Review: Lime Crime's Countessa Fluorescent

As some of you may remember, I had been searching for a neon pink lipstick. Well, I've found it!

I ordered Countessa Fluorescent from Lime Crime on December 10th using a code on their FB for 20% off. I think the code was fb20. I paid the $5 flat rate shipping, which told me it would arrive in 3 to 7 days. It arrived on the 7th day, so within the time promised.

I immediately swatched it and compared it to a few lipsticks I had on hand, but I didn't want to actually review it until I had worn it for a day to see how it held up. I'm happy to report that after a full day (my daughter's birthday party day, even) it was totally still on. It did separate a little bit, but I'm not sure if it did that before or after I ate 2 slices of pizza. The consistency of the lipstick is great, and it definitely is opaque. I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of their other awesome shades of lipstick.

At $16.00 a tube, I think the price is a bit steep when you compare it to the fact that MAC is $14.50 a tube and definitely a bigger, more well known brand. Lime Crime is relatively unknown outside of the online beauty community. But I do think for some of the shades (My Beautiful Rocket, No She Didn't, etc) it may be worth it. I certainly was okay paying for it because it seemed to match the color I was looking for and couldn't find elsewhere. But for the price, had it not been exactly what I wanted upon arrival, I would have returned it.

Here is how the lipstick was sent to me...

It was in a flat rate box, but that's just way too much for one tube of lipstick. It could have very easily been sent to me in a small shipping envelope. I'm not trying to be nitpicky, because it did arrive safely, but it was just a super wasteful way of sending one small item. Not very green, despite the tissue paper.

The packaging is cute, and I personally love it, but it does look juvenile. I wasn't surprised at all because I was familiar with the brand, having read a lot about it online, but I am aware that the bright, childlike packaging turns some people off. When my mom saw my daughter holding it, she actually thought it was some random, cheap kid's lipstick that I had given her (my kid has oodles of makeup LOL).

I did swatches in several forms of lighting, with and without flash, to give you the most accurate idea of how it will look in varied conditions. Yup, I typo'd on the name. I'm hanging my head in shame.

Here it is swatched with several MAC lipsticks for a simple comparison. I wish I could locate my Show Orchid right now, because I'm curious to see how they compare. Show Orchid, IMO, is very similar to Girl About Town, and is essentially the same color but in neon form. Of the lipsticks I swatched with Countessa Fluorescent (and yes, I see I made TWO typos when labeling these images), Pink Nouveau was the most similar. 

Here I've compared Pink Nouveau and Countessa Flourescent (with yet another typo, tsk tsk). They are similar, but PN is definitely more safe where CF has that real bright, neon-ness to it that I was searching for.

I'm going to rate this one 4 out of 5 stilettos. While it's exactly what I was hoping it would be, and it arrived on time, it's losing a stiletto due to the issue I had with the packaging.