Le Métier de Beauté Bauhaus Eye Kaleidoscope for Holiday 2012 Photos, Swatches, Review

Despite the fact that I’ve been pretty infatuated with Le Métier de Beauté, their Kaleidoscope was a product that I had not yet ventured into. When I saw the Bauhaus Eye Kaleidoscope for holiday 2012 on Zuneta and the look that is created with it, I was so mesmerized that I made my purchase immediately!

Note: this contains 16 grams/0.56oz of product, which means each eyeshadow weighs a bit more than their True Color Eye Shadows (3.8 grams/0.13oz). Le Métier de Beauté might not be the most budget-friendly brand, but it for sure gives you a lot of value!

I won’t dwell too much on packaging, since especially for those who are familiar with the Kaleidoscope kits, it is fairly standard. Essentially it functions like a jewelry box with four layers. There is a curve to help you swivel the layers out, and it can be snapped back securely. If you ever want to travel with a Kaleidoscope, the layers probably won’t pop open on their own in your bag! Something else that impresses me is the fact that the kit doesn’t topple over or even tilt whatever you do with it. I had imagined it might lose its balance if I open all the layers, but it doesn’t! The only minor critique I have is for some reason it is easy for the top to look a little “scratched.” If I could change anything about the packaging this would be it, but it’s not a deal-breaker!

EDIT: A lovely reader told me in the comment that the “scratched” appearance is actually caused by the layer of protective plastic that I didn’t spot and she’s right! Once that layer comes off the surface is all shiny and new.

The kit opens to a mirror as well as a highly reflective surface that can be used as one.

Note the size:

Bauhaus contains the following shades: Axiom (described as subtle bronzed umber by Le Métier de Beauté), Graphic (silver liquid metal), Crucible (rich pomegranate), and Genre (deep gun metal). Let’s take a closer look at all of them!

To my eyes, Axiom looks like a bronzy copper with coppery shimmer. Like other Le Métier de Beauté eyeshadows I have sampled, it is incredibly smooth and pigmented. It produces no fallout whatsoever, and the same goes to all the other shades.

Graphic is a bluish silver with a metallic finish. It is again highly pigmented and smooth, but there is a bit of underlying sheerness that could be part of the design. You can easily make it opaque with a bit of layering, but the swatch was done with one pass.

On me, Crucible is a plummy burgundy. It is shimmery, but much less so compared with the previous two shades.

Last but not least, I think Le Métier de Beauté underestimated how fantastic Genre is! Genre is a metallic steel gray with a bluish/greenish sheen. This shade has so much depth, and it is almost a duochrome with the bluish/greenish sheen! It is so incredibly pigmented and smooth. Color me impressed!

Here is all of them together:

For those of you who are familiar with Le Métier de Beauté, you might have heard of the Couches de Coleurs (layers of colors) technique. All the colors in the Kaleidoscope kits are designed to be layered on top of each other (from top to bottom) to create a prismatic effect. For example, here is Axiom alone:

Here is Graphic layered over Axiom:

Here is Crucible on top of Graphic and Axiom:

Here is all four of them together:

According to Le Métier de Beauté, the shades can be worn individually, but they work the best together to give eyes dimension. While some of the shades in Bauhaus might be trickier for me to wear alone, with a bit of layering it could be really interesting! Another observation I’ve made is that Bauhaus doesn’t work the same way most “quads” do in the sense that it might not be the most self-evident to place the colors next to each other. Therefore, while I might pair all four of them with different shades in my existing stash, if I want to use only this quad, layering might indeed be the best technique. I will do an FOTD and tell you about the experience as soon as I can, but this post is getting way too long and picture-heavy I thought I might as well stop here (I’m also saving my “bottom line” section till then, but for the moment you can already see that quality-wise you can’t fault Bauhaus for anything)!

Is Le Métier de Beauté Bauhaus Eye Kaleidoscope something that might interest you? What’s your favorite shade out of the four? Have you tried the Couches de Coleurs technique? What is your experience?

Sunny, your beauty culture translator xx

PS: You can purchase Le Métier de Beauté Bauhaus Eye Kaleidoscope on Zuneta. They offer free express shipping all over the world for orders over 100 pounds before Christmas (last order dates range from the 18th till the 20th, depending on where you are).