Lime Crime: A Sordid History
Lime Crime: A Sordid History
Last updated: March 19th, 2013
Disclaimer: This timeline was created to highlight the longstanding and problematic business practices of Lime Crime. Most of the content presented here was noted or discussed by other bloggers, LiveJournal users, people commenting on the Examiner thread, Doe Deere Blogazine posts etc. and I do not take credit for creating their contents. Links to original posts and sources are included for the sake of crediting the original authors. If there is an error in this content or how it was sourced, please contact me directly at doedeerelies [at] gmail [dot] com.
2003
Xenia begins selling DIY clothing on eBay under the moniker Thunderwear!.
October - Xenia opens the invite-only the LiveJournal community LittleBigGirls to create a community for DIY eBay designers to advertise their auctions.
2004
Xenia releases a CD “I Belive in Fairytales” with her band SkySalt. She also begins hosting events to promote her band.
Xenia changes the name of her eBay store to Lime Crime and begins friendship with Amy Doan, who sells clothing on eBay under the moniker of Shrinkle. Some of Xenia’s designs seem to be influenced by Amy’s designs and color palettes. She also launches her own website, limecrime.net, to promote her new line of DIY clothes and discusses dropping out of FIT to pursue her music career.
2005
April - Xenia threatens to sue a 13 year old girl over how she credited her images and then the MeanestBastard community takes her to task with how she dealt with the entire ordeal.
A majority of the members of the Little Big Girls group leave. MissMeganMaude, a former member of the LittleBigGirls group, writes a blog post highlighting how Xenia ran the LGB group and how she would attack other DIY designers personally if she didn’t like them. Amy comments on Megan’s post letting her know she disagrees with Xenia’s actions.
May - Amy’s comments in another MeanestBastard post seem to suggest their friendship is over due to how Xenia treats other people.
2006
Lime Crime the clothing line shuts down and Xenia focuses on her make up tutorials and begins selling repackaged glitter on her website. Her personal style changes from bold and bright colors to soft and feminine pastels as her website relaunches. She briefly returns to making clothing under the moniker “A Little Country for an Urban Girl” , but many of her designs seemed to be copies of Supayana’s work.
2007
April - Xenia raises $200 in a raffle for “The Brooklyn Shelter” when no animal shelter exists in New York City under that name. Her PayPal account is reported when the facts don’t add up.
May - Xenia’s PayPal account is suspended due to the fraudulent charity raffle.
July - Xenia posts a blog explaining that she only resold a fur coat because it was her mom’s and that she still will continue to wear furs she owns. She also begins supporting the charity Bid-A-Wee.
October - Xenia relaunches her music career under the pseudonym Doe Deere.
November - Xenia writes about teaching children not to be cruel to animals and not supporting the clubbing of seals; the blog post has a very different attitude toward fur and animal rights than her previous post in July.
Xenia begins promoting her single “SF Disco”, declaring it a “gay anthem” and describes how alluring she finds gay men:
“While on the subject, let me say something I’ve been wanting to say for a long time. I love gay men. It’s mutual - every single one that I’d met so far has been so incredibly nice to me. Gay men are mysterious creatures… Usually big on pop culture, they have immaculate taste and tend to latch onto artists of big talents and with big futures (Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Cher, Bjork). Simply put, gay men know good shit and do not tolerate crap.Which is why it is so amazing for me to have their support in this… Writing a song is the least I can do. Really, guys. Thank you for being the way you are and bringing color into the world.”
2008
February - Xenia continues promoting her music and decides to go by the name Doe Deere exclusively.
August - Xenia relaunches her livejournal blog as Doe Deere Blogazine and begins doing makeup tutorials again.
October - Lime Crime Makeup officially launches
The original collection features eyeshadow, glitter, blush, primers, and brushes. Prices range from $12.00 USD to $25.00 USD.
November - Reposts an old image of herself dressed as Hitler in a Halloween retrospective post (image since removed, viewable here).
2009
Doe Deere Blogazine continues to feature new tutorials, outfits of the day, and editorial pieces. Xenia also gets interviewed quite frequently about her music and make up line.
August - The repackaging of TKB micas by various companies breaks in the indie cosmetics blogging community; Anastasia of Lipsticks and Lightsabers writes a blog post comparing the Lime Crime magic dusts to TKB and Beauty From The Earth micas, supporting the claim that Lime Crime’s products were repackaged. Lime Crime responds by claiming that TKB is copying their products despite TKB’s line of pop micas existed before Lime Crime had even launched as a cosmetics company. Beauty From The Earth later confirms that they had repackaged said micas directly from TKB and would label them as such, along with discontinuing the practice.
September - Jessica Allison compares TKB micas, Lime Crime eye dusts, and eyeshadows from other companies. The swatches she provided again suggest that Lime Crime’s eye dusts were repackaged TKB mica and provides the price per ounce breakdown that shows how inflated Lime Crime’s prices are.
October - Lime Crime lipsticks launch
Lillian Low discusses her earlier experience with Lime Crime as a fashion label, how her mother purchased a dress from Lime Crime that was poorly hemmed with gaffers tape, and how her mother was called an “asshole” by Xenia for purchasing something with such shoddy workmanship.
The Examiner Article “Is It A Crime to Look This Good?: Lime Crime Makeup” is published and it soon becomes a forum to discuss all things related to the repackaging scandal anonymously.
The Mineral Make Up Mutiny (now defunct) launches and the make-up blogger community begins demanding more transparency about repackaging.
November - The news of the repackaging scandal continues to spread and a member of a make-up LiveJournal community calls Xenia out for having re-sold basic glitter for an inflated price when she first began doing makeup tutorials.
A gallery of comparison swatches between Lime Crime and TKB mica is posted to the Examiner thread, providing strong evidence that at least some of the eye dusts are repackaged TKB.
LeGothique posts a review of Lime Crime’s lipsticks, which results in Xenia threatening to sue her for defamation and eventually forces her to retract her original review and post an apology.
In response to the blog posts and comments about the repackaging scandal, Xenia writes a blog post and makes a video speaking out about her “haters”. While the post has been deleted from her blog, it is still available here via the Internet Wayback Machine. The post claims speaking out against Lime Crime’s customer service and requesting refunds via PayPal are fraudulent and she will not stand for it. Her post also encourages her fans to use social networks and blogging to refute these claims on her behalf against the “bullies”. The comments under the blog post also show that Xenia was actively censoring certain comments from disappointed fans from being posted.
In the meantime, Afrobella interviews Xenia about the on-going controversy. Xenia denies all wrong doing; the comments on the post highlight that Lime Crime does not allow returns and that there are multiple sources confirming similarities between TKB micas and Lime Crime magic dusts.
Lillian Low responds to the “haters” video by saying that not everyone is lying and her experience with Lime Crime/Thunderwear! shows plenty of reason for people to criticize her customer service.
December - A Youtube beauty vlogger, proudchapina, posts a video criticizing Lime Crime’s eye dusts for underperformance and the size of the jars she received not containing the amount of product they were advertised to to hold. Two days after posting the first video and receiving legal threats from Lime Crime along and racist attacks from Lime Crime fans
she made this response video.
In collecting information for the “Lime Crime: A History” post, someone comments on the post saying that she was sold child sized sunglasses marketed as high-end designer glasses. When confronted over this, Xenia blames the buyer for not asking questions before making her purchase. No refund or return was offered to the buyer.
2010
January - Ana from Lipstick and Lightsabers writes a wonderful post explaining all the repackaging drama and discusses Lime Crime’s legal action toward Grey of LeGothique for her review of their lipsticks.
Lillian Low blogs/vlogs comparisons between TKB micas and Lime Crime magic dusts, giving further proof that the eye dusts are merely repackaged mica.
February - Xenia congratulates Amy on the launch of Sugarpill via twitter.
Soon after Sugarpill Cosmetics launches an anonymous poster on the Examiner thread claims Sugarpill is simply repackaged LaFemme and supplies links to a Flickr account named princessmoth with pictures as evidence. Another anonymous user on the Examiner thread makes note of identical features between the camera details of princessmoth’s pictures and Xenia’s from her public Lime Crime flickr account, most notably that the camera date was set to 2027. The identical Exif details from the flickr accounts show that Xenia had not only been posting to the Examiner thread anonymously, but that she had intentionally gone out of her way to sabotage the launch of Sugarpill by trying to suggest that Amy had repackaged products.
Lillian Low also pointed out that “princessmoth” was the title Xenia gave to a makeup tutorial she had done several years ago, making it even more undeniable that the princessmoth flickr account was run by Xenia. Sugarpill also did not begin sending out packages until the 15th of February, further indicating that the products posted on Febuary 14th by princessmoth were not Sugarpill products but something photoshopped to look like they were.
Lime Crime also begins promoting their products as vegan, despite still having beeswax in the lipsticks. Xenia then asks on twitter why vegans don’t use products containing beeswax. Some people also wonder if Xenia’s interest in veganism is a result of Sugarpill’s launch, which specifically emphasized their commitment to developing vegan products.
March - Temptalia publishes her review of Lime Crime lipsticks, giving them a C- grade overall. Xenia comments on the review thanking Christine for her critiques and responds to some of her concerns with the lipstick formula. However, Xenia then sends her street team Christine’s personal email address to send her their opinions on how wonderful Lime Crime lipsticks are to her directly or comment on her website. In response to having her email put in the newsletter, Christine decides to not review any more Lime Crime products on her blog.
August - A commenter named Rosalie calls Xenia out for her treatment of Christine of Temptalia and Grey of LeGothique. In response, Xenia says that Christine’s review wasn’t objective and that she has evidence to prove otherwise. Despite being requested to provide proof that Christine wasn’t fair in her review, she never posts anything supporting her argument. Christine responds simply by reiterating that she didn’t find Lime Crime’s actions to be professional and that she has no interest in reviewing their products.
September - ModCloth interviews Xenia as the blogger of the moment and the comments again go back to the repackaging controversy and other questionable business practices. Mod Cloth apologizes for disappointing their fans in choosing to feature Xenia on their website.
November - Amy’s twitter is hacked and just happens to re-tweets a Lime Crime tweet.
December - Xenia announced the launch of gel eyeliners
2011
January - Xenia answers a Formspring question (now deleted) about the duct taped dress that was sold to Lillian Low’s mother and again insinuates that Lillian made it all up. In response to this, Lillian fully explains what happened between her and Xenia, including posting emails they exchanged that refute what Xenia said in her answer.
February - Xenia and Mark relocate to Los Angeles
March - Xenia goes to Japan LA charity event for the tsunami victims; accused on the Examiner thread of only being there to take pictures with Amy’s friends.
The Pop Romance collection of lipsticks launches; however, the promotional images are found to be heavily edited (as pointed out here by a commenter named Justine) but Xenia denies photoshopping the photos for anything beyond artistic purposes.
Xenia and Mark foster a pair of bonded Persian kittens, but decide to only adopt one despite the recommendations of the shelter that the pair be kept together. Fans reiterate that it’s important to keep the two together, but Xenia insists that it’s okay to keep only one of the cats and names it Smoosh.
April - Xenia pens an article about the “lies” written about her and attempts to reframe her legal issues with Grey of LeGothique. Comments in the post call her out on many things, including dressing up like Hitler. Xenia claims that she can dress up like Hitler because her “grandmother is Jewish”.
In response to this post, Doe Deere Lies launches.
July - Tragically, Smoosh the adopted cat passes away suddenly. Xenia for some reason includes some discussion of how she’s been treated by people in Los Angeles in his memorial post, but eventually it is edited out. Fans and animal lovers again emphasize that Smoosh should have never been separated from the other cat he was bonded to.
August - The controversy causing magic dusts are finally reformulated and new, smaller packaging is introduced.
In response to having posted other artists’ images without permission, Xenia tweets that taking their work is a compliment and shouldn’t result in legal action toward her.
September - The Lip Noir collection is announced.
Lime Crime begins sending out glitter stickers and working with singer Kerli, seemingly mimicking Sugarpill’s contest with Kerli earlier in the year and their glitter stickers.
October - Lime Crime starts following all of Amy’s/Sugarpill’s followers on Twitter; Amy responds that she doesn’t know why Xenia is doing this.
Xenia befriends Kandee Johnson as a way to be “introduced” to Amy at the Beautylish event in Los Angeles, despite knowing who Amy is since 2003. The interaction between Xenia, Amy, Christine and Kandee does not go over well and Kandee apologizes to Amy for getting caught up in Xenia’s plan. Kandee later deletes her post about Lime Crime products after Beautylish is over.
November - Xenia deletes the comments entirely off of her blog after criticism continues to crop up, effectively erasing many of her less than professional moments.
The Carousel Glosses launch and the swatches appear photoshopped; once fans receive the product they look quite different in real life and have application issues.
December - Lime Crime discontinues their Pro program with little warning, upsetting many professional make up artists.
2012
January - The China Doll palette launches and immediately receives criticism for their usage of racist and sexist stereotypes and inaccurate representations of Chinese culture and clothing, along with the ubiquitous problems with the promotional images being heavily photoshopped. Criticism also arises from the palette’s similarity to colors/finishes put out by Sugarpill.
Discussion on the Lime Crime Facebook about the campaign also devolves rapidly.
Mai writes a wonderful blog piece discussing exactly what is offensive about the ChinaDoll palette. Initially, Lime Crime reaches out to Mai and says they have read her post and would like to discuss it with her. However, after Mai contacts them several times, Xenia brushes off the discussion.
February - The China Doll palette launches and the PR release includes the phrase “whether you like it or not”, likely a response to the criticism the China Doll campaign received.
Lime Crime formally defends the China Doll palette and declares that what people are calling cultural appropriation is actually cultural exchange. Again, there are several critical responses to what is seen as a dismissive response. A boycott of the palette and Lime Crime is launched in response to Lime Crime’s statement.
Xenia also mocks people who called her out for cultural appropriation on her own Facebook page.
March - Lime Crime attempts to pass of a similar looking photo featuring Sugarpill Cosmetics as being their own products; Jangsara, the original artist, has to publicly clarify that the look did not use Lime Crime products.
April - The Palette D’Antoinette begins being promoted along with nail polishes.
May - Uniliners launch; Lime Crime starts buying likes on Facebook.
June - Lime Crime uses a random image off of DeviantArt from 2009 to promote the ChinaDoll palette; only after many people call them out on using an image they didn’t have permission to use nor uses their products do they apologize.
July - Magic dusts are discontinued completely
The Aquataenia palette launches; it immediate gets compared to Sugarpill’s Heartbreaker palette that was being promoted back in April.
September - Promotion of the Alchemy collection begins.
October - A promotional image for the Alchemy Palette are found to be stolen from Eclectic Enchanments, a store on Etsy. When Storm Eldermoon, the owner of the image, confronts Lime Crime over this she receives a very unprofessional email from Lime Crime’s “legal team”.
An image from Christine’s original review is used without credit on the Lime Crime facebook page, prompting Christine to have to personally ask for her image to be taken down.
November - Velvetines liquid lipstick and Zodiac cosmetic glitters launch, along with the introduction of a “fairytale mirror”. The mirror is quickly found on Ali Baba.
December - The fairytale mirror is found to be wholesaled at $3.35/piece but retails for $29.99. Bree confronts Lime Crime about this, but her comments are deleted from their Facebook page.
2013
March - Lime Crime is accused of stealing earnings from their affiliates as a former affiliate comes forward with her experience and emails from Lime Crime’s customer service.
Text
Last updated: March 19th, 2013
Disclaimer: This timeline was created to highlight the longstanding and problematic business practices of Lime Crime. Most of the content presented here was noted or discussed by other bloggers, LiveJournal users, people commenting on the Examiner thread, Doe Deere Blogazine posts etc. and I do not take credit for creating their contents. Links to original posts and sources are included for the sake of crediting the original authors. If there is an error in this content or how it was sourced, please contact me directly at doedeerelies [at] gmail [dot] com.
2003
Xenia begins selling DIY clothing on eBay under the moniker Thunderwear!.
October - Xenia opens the invite-only the LiveJournal community LittleBigGirls to create a community for DIY eBay designers to advertise their auctions.
2004
Xenia releases a CD “I Belive in Fairytales” with her band SkySalt. She also begins hosting events to promote her band.
Xenia changes the name of her eBay store to Lime Crime and begins friendship with Amy Doan, who sells clothing on eBay under the moniker of Shrinkle. Some of Xenia’s designs seem to be influenced by Amy’s designs and color palettes. She also launches her own website, limecrime.net, to promote her new line of DIY clothes and discusses dropping out of FIT to pursue her music career.
2005
April - Xenia threatens to sue a 13 year old girl over how she credited her images and then the MeanestBastard community takes her to task with how she dealt with the entire ordeal.
A majority of the members of the Little Big Girls group leave. MissMeganMaude, a former member of the LittleBigGirls group, writes a blog post highlighting how Xenia ran the LGB group and how she would attack other DIY designers personally if she didn’t like them. Amy comments on Megan’s post letting her know she disagrees with Xenia’s actions.
May - Amy’s comments in another MeanestBastard post seem to suggest their friendship is over due to how Xenia treats other people.
2006
Lime Crime the clothing line shuts down and Xenia focuses on her make up tutorials and begins selling repackaged glitter on her website. Her personal style changes from bold and bright colors to soft and feminine pastels as her website relaunches. She briefly returns to making clothing under the moniker “A Little Country for an Urban Girl” , but many of her designs seemed to be copies of Supayana’s work.
2007
April - Xenia raises $200 in a raffle for “The Brooklyn Shelter” when no animal shelter exists in New York City under that name. Her PayPal account is reported when the facts don’t add up.
May - Xenia’s PayPal account is suspended due to the fraudulent charity raffle.
July - Xenia posts a blog explaining that she only resold a fur coat because it was her mom’s and that she still will continue to wear furs she owns. She also begins supporting the charity Bid-A-Wee.
October - Xenia relaunches her music career under the pseudonym Doe Deere.
November - Xenia writes about teaching children not to be cruel to animals and not supporting the clubbing of seals; the blog post has a very different attitude toward fur and animal rights than her previous post in July.
Xenia begins promoting her single “SF Disco”, declaring it a “gay anthem” and describes how alluring she finds gay men:
“While on the subject, let me say something I’ve been wanting to say for a long time. I love gay men. It’s mutual - every single one that I’d met so far has been so incredibly nice to me. Gay men are mysterious creatures… Usually big on pop culture, they have immaculate taste and tend to latch onto artists of big talents and with big futures (Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Cher, Bjork). Simply put, gay men know good shit and do not tolerate crap.Which is why it is so amazing for me to have their support in this… Writing a song is the least I can do. Really, guys. Thank you for being the way you are and bringing color into the world.”
2008
February - Xenia continues promoting her music and decides to go by the name Doe Deere exclusively.
August - Xenia relaunches her livejournal blog as Doe Deere Blogazine and begins doing makeup tutorials again.
October - Lime Crime Makeup officially launches
The original collection features eyeshadow, glitter, blush, primers, and brushes. Prices range from $12.00 USD to $25.00 USD.
November - Reposts an old image of herself dressed as Hitler in a Halloween retrospective post (image since removed, viewable here).
2009
Doe Deere Blogazine continues to feature new tutorials, outfits of the day, and editorial pieces. Xenia also gets interviewed quite frequently about her music and make up line.
August - The repackaging of TKB micas by various companies breaks in the indie cosmetics blogging community; Anastasia of Lipsticks and Lightsabers writes a blog post comparing the Lime Crime magic dusts to TKB and Beauty From The Earth micas, supporting the claim that Lime Crime’s products were repackaged. Lime Crime responds by claiming that TKB is copying their products despite TKB’s line of pop micas existed before Lime Crime had even launched as a cosmetics company. Beauty From The Earth later confirms that they had repackaged said micas directly from TKB and would label them as such, along with discontinuing the practice.
September - Jessica Allison compares TKB micas, Lime Crime eye dusts, and eyeshadows from other companies. The swatches she provided again suggest that Lime Crime’s eye dusts were repackaged TKB mica and provides the price per ounce breakdown that shows how inflated Lime Crime’s prices are.
October - Lime Crime lipsticks launch
Lillian Low discusses her earlier experience with Lime Crime as a fashion label, how her mother purchased a dress from Lime Crime that was poorly hemmed with gaffers tape, and how her mother was called an “asshole” by Xenia for purchasing something with such shoddy workmanship.
The Examiner Article “Is It A Crime to Look This Good?: Lime Crime Makeup” is published and it soon becomes a forum to discuss all things related to the repackaging scandal anonymously.
The Mineral Make Up Mutiny (now defunct) launches and the make-up blogger community begins demanding more transparency about repackaging.
November - The news of the repackaging scandal continues to spread and a member of a make-up LiveJournal community calls Xenia out for having re-sold basic glitter for an inflated price when she first began doing makeup tutorials.
A gallery of comparison swatches between Lime Crime and TKB mica is posted to the Examiner thread, providing strong evidence that at least some of the eye dusts are repackaged TKB.
LeGothique posts a review of Lime Crime’s lipsticks, which results in Xenia threatening to sue her for defamation and eventually forces her to retract her original review and post an apology.
In response to the blog posts and comments about the repackaging scandal, Xenia writes a blog post and makes a video speaking out about her “haters”. While the post has been deleted from her blog, it is still available here via the Internet Wayback Machine. The post claims speaking out against Lime Crime’s customer service and requesting refunds via PayPal are fraudulent and she will not stand for it. Her post also encourages her fans to use social networks and blogging to refute these claims on her behalf against the “bullies”. The comments under the blog post also show that Xenia was actively censoring certain comments from disappointed fans from being posted.
In the meantime, Afrobella interviews Xenia about the on-going controversy. Xenia denies all wrong doing; the comments on the post highlight that Lime Crime does not allow returns and that there are multiple sources confirming similarities between TKB micas and Lime Crime magic dusts.
Lillian Low responds to the “haters” video by saying that not everyone is lying and her experience with Lime Crime/Thunderwear! shows plenty of reason for people to criticize her customer service.
December - A Youtube beauty vlogger, proudchapina, posts a video criticizing Lime Crime’s eye dusts for underperformance and the size of the jars she received not containing the amount of product they were advertised to to hold. Two days after posting the first video and receiving legal threats from Lime Crime along and racist attacks from Lime Crime fans
she made this response video.
In collecting information for the “Lime Crime: A History” post, someone comments on the post saying that she was sold child sized sunglasses marketed as high-end designer glasses. When confronted over this, Xenia blames the buyer for not asking questions before making her purchase. No refund or return was offered to the buyer.
2010
January - Ana from Lipstick and Lightsabers writes a wonderful post explaining all the repackaging drama and discusses Lime Crime’s legal action toward Grey of LeGothique for her review of their lipsticks.
Lillian Low blogs/vlogs comparisons between TKB micas and Lime Crime magic dusts, giving further proof that the eye dusts are merely repackaged mica.
February - Xenia congratulates Amy on the launch of Sugarpill via twitter.
Soon after Sugarpill Cosmetics launches an anonymous poster on the Examiner thread claims Sugarpill is simply repackaged LaFemme and supplies links to a Flickr account named princessmoth with pictures as evidence. Another anonymous user on the Examiner thread makes note of identical features between the camera details of princessmoth’s pictures and Xenia’s from her public Lime Crime flickr account, most notably that the camera date was set to 2027. The identical Exif details from the flickr accounts show that Xenia had not only been posting to the Examiner thread anonymously, but that she had intentionally gone out of her way to sabotage the launch of Sugarpill by trying to suggest that Amy had repackaged products.
Lillian Low also pointed out that “princessmoth” was the title Xenia gave to a makeup tutorial she had done several years ago, making it even more undeniable that the princessmoth flickr account was run by Xenia. Sugarpill also did not begin sending out packages until the 15th of February, further indicating that the products posted on Febuary 14th by princessmoth were not Sugarpill products but something photoshopped to look like they were.
Lime Crime also begins promoting their products as vegan, despite still having beeswax in the lipsticks. Xenia then asks on twitter why vegans don’t use products containing beeswax. Some people also wonder if Xenia’s interest in veganism is a result of Sugarpill’s launch, which specifically emphasized their commitment to developing vegan products.
March - Temptalia publishes her review of Lime Crime lipsticks, giving them a C- grade overall. Xenia comments on the review thanking Christine for her critiques and responds to some of her concerns with the lipstick formula. However, Xenia then sends her street team Christine’s personal email address to send her their opinions on how wonderful Lime Crime lipsticks are to her directly or comment on her website. In response to having her email put in the newsletter, Christine decides to not review any more Lime Crime products on her blog.
August - A commenter named Rosalie calls Xenia out for her treatment of Christine of Temptalia and Grey of LeGothique. In response, Xenia says that Christine’s review wasn’t objective and that she has evidence to prove otherwise. Despite being requested to provide proof that Christine wasn’t fair in her review, she never posts anything supporting her argument. Christine responds simply by reiterating that she didn’t find Lime Crime’s actions to be professional and that she has no interest in reviewing their products.
September - ModCloth interviews Xenia as the blogger of the moment and the comments again go back to the repackaging controversy and other questionable business practices. Mod Cloth apologizes for disappointing their fans in choosing to feature Xenia on their website.
November - Amy’s twitter is hacked and just happens to re-tweets a Lime Crime tweet.
December - Xenia announced the launch of gel eyeliners
2011
January - Xenia answers a Formspring question (now deleted) about the duct taped dress that was sold to Lillian Low’s mother and again insinuates that Lillian made it all up. In response to this, Lillian fully explains what happened between her and Xenia, including posting emails they exchanged that refute what Xenia said in her answer.
February - Xenia and Mark relocate to Los Angeles
March - Xenia goes to Japan LA charity event for the tsunami victims; accused on the Examiner thread of only being there to take pictures with Amy’s friends.
The Pop Romance collection of lipsticks launches; however, the promotional images are found to be heavily edited (as pointed out here by a commenter named Justine) but Xenia denies photoshopping the photos for anything beyond artistic purposes.
Xenia and Mark foster a pair of bonded Persian kittens, but decide to only adopt one despite the recommendations of the shelter that the pair be kept together. Fans reiterate that it’s important to keep the two together, but Xenia insists that it’s okay to keep only one of the cats and names it Smoosh.
April - Xenia pens an article about the “lies” written about her and attempts to reframe her legal issues with Grey of LeGothique. Comments in the post call her out on many things, including dressing up like Hitler. Xenia claims that she can dress up like Hitler because her “grandmother is Jewish”.
In response to this post, Doe Deere Lies launches.
July - Tragically, Smoosh the adopted cat passes away suddenly. Xenia for some reason includes some discussion of how she’s been treated by people in Los Angeles in his memorial post, but eventually it is edited out. Fans and animal lovers again emphasize that Smoosh should have never been separated from the other cat he was bonded to.
August - The controversy causing magic dusts are finally reformulated and new, smaller packaging is introduced.
In response to having posted other artists’ images without permission, Xenia tweets that taking their work is a compliment and shouldn’t result in legal action toward her.
September - The Lip Noir collection is announced.
Lime Crime begins sending out glitter stickers and working with singer Kerli, seemingly mimicking Sugarpill’s contest with Kerli earlier in the year and their glitter stickers.
October - Lime Crime starts following all of Amy’s/Sugarpill’s followers on Twitter; Amy responds that she doesn’t know why Xenia is doing this.
Xenia befriends Kandee Johnson as a way to be “introduced” to Amy at the Beautylish event in Los Angeles, despite knowing who Amy is since 2003. The interaction between Xenia, Amy, Christine and Kandee does not go over well and Kandee apologizes to Amy for getting caught up in Xenia’s plan. Kandee later deletes her post about Lime Crime products after Beautylish is over.
November - Xenia deletes the comments entirely off of her blog after criticism continues to crop up, effectively erasing many of her less than professional moments.
The Carousel Glosses launch and the swatches appear photoshopped; once fans receive the product they look quite different in real life and have application issues.
December - Lime Crime discontinues their Pro program with little warning, upsetting many professional make up artists.
2012
January - The China Doll palette launches and immediately receives criticism for their usage of racist and sexist stereotypes and inaccurate representations of Chinese culture and clothing, along with the ubiquitous problems with the promotional images being heavily photoshopped. Criticism also arises from the palette’s similarity to colors/finishes put out by Sugarpill.
Discussion on the Lime Crime Facebook about the campaign also devolves rapidly.
Mai writes a wonderful blog piece discussing exactly what is offensive about the ChinaDoll palette. Initially, Lime Crime reaches out to Mai and says they have read her post and would like to discuss it with her. However, after Mai contacts them several times, Xenia brushes off the discussion.
February - The China Doll palette launches and the PR release includes the phrase “whether you like it or not”, likely a response to the criticism the China Doll campaign received.
Lime Crime formally defends the China Doll palette and declares that what people are calling cultural appropriation is actually cultural exchange. Again, there are several critical responses to what is seen as a dismissive response. A boycott of the palette and Lime Crime is launched in response to Lime Crime’s statement.
Xenia also mocks people who called her out for cultural appropriation on her own Facebook page.
March - Lime Crime attempts to pass of a similar looking photo featuring Sugarpill Cosmetics as being their own products; Jangsara, the original artist, has to publicly clarify that the look did not use Lime Crime products.
April - The Palette D’Antoinette begins being promoted along with nail polishes.
May - Uniliners launch; Lime Crime starts buying likes on Facebook.
June - Lime Crime uses a random image off of DeviantArt from 2009 to promote the ChinaDoll palette; only after many people call them out on using an image they didn’t have permission to use nor uses their products do they apologize.
July - Magic dusts are discontinued completely
The Aquataenia palette launches; it immediate gets compared to Sugarpill’s Heartbreaker palette that was being promoted back in April.
September - Promotion of the Alchemy collection begins.
October - A promotional image for the Alchemy Palette are found to be stolen from Eclectic Enchanments, a store on Etsy. When Storm Eldermoon, the owner of the image, confronts Lime Crime over this she receives a very unprofessional email from Lime Crime’s “legal team”.
An image from Christine’s original review is used without credit on the Lime Crime facebook page, prompting Christine to have to personally ask for her image to be taken down.
November - Velvetines liquid lipstick and Zodiac cosmetic glitters launch, along with the introduction of a “fairytale mirror”. The mirror is quickly found on Ali Baba.
December - The fairytale mirror is found to be wholesaled at $3.35/piece but retails for $29.99. Bree confronts Lime Crime about this, but her comments are deleted from their Facebook page.
2013
March - Lime Crime is accused of stealing earnings from their affiliates as a former affiliate comes forward with her experience and emails from Lime Crime’s customer service.
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