They're Back!! My Le Métier de Beauté Favourites

So, after a long wait, today is the day that Le Métier de Beauté sees a return to the UK via Zuneta. I saw a hint on Facebook recently and I have been looking out for emails and watching their "What's New" section like a hawk ever since! I thought this would be a good moment to share some of my favourite things from Le Métier. This little group includes a mixture of things I have purchased, my winnings from the BBB giveaway and PR samples.

I realised when I started writing this post that I forgot to take an individual picture of the Peau Vierge*. You can see the silver tube on the far left of the group picture. Peau Vierge is a sheer base come anti-ageing treatment that contains an encapsulated retinol treatment**. I have shade 01 and I like to wear it as a tinted moisturiser in the summer (it has an spf of 20) but you can layer it without foundation. Because of the treatment aspect, it is rather an expensive product. I'm not sure what the pricing is going to be on their return but when Peau Vierge was originally released in the UK in 2010, it cost £90.

From top to bottom, we have: Dualistic lip liner in Rose*, Dualistic eye pencil in Champagne and Anamorphic mascara in Aubergine*. Both the lip and eye pencil have a lovely texture. Rose is perfect for lining my lips before applying lipstick for a more polished (and long lasting) red lip. I don't do it that often as I am lazy and tend to slap lipstick on but it's easier to get a precise look with a pencil. Rose works well with the majority of my reds too.

The Dualistic pencil in Champagne was a cheeky purchase during a no-buy. To be honest, I was sold at the word taupe. It can be used as a liner or a base for eyeshadow and I like to use it as a base for the Le Cirque eyeshadows as I was shown during my makeover with Erin Lockard.

The Anamorphic mascara in Aubergine was also used during my makeover with Erin (not this particularly tube you understand, although I confess this tube is older than it should probably be). It's not obvious when applied that you are wearing a coloured mascara, the effect it subtle but it does bring out the green in my sometimes blue, sometimes green eyes.

Aurora Lip Kit

The Aurora Lip Kit* is relatively new addition to my collection. I took this picture from my review post, in the group shot you can see it has been attacked and it doesn't look quite as pretty as pristine anymore. I believe this kaleidoscope is quite difficult to get hold of in the States and I suspect it may sell out here quickly here too.

Le Cirque

I wasn't going to include any of the eye kaleidoscopes as they're limited edition items but it's hard to talk about Le Métier de Beauté without mentioning them. I think everyone needs to try at least one kaleidoscope and experience the beauty of the signature Couches de Couleur technique. Yes, they are expensive but worth it in my opinion.

Come One, Come All and Le Cirque are probably my joint favourites. Come One, Come All was a very limited edition created for a specific counter and I got very excited when someone suggested that maybe they will come up with a unique kaleidoscope for Zuneta. I could definitely break my eyeshadow no-buy for something like that!

I have a fondness for makeup brushes and I have several Le Métier brushes on my shopping list wishlist. The foundation brush is good but the concealer brush* is definitely my favourite of the two. It's excellent for blending concealer seamlessly. These brushes have quite short handles and this is true of all of their brushes. I know this isn't to everyone's tastes but I rather like short handles brushes. I have a quite a few of similar length from Hakuhodo too.

L-R: Dionysus nail polish and Blonzer in Maldives Magic

Dionysus nail polish* came out with last years summer collection. It is a petite thing of beauty. As someone who has never finished a bottle of polish EVER, I'm quite ok with the smaller size. I'm not sure whether they have any nail polishes as part of their core collection but they do release a few with each seasonal collection. I really like the taupe Faraday from the current Northern Lights collection.

The Blonzer in Maldives Magic is the item I won in the BBB/Le Métier dash. Someone once described it as looking like cocoa powder and I think it's rather an apt description. It does have shimmer but it's not really disco ball territory, I don't wear bronzer often but I tend to pick this out if I have a little colour as I like the soft texture. I have a feeling this is different to the bronzers in their permanent collection.

L-R: Aubergine mascara, Rose liner, Champagne, Peau Vierge 01

There are a number of things that I am looking forward to getting my hands on now that Le Métier has returned. Corinthian eyeshadow is on my list (post eyeshadow ban, of course), a couple of lipsticks and as I have already mentioned, I have my sights set on a few brushes. Do you have your eye on anything in particular?


* PR Samples

**Warning: labcoat moment** I popped this as an aside rather than in the main post, as I figured that not everyone would want to read my science wibbling. Someone commented on a previously Peau Vierge post about how unusual it was to find a retinol product in a day treatment. It is certainly more normal for a retinol treatment to be applied in the evening and I spent a little time yesterday investigating retinol and light sensitivity. There is a general impression that retinoids make the skin photosensitive but I also came across articles declaring this a common myth and that it is only the molecule itself which sensitive to light. Certainly, when I searched the published scientific literature, I could only find evidence that retinol is indeed highly photosensitive.

Patients on a retinol treatment regime are often advised to use sun protection during their treatment but they also tend to prescribe glycolic acid alongside retinol, and glycolic acid does make the skin more sensitive to UV light. Also, those taking part in clincal studies would have to use sun protection in order to prevent any new photodamage interfering with measurement of changes to existing photodamage. I couldn't find anything in the literature which definitively said that retinol caused photosensitivity of the skin.

In the limited time I had, I wasn't able to find an answer I was satisfied with. I suspect that retinol does not cause skin to become photosensitive but it does degrade in sunlight. Whether this limits the effectiveness of retinol product used in daylight I'm not sure. If you're considering a purchase, this might be something to investigate as this is an expensive product. I can report that I have never experienced any irritation with Peau Vierge as dermatitis is a common side effect of retinol use.