Review: Le Métier de Béauté Kaleidoscope Bauhaus

"Shimmery, glisteny eyecolours...come into Birkies land" 

Before I start to sound too Alladin's Lamp, let me introduce something shimmery that contains some other wishes: not three, but four shimmering eyeshadows:

Le Metier de Beaute's own site has not featured this Kaleidoscope yet. On Zuneta's site the description says that the Bauhaus colours have been inspired by:

"the Bauhaus movement, that influenced famed runways of Caroline Herrera and Cynthia Rowley alike,[...] “Modernisation is as feverishly popular as ever, and a little touch of Bauhaus never hurt anyone,” says Mikey Castillo, Director of Color, Le Métier de Beauté." 

Ok, that "a little touch of Bauhaus never hurts anyone" sounds a bit too vague for me. So what was Bauhaus really about?

My Art-teacher would be dissapointed for me not knowing that much about the Bauhaus Movement. Thankfully, she was into popular culture too as fashionblog-phenonema so I willfully googled up "Bauhaus Movement", knowing she wouldn't consider Wikipedia being the "source of evil" (some teachers always said that..."NEVER look on Wikipedia", and others are like "as a starter you can Wiki but Plleeeaazzzee, get some better source for your essays").

My palette has intellectual value being produced on the Rene Descartes road, or, 
"I apply makeup, therefore I am!

That simply means I cannot sum up this movement shortly, but it has links with art/architecture, art for craft's/building's sake and  to re-unite "Creativity and manufacturing [by] rejuvenating design for everyday life" (theartstory.org)
This meant lots of angular structures and basic colours. E.g. Piet Mondriaan was in the vanguard of the Bauhaus movement that lasted from 1913 to 1933:

I won't bother you with artistic talk anymore...but the stark primary colours are not represented in the palette. Better for me, because I love the subtle & metallic shades. Perhaps they are linked to the architecture movement that strongly stood close to Bauhaus.
And I suspect that Le Metier de Beaute hasn't fully researched Bauhaus either and they just picked an artistic movement in the past to get across more interesting. Oh well, haven't we all done that at a time being? At least I can say my eyeshadows are inspired by Bauhaus art, Mies van Rohe, Mondriaan and the likes ;-). That sounds less superficial than "I like puuurty colours on me eyes"...

Colour description according zuneta.com:

- Axiom - Sublime bronzed umber

- Graphite - Silver liquid metal

- Crucible - Rich pomegranate

- Genre - Deep gun metal 

(ps: had to Wiki Axiom & Crucible)

AXIOM:

 GRAPHITE:

GENRE:

CRUCIBLE:

 

Swatches: bare skin...no sunlight-1 (!) Swipe, NO primer

My point of view of the swatches:
* Axiom is a bronze brown with a hint of golden shimmers. It has a hint of mustard into it mostly visible from a side angle
* Graphite is a stunning darkened silver with a hint of mauve to it, making it a multidimensional shade....I tried to capture it from a different angle, but my lack of sunlight left me (hopefully updated soon).
* Crucible is one of those sexy maroons that has that hint of smoldering deep-red inside. The pinkish sparkle/glow prevents it from falling flat, and I think this will work beautifully layered over black eyeshadow for extra zest.
* Genre looks like a steel colour at first glance, but looking closer there is a hint of teal/blue glow that is supergorgeous for using it alone as a smokey eye or simply as an eyeliner in a smaller line.

To add to my view, an extra photo from the colours from a laying/side angle:

 VERDICT:

• incredibly pigmented, beautiful colours, almost all have a duo- or multidimensional quality that makes it interesting in various light
• 1 (!) swipe without primer and this impact! And still applying equally = SUPERIOR TEXTURE
• Not so fabulous = the quality of the packaging (check the top-case): It's plastic and Burberry does that one better.

• packaging= also on the small side. It reaches the lipstick-cap stripe of a MAC lipstick (see below), and quite bulky.

CONCLUSION:
 For many years I have been one of those women buying eyeshadows both from indie-sites as the more conventional brands being sold in beauty stores. Indie sites such as Fyrinnae and Meowcosmetics deliver eyeshadows that often have multiple sparkles and dimensions that makes it so interesting on the eyes. But than the lack of handiness (powder spill/ bags or jars that fling open and spill over your carpet!) made me reach for handy pressed palettes.

So I LOVE the texture, durability & colour quality of Le Metier de Beauté eyeshadows: it's probably the best quality so far in eyeshadows, leaving Burberry Beauty and Armani behind. I think they budgetised too much on the packaging, though. And for that price they shouldn't.

I haven't compared this Kaleidoscope with other eyeshadows, but this blogger has, so check her out for comparing swatches here.