makeup Looks Using the Lime Crime 10th Birthday Palette

Below are a couple of looks that I have created using the palette recently. The first was done using the first row of shadows (easily my favourite part of the palette). The second look was an attempt to make use of the many different colours. Sadly, the difficult formulas meant that this look didn't quite turn out the way I hoped it would. Many of the shades were hard to blend, required a lot of work to build up colour, and simply didn't impress. Definitely let me know what you think of these Lime Crime makeup looks in the comment section below....

Overall, this is a miss for me. There are some wonderful eyeshadows in here but there are even more duds. It was disappointing to say the least. I am going to continue to use this palette and try different methods to help it perform better...but quite frankly, this is not what I expected from Lime Crime.

Rating: 2 / 5

Have you tried this eyeshadow palette? Are you a fan of Lime Crime?