Le Métier De Beauté Gravite Kaleidoscope Eye Kit
I’m very late to the party, but seeing how Le Métier De Beauté is not readily available in Singapore, I find myself vindicated somewhat. So when LMdB announced it was giving away an exclusive, limited edition Kaleidoscope Eye Kit for free, I was bouncing with joy. The catch was you had to spend over USD200 to qualify. Throw in the fact that LMdB’s website only sells things in bundles, with only a small handful of offerings available each time, it felt rather gimmicky. The way I justified my purchase was that the Kaleidoscope itself was worth half the cost of the bundle (not to mention the bundle itself was already 40% off!), and I’m a skincare nut and really wouldn’t mind fresh fodder for the blog. Now you know the story behind my burgeoning warehouse at home!
It took me a long time to get this post up because my first impression was not favorable at all. Gravite looked nothing like the promotional image that was published by LMdB, which I’ve since realized is a common recurrence. Also, having heard so much about the awesome-ness of LMdB eyeshadows, I was stunned by how far it fell from my expectations. The textures, across all 4 shades, were all incredibly hard and dense. It is nothing compared to the silky creaminess of the best Japanese makeup of its price point. When swatched with a finger, all the pigments stayed well and truly on my finger, with nary a swiped stain on my arm. The swatches which I am about to show, are of numerous swipes.
The shades are swatched from top down of the Kaleidoscope, left to right as follows:
- Medium bronze with a satin finish
- Medium copper with some light gold shimmer
- Dark olive green with golden shimmers
- Dark eggplant with a matte finish. There seemed to be some very sparse shimmers in the pan, but it is completely lost when swatched.
The pigmentation of these varied – the olive green felt the smoothest and most pigmented of the bunch; the eggplant turned out much better than some other eggplant shades from other brands. And clearly they did not swatch smoothly at all.
I wasn’t expecting to like Gravite at all based on my initial reaction to it. However, after swatching it all I was surprised the palette felt cooler toned on me than it looked in the pan. And this unusual combination of shades somehow work when applied!
I feel almost like Joey when faced with Rachel’s incongruous trifle – shephard’s pie combo: copper and bronze – I like, green – I like, purple – LOVE…what’s not to like?!
And then when you layer it all according to LMdB’s Couches de Couleur technique, you get this marvelous concoction….
Obviously you can’t get Gravite anymore (although I wouldn’t be surprised if it pops up somewhere later on like Joyce Beauty & eBay), but I am pretty sure you can get dupes from LMdB’s amazing line-up of singles and concoct your own gravity-defying brew. My purpose in sharing this post is of course to flaunt what is inaccessible like all good beauty-lovers, and mainly to pronounce my wonderment over the texture (creamy? really??!). Notwithstanding, somehow the colors come across easily on my lids (what witchery?!) and they layer marvelously. Until recently, the price of a Kaleidoscope would make me swear profusely…but considering each shadow is 4gm, making an entire Kaleidoscope 16gm of product, I don’t think even paying USD200 for just this one kit is profanely expensive (looking at you RBR!!!).
xoxo
Oh dear, Ive held on out these kaleidos for a long time now cos $95 is way too steep for eyeshadow!!!:( Do appreciate the layering effect though. Most of what Ive seen are too gorgeous!
As usual Linda, youve done an absolutely beautiful job! Sooo pretty on you 🙂
Thank you for your eternal sweetness, Shari! I have been wanting a kscope for ever cos everybody keeps raving about them! Gravite is unfortunately not the best example… but I do hope you get to check them out for yourself soon!
A marvelous concoction! Love the gorgeous tones. As always, I’m drooling over everything you review! Fantastic post!
Thanks Angie
Oh was this one your first Kscope 🙁 I am really sorry about that, usually the quality is much better, this one was a bad exception in my book and after trying it out, I haven’t bought any new Kscopes.
Hi Sara, this is technically my 2nd, but my 1st (Bauhaus) has been left untouched til now! None of the recent Kscopes speak to me much, and i’m apprehensive about ordering sight unseen given how their pictures always diff from the actual product!
I like Bauhaus much more than this one though, maybe you want to pull it out and use 😉 I think Gravite was not produced by the usual LMdB producer but it was in another quality class. I have around 10 Kscopes and none of them have these stone hard texture and bad color pay-off. I felt really deceived by the brand because although it was GWP, they marketed it as a regular Kscope. *shakes head* still very disappointed and although I like the new ones they released (e.g. La Strada) I didn’t splurge.
Yes, Bauhaus has slightly better texture and color pay-off… but still not as soft as I’d imagine they can be. I think I’m going to explore other brands for awhile now… 😉
I’m not sure what kind of problems LMdB is having from the management, development, and marketing standpoints, but many of us who were once enthusiastic customers have jumped off their bandwagon. Repetitious Kaleidoscopes, too many “exclusives” limited to a particular store in a particular city (in the US), manufacturing glitches resulting in inconsistent quality, failing to utilize new formulas and technologies, etc. have left many of us with a “Meh!” attitude towards the brand. And, as you so rightly pointed out, the quality of their eyeshadows lags far behind that of other brands at comparable price points. It’s sad because LMdB initially showed so much promise during the early years.
Negative feelings about the company aside, the colors do look lovely with your skin tone and eye color. You do such a beautiful job of layering the colors to artful effect! Very, very pretty!
Thanks for your comment, Eileen. I think the cosmetics industry is converging…smaller players don’t have the economies of scale to throw big marketing $ to drive revenue. Consumers are also more selective about paying top $ for luxury brands. So maybe the product development has been slower and exclusive arrangements with certain retailers (possibly with extra revenue share?)… I have the same problem with Tom Ford lately and am falling out of love with it… I think Estee Lauder isn’t paying enough attention to the brand and just reaping whatever they can from their older brands. Anyhoos… there are loads of new brands popping up all the time, so it’s all good!
Hey girl, thanks for the post! I have to rant about the new LMdB website a little. I am not sure why they do what they do, but it’s a bit annoying not to be able to just buy what I want because everything is in some kind of a set, and some stuff is only available as GWPs. It’s a little ridiculous!
Anyways, I’m glad that while it doesn’t swatches too well, it actually works well! It’s very pretty layered!
Hey Sunny babe, the LMdB site reminds me of those flash sales sites like Gilt.com! I figured that was the way they were going…to clear excess inventory and not to compete with their exclusive arrangements with certain retailers. It doesn’t bother me a whole lot to be honest, because when i’m shopping online, it doesn’t make a difference to me which site i’m buying from! But yes, I do wish LMdB is more easily accessible!
I’m glad it works ok on my lids cos afterall, i spent over USD200 to get this! Excessive!