Lime Crime Uniliner Swatches and Tips!

Lime Crime Uniliners

Swatches (L-to-R): Lunar White (liquid-paper white), 6th Element (true orange), Citreuse (lime), Blue Milk (baby-blue), Lazuli (cobalt), Orchidaceous (bright violet) and Quill (straight black)

The team at Lime Crime very kindly sent me a set of their brand-new, uber-bright Uniliners, so I'm swatching them here and throwing in a few tips on application if you happen to like matte, intense liquid liners as much as I do.

(To see a previous tutorial using a matte liquid/cake liner, click here!)

It's easy to find liquid liners in neutral shades (black, brown, grey, navy), and metallic finishes, but much less common to get hold of them in matte, BRIGHT shades, hence my previous post raving about the colors in this range.

Lime Crime Uniliner in Citreuse

The Good News:

These do go on the way they look in images and swatches. I'm actually surprised by just how nice the paler shades are; particularly Blue Milk and Citreuse. They look like they might have a bit of shimmer in the tubes, but go on matte.

These come with long-ish, fine brush tips, so you can get maximum intensity (as compared to felt tips which tend to deposit less product.

The colors are actually quite wearable in real life despite how bright they look in images. They also don't smear off when rubbed, and don't crack after drying, unless you really coat on layer after layer.

The Bad News?

They're a good bit smaller than they look in pictures (1.3ml or 0.04 oz as compared to the typical 2ml or so in the average liquid liner). This isn't too much of a problem in the sense that most liquid liners dry out before they're finished, but at $13.99, bear in mind that these are definitely higher-end.

The fact that they come with a fine brush also means they might not be the best option for liquid-liner novices or those with shaky hands. 

Tips for Use

1. Instead of trying to apply your liner in one single stroke, you'll get more control and a more intense line if you apply it in sections. Center, outer, and then inner corners when you have the least amount of liquid left on your brush.
2. Take care not to apply too many coats of liner or your liner will crease and crack after drying.
3. If you're going to do what I do and stack liners (black and lime shown here), apply the paler color first in a thick swatch along or close to your lash line. THEN apply the darker or black shade thinly along the base. Doing it the other way round (black first then colored) would be a whole lot messier and harder to control.
4. Arm yourself with Q-tips and a disposable mascara brush. All that liquid liner that you get on places like your skin and your lashes is going to show up instantly. After applying, clean up any smudges with the the Q-tip or by briskly running the mascara wand through your lashes.
5. You can wear it neat without shadow, but always add a little dark color around the lashes or wear tons of mascara. Your lash line can disappear otherwise.
6. Wearing a full strip along the entire upper lash line creates the optical illusion of a smaller but more defined double-lid
7. If you have a very steady hand, wear it along your lower lash line!
8. These, like most liquid liners, are made to last. They won't come off properly with just soap and water. Use a makeup remover.
9. Apply it thick over the entire lid and gently smooth out with your finger tip for a dramatic eye shadow look!

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Lime Crime products are vegan and cruelty-free.

Lavender Smoke: MAC Crystal, Shale, Grape and Macroviolet

Purple Smoke: MAC Crystal, Shale and Grape pigment, with Macroviolet Fluidline

This look layers mulitple shades of silvery purples for a look that's monochromatic but not monotonous. 

If you own Lime Crime's Chinchilla lipstick or like that middle-ground between purples and greys, this is a look that goes with it. 

Clockwise from top: MAC Crystal, MAC Shale, MAC Grape pigment, blend of MAC Frozen White pigment and Reflects Transparent Pink, Lime Crime Chinchilla lipstick, and MAC Palladium Metal X Cream Shadow

Step 1: Apply MAC Shale, or any smoky grey-purple to the two outer corners of the eyes, and along the lower lash line.

Step 2: Pack a soft silvery violet in the centre. MAC Crystal is a beautiful option because it's a duochrome light grey with a violet sheen. It's not the most pigmented shadow around, so you will need to pack and layer a few times to build up intensity.

Step 3:  Deepen the corners with a touch of Grape pigment (I'm using the limited edition Crushed Metal version, but you can use the normal one).

Step 4: Dip the brush tip into more grape pigment and then smoke out the edges of the eye look.

Step 5: Using a blunt tipped detail brush, apply a deep metallic purple gel liner (MAC Macroviolet) thickly along upper and lower lash lines. Build up the line so it looks thick and solid. Leave out any flicks and the outer corners.

Step 6: Curl lashes and apply mascara. Then dust a translucent glittery violet to the brow bones and tops of cheek bones. 

Velvet Brown with a Purple Twist (88 Warm and 88 Shimmer Palette)

This is a simple, flattering look which is wearable for the day, and fun for the night. You can also streamline it to just 2 shadow shades if you want. A matte medium-deep brown, and a metallic medium-purple.


1. Apply base and then pack on a medium brown matte shadow all over the socket, and along the outer half of the lower lash line.
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2. Fill in lid with a deep matte taupe brown and layer on a medium satin brown, blending and spreading up over the brow bones. Then line upper lash line with dark brown or plum liner.
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3. Apply a rich medium metallic purple wet (I used MAC Fix+ to foil my shadow for instant liner), JUST along the lashline, and layer for more dramatic sheen if needed.
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4. Apply generous amounts of black mascara on top and bottom lashes, and voila.
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Also...

• Get a dewy glow with: Revlon Colorstay in 310 Warm Golden blended with L'oreal UV Perfect MAT SPF30 
• Get big black lashes with: Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara

And the finished look again...

Have fun with it!

Current: Purple Nails and Eyes

Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t find most purples to be that easy to wear on a day-to-day basis.

It has always been one of my favorite colors growing up, so you can bet I will have way more purple items lying around than I actually would wear.

One of these is Sally Hansen’s Grape Fizz polish. I loved how it looked in the bottle, but was terribly disappointed when I got home, applied it, and found it to be a really sheer purple “stain” rather than the rich metallic hue I had hoped it would be.

So it sat on my shelf for months.

Until I suddenly thought about layering it with a deeper creme color.

Enter my trusty chocolate milk polish, O.P.I.’S Over the Taupe. This sassy sister’s apparently also a team-player. Worn under Grape Fizz (below), it was sufficient to bring out all the rich wine-grape tones without actually turning everything brown.

It’s now just a lovely plum/grape color.

Of course, now that I found a way to make my Grape Fizz work, I had to get some sort of theme going on my face. I’m not crazy about matching, so much as complementing. So I reached for one of the very few items in my stash which I consider to be fool-proof.

The dark prune metallic pencil (#79 Violet miroitant) from the Bourjois Regard Metallise line. The brown, blue, green and black liners in this collection get a lot of press, and honest to goodness, I love and own them all.

But I find the true MVP for the collection; the one that I can reach for when I’m feeling totally lazy (like today), need to look work-appropriate, but want a little more zing than the usual blacks, navies and browns can give, is the purple.

In real life, it appears a lot more brown/gray, but I like how it’s dark enough to define or create a smoky look, while having enough color to still be interesting.

Other products worn in the photo above:

Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara
Revlon Colorstay #310 mixed with L’oreal UV Perfect SPF30