After getting my February and March products and feeling a little uninspired, I was really hoping for a fantastic April Vault VIP shipment. I’ll get straight to the point – it was definitely a hit and a miss.
HOW IT WORKS: As a Vault VIP for $348/year you will receive a full-sized product or assortment of products every month, curated by our Beauté experts. Members of The Vault will also have the opportunity to try exclusive, limited-edition items and pre-releases of the brand’s latest and greatest before anyone else gets their hands on them. The sign ups will become available again only in July 2015.
From reading various forums and blog posts, it seems that everybody received a combination of two nail polishes from very old collections, and an eye shadow. Most people got Cocoa Cabana nail polish that was featured in February 2014 box, and a shimmery blue eye shadow. If you got that brown color and not sure whether you want to use it or gift it, I also posted swatches here.
My bundle didn’t have either of those, instead I received two Le Metier de Beaute Nail Lacquers with VIP stickers in the area where a shade reference would normally be, but if I had to guess, I’d say that the teal one is from a Spring 2012 Northern Lights Collection, and its official name is Aurora. From comparing swatches online, I am also willing to guess that the red one is Bodacious Bordeaux from Fall 2011 Le Metier de Beaute for Ken Downing Collection. Quite vintage, indeed.
My eye shadow really resembled the small blush pan I got in the February box, and the color is quite similar, except this month it’s more gray and the February product had a hint of rosy mauve to it. Still, brown is brown, right? Just like the nail polishes, it also has a VIP sticker on the bottom without any kind of shade indication. After scouring the Internet for swatches of potential candidates, I came to a conclusion that I received True Colour Eye Shadow in Mulberry. It has that same grayish hue to it and subtle silvery shimmer, giving slight sheen to an otherwise matte base.
So far I’ve tried Bodacious Bordeaux and the Mulberry eye shadow. The nail polish is quite sheer and has more of a jelly finish, it didn’t look all that pretty on my nails, because I had a hard time evening it out. As a result, it still looked streaky after three coats and a top coat, which is unheard of. The eye shadow on the contrary was quite nice – it was very pigmented, Anyone, who tried high end and designer eye shadows, knows that it can be extremely hard to find products that are actually up to par with the price premium.
I swear, all of those Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, and other fancy brands that I swatched were chalky and poorly pigmented. However, LMdB is a rare unicorn in the world of luxury cosmetics, because they’re known for fantastic eye shadow formulas. I do believe they’re a worthy splurge, although there are definitely cheaper alternatives, and I would probably only buy certain colors if they were unique enough.
Swatch reference: My skin tone is between MAC NC15 and NW15, since I have neutral undertones. Sometimes I can wear NW20 in the Summer. I thought this would be helpful to know, since all screens show colors differently, and I also don’t have a studio setup with consistent lighting. Hope that helps!
THE VERDICT: I was a bit baffled coming up with a verdict, because honestly, this was not a bad box by any means, but something about it made me a little sad. Now that we are getting products originally released 3-4 years ago, I wonder if that’s a sign that LMdB is having trouble coming up with something new and exciting? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Do you have a favorite high end eye shadow formula?
| Product | Retail value |
|---|---|
| True Colour Eye Shadow Mulberry | $30.00 |
| Nail Lacquer Aurora | $18.00 |
| Nail Lacquer Bodacious Bordeaux | $18.00 |
| Box Retail Value | $66.00 |
Disclosure: This post features products purchased by Glamorable and may contain affiliate or referral links. For more details about my product review policy, copyright, and information about affiliate links, please refer to Disclosures & Content Use page.
