Le Metier de Beaute Fall 2011: Empress Kaleidoscope Lip Kit

Peeking through my window blinds are rays of piercing sunlight, and what should be a day of frolicking outside in the last beautiful weekend of New England is instead, spent gulping down fluid and pills of every variety to combat the onset of flu. I'm in that state of limbo before you descend into a monthlong full-blown cold, or if I play it right, recover before it begins. I'll raise my glass of herbal remedy to the latter!

Here's a long overdue post on the Le Metier de Beaute Empress kaleidoscope lip kit. As you recall, I posted a preview swatch of this a month ago here.

Clockwise: Top to bottom shade

L-R: Bottom to top shade

Empress is part of Le Metier de Beaute's Fall 2011 collection. It is a four-pan lip kaleidoscope that's meant to be layered from bottom to top, though you are free to experiment in any way you like. You can use only the bottommost shade for a darker lip, or just the second shade for a deep, intense red. The keyword with any kaleidoscope (and the entire brand) is to just play around!

When layered, Empress is a quintessential fall tone - a shiny deep berry. In the pictures above, I paired it with the other Le Metier de Beaute fall offering, the Silk Road eye kaleidoscope.

Typical of Le Metier de Beaute lip kaleidoscopes, texturally all four colors of Empire differ. The topmost and bottom two layers are thinner and stickier while the deep red shade is milkier, like a lip creme in pan form. Empress features the familiar burnt vanilla smell present in most lip cremes.

It's been some time since Empress hit counters, but I hope there are still some in stock out there. As per usual, Empress retails for $95 and can be found at Neiman Marcus stores.