Lime Crime Venus XL II

 I didn't get off to the best of starts with the Lime Crime Venus XL II palette. When it arrived from Cult Beauty I was less than thrilled to see two of the pans had clear finger marks in them. I don't blame the Cult Beauty staff for not being able to resist swatching these these shades, some of the most unusual and iridescent I've ever seen, but also... gross. After an initially disappointing response from the online store where they wanted me to buy an envelope and waste my time queueing up in a post office to return it, they finally conceded that this was all their fault and just sent me a new one. I literally gasped on seeing this palette, and not just because of the finger marks (ew), but because this is such a pretty range of spring garden-inspired shades, and unlike anything else in my collection.On the down side, there is quite a strong chemical smell to the shades, which thankfully can't be smelt when they're worn. It's a little bit off-putting, but not enough to not make me want to smother these chemicals all over my lids. The mattes are impressively creamy, I'm so in love with In Bloom and Sage, and there's a couple of stunning duo-chrome shades - Myth, a minty green with pale gold, and Locust, a browny green that's made to make hazel eyes pop. There's so many pretty wet-look metallics, all dreamy fairy-like shades. This is truly the cutest palette, and ideal for this time of year.  Just don't get it from Cult Beauty...