Champagne Shimmer & Starry Night: True Color Creme Eye Shadows by Le Métier de Beauté

The offerings for month two of Le Métier de Beauté's VIP subscription program were two pre-release items that had me scratching my head a bit:  Champagne Shimmer and Starry Night.  But let's start at the beginning.

Per usual, the packaging and presentation of the items was lovely.  Le Métier de Beauté definitely knows how to make a visual impact with it's stark yet elegant black boxes, and the whimsical hand written notes signed by the company founders continue to lend a pleasing personal touch.  New this month were enclosed product cards with suggestions on how to use the creme shadows. 

The shadows themselves are generously sized and in the classic colors of champagne pink and a smoky black.  Just by looking at the shadows in the containers I noted that the formulation looked quite creamy and emollient, which also raised my suspicions that these would crease on me like crazy.  However, the card said they were long-wearing, waterproof, and resistant to settling into creases, so I held on to hope.

Heavily swatched

Alas, my arm swatches never set and were easy to smear at the touch, so I knew these were likely not going to work well with my already oily lids.  Consequently, I primed well and used a flesh colored matte shadow prior to lightly applying Champagne Shimmer as an inner eye highlighter and under my lower lash line, with Starry Night as my lash line color with a bit of Urban Decay's Asphalt shadow on top.  Then, I hoped for the best.

Within a couple of hours Starry Night was beginning to transfer to my upper lid, always a hazard with hooded eyes.  I could also begin to tell some degradation with Champagne Shimmer, although it was less evident. 

Meanwhile back at the ranch on a makeup forum I subscribe to, someone posted a reply from Le Métier de Beauté in response to some feedback on the creme shadows she had sent them.  The gist of LMdB's input on the creme shadows was that they are fashion items meant to give a bit of an "undone look" and should be applied lightly either under or over shadows to provide a bit of mystery to the eye. There was even something about not using in the eye crease, which totally contradicts the enclosed product card's wording about how the shadows are resistant to settling into creases. 

Okay.  Hmm.  Well, I guess that works for fashion shoots and I'm betting a makeup artist could do some amazing looks with these, but I usually need to look somewhat put together as opposed to undone, so it doesn't work for me.  Fortunately, Champagne Shimmer does work nicely as an upper cheek bone highlighter, and I've been using it for that.  Some people have also experienced better wear with the creme shadows than I did, so it may boil down to skin chemistry and application method.

While these were not a success for me, I'm still completely psyched about receiving a box from Le Métier de Beauté each month.  I admit it, I'm a bit hooked.  I would like some wearable makeup as opposed to items meant for editorial looks, but that's just me :-)