Doing some quick cross referencing for the ask about FIT, I found this post from Xenia in which she is responding to a fan letter asking her for advice on how to become a makeup artist when her father would prefer her to go to college and follow a more traditional career path. All looked fine until I got down to Xenia’s response:
It’s disappointing to yet again see that her views toward Asian and Asian-Americans seem to solely be influenced by heavy-handed stereotypes. Making this even worse is the fact that it’s long been speculated that Xenia wrote these letters herself, so on top of presenting her stereotypical views, she also took the time to write a vignette that supports her notion of the strict Asian parent and that Asian men are inherently overbearing. Looking at the China Doll campaign now, all I can say is old habits die hard.
subdued-violence Asks:
doedeerelies Said:
It’s kind of a hard thing to summarize because there have been so many incidents, but some quick points as to why people take issue with Lime Crime:
- People have found hairs and other non-identifiable debris in their products
- Lime Crime steals images from artists and bloggers to promote their images despite being called out on it/sent letters of cease and desist
- Their China Doll palette appropriated Chinese culture and portrayed a heavily stereotyped image of Chinese women - it offended many people and they refused to apologize for it. Xenia also thinks cultural appropriation is in her words “kinda brilliant”. Xenia was given many opportunities to speak directly with people who were willing to educate her on why the campaign was offensive and why cultural appropriation is offensive and she blew them off.
- Lime Crime has actively and continuously censored any critical or questioning comments about their products, to the point they threatened to sue a blogger for posting her opinion.
- Lime Crime knowingly repackaged TKB micas and refused to own up to it, despite the mountain of evidence showing the allegations to be true.
This is just a small piece of what Xenia and Lime Crime have done to customers, former friends, colleagues etc. If you want to know the other side of Lime Crime, my post on the history of Lime Crime and Doe Deere goes more in depth.
Another year is here and Lime Crime has yet again re-invented their past history with a new page full of unverifiable claims and straight up lies about not being able to find bright cosmetics when she had plenty of options back in 2005. It’s also worth noting that they’ve also fudged that their donation was more or less raised by people who purchased Lime Crime, not by the owners themselves, but hey when the last time your business did anything suggesting a minor commitment to animal welfare was in 2010 you have to do what you have to do!
Doing further investigation back into the Bidawee donation, I stumbled upon the comments in the original post that are undeniable evidence that Lime Crime was calling their products vegan when they still contained beeswax and carmine. Similarly, as with nearly all Lime Crime charitable events, no specific information is given about what percentage of sales were given and people who asked for specifics weren’t answered or corrected if they believed the entirety of the profits from March 2010 were going to be donated.
Also that PETA certification they claim to have - it’s just a certificate of appreciation sent to them.
Another case of deluded LC fans with added uncredited image theft!
Typically no one at Lime Crime has commented to credit the picture to the photographer or to confirm that this is an existing lipstick and not a new one.
cosmickittenz Asks:
doedeerelies Said:
I think the issue is more or less that some people (makeup artists included) don’t want to support a company owned by a person who is not truly invested in living a cruelty-free or animal-friendly lifestyle except when it’s convenient for marketing purposes, who regularly steals other artists work, produces racist campaigns and then acted in a completely unprofessional when she was called out on it, threatens legal action for people speaking out on their experiences with their company, has sent out products containing hair and other debris etc.
It’s not my place to say what your ethics should be, but I do think some may see using products from a company with such questionable ethics would be seen as endorsement of their actions as well.
Anonymous Asks:
doedeerelies Said:
Thank you, this is such a nice message to get! It would be cool if an artist like you set up a coalition of ethical makeup artists!
Hi, so I’m Allanah Grace George or Lanah Grace. Part of my experience has already been shared over at Doe Deere Lies, but I thought I’d share the full story. I’ve known all about Lime Crime’s back-story and the scandals for a while now. I’ve always kept that in mind and based my opinions of products on blogger swatches. I stayed away from the products I knew where dodgy and bought the ones I liked. I could never have known what would end up happening though. Here we go:
The above photograph was taken by me, off me wearing Suedberry. Lime Crime originally posted it on their Facebook in February, then apparently took it down after people complained that Suedberry was sold out. They re-posted it in early April.
Lime Crime also posted this same photograph on their Pinterest account and linked to it on their twitter. They obviously like the photo, which of course is flattering.
Then a friend of mine posted on my Facebook wall telling me she’d seen my photograph on Lime Crime’s official site. But that couldn’t be. I’d never seen a fan photograph used on their actual site, only their social media ones.
But low and behold, there it was. I was credited, which was great, but they’d been using my photograph (without telling me) as a free promotional image. Lime Crime has an affiliate system where customers can make money by helping to sell Lime Crime products via links. Surely using my photograph has helping them sell products, and I should therefore be offered that same cut of the profit?
Knowing what Lime Crime could be like, I was hesitant to respond. But the people close to me insisted that this was not fair, and I should have been getting paid. I had to agree. So I emailed Lime Crime about it, and posted the same message on their Facebook along with a screen dump of my photo on their site. I was polite, and tried not to accuse them of anything. After posting, several friends of mine were shocked that I didn’t know it was on the site. Telling me it had actually been there for MONTHS! Uncharacteristically, Lime Crime did not delete my Facebook post. They commented that they had received my email and would reply soon. Strangely, that comment appears to be the only one which has been deleted.
This was their reply via email. Not even an apology in site. All I got was a simple brush off and assurance that my photo would be deleted from their site. I am very disappointed in the company.
I wanted to share this post with the community here because Lanah, like so many other people who’ve had their content stolen, deserves as much support as she can get and should have her story shared in full. This is not the first time something like this has happened, but this is one of the strongest examples of how Lime Crime is completely unprofessional when it comes to giving people credit and the expected fees for using other people’s work to promote their products. Lanah’s swatches for Lime Crime are excellent and superior to Lime Crime’s own “professional” shoots and should be rightfully compensated for her image and photography skills.
So I was looking on the LC facebook page because they’ve deleted my question twice about the polish.* There I noticed this
It seems that Lime Crime has stolen Lanah Grace’s picture to use on their website. Their public reaction so to this is to remove the above picture and say they’ll contact them via email.
*The question I was asking was about the availability of the polishes in the UK. The official link leads to a stockist that I know is not going to get them back in. So instead of answering me they’ve just deleted my question.
This is what I wrote on Xenia’s twitter on the day she was gonna be on that show. Interesting comment that she gave back to me and then not too much later she deleted this convo off of instagram…
It’s so telling she only uses sassy comebacks until she’s confronted with facts and then everything gets deleted. What again are we supposedly jealous of?
powdrroom Asks:
doedeerelies Said:
All my posts on the topic are here: http://doedeerelies.tumblr.com/tagged/chinadoll
I’d also highly recommend looking at Mai’s experience with Lime Crime and Xenia, as they directly contacted her about her reaction to the campaign.
