YSL Rouge Pur Couture Lipstick No.14 Rouge Feu

As promised, here's another YSL Rouge Pur Couture lipstick. This one is No. 14, Rouge Feu, which is a little more red and dramatic than Rouge Saadi (#3). You can see Rouge Feu is warmer, though it definitely doesn't have an orange undertone and isn't even tomato red. Fire red? I guess so, but maybe not quite. It's a great color anyway, one of those almost-universal reds that would look good on a wide range of skin tones.

YSL Rouge Pur Couture is part of the new generation of super-lipsticks. All have a wonderful texture- gentle on the lips and often moisturizing while providing an excellent coverage and lasting power. Rouge  Pur Couture has a more limited range of colors compared Chanel Rouge Coco, but lovers of red, fuchsia or orange have a good chance of finding at least one shade to rock their world.

Bottom Line: an(other) instant classic.

YSL Rouge Pur Couture Lipstick ($30) is available from most decent department stores.

All photos are mine.

YSL Rouge Pur Couture Lipstick No.3 Rouge Saadi

Rouge Pur Couture is the newest addition to YSL's lipstick wardrobe and it might just be their best offering so far. This is a new formula that feels deceivingly light weight while giving full coverage (at least in the darker shades I tested), an almost glossy finish and is very comfortable to wear. Rouge Pur Couture glides on effortlessly (I'd still recommend using a brush for red and dark purple colors that demand perfection) and coats the lips beautifully without pooling in lines and scars. I wouldn't call this YSL lipstick creamy or very hydrating, but it definitely protects the lips and maintains their moisture level.

Many of the shades offered in the Rouge Pur Couture range are variations of red, allowing just about everyone to find a perfect red. Rouge Saadi (#3) was among my first choices. The swatches on the YSL website are misleading, so I'm glad I got to test all of them at Barneys in NYC (my favorite Yves Saint Laurent counter. The service is always excellent). Rouge Saadi is a soft warm red that does not lean towards orange. You can see it compared to Rouge Feu (#14, reviews and more photos coming in a separate post soon). It perks up my face and lends itself to elegant looks without being too dramatic. I love it with an almost nude eye makeup (neutral allover wash, thin black liner and a little mascara) and a soft neutral blush- it's a good everyday red for my coloring.

Bottom Line: A beginning of a beautiful friendship.

YSL Rouge Pur Couture lipstick ($30) is available from the company's website and many department stores. Sephora also carries the line, but though Rouge Saadi is not offered there.

All photos are mine.

YSL Blue Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils

This will be the last blue mascara review for a while. I tested and loved quite a few- blue mascaras have definitely come a long way since the 80s and its pretty easy to find a good one. The general rule is that brands that make a good mascara are more likely to offer something nice in blue.

I loved the black YSL Volume Effet Faux Cils from first testing. It's a great volumizer and holds a curl beautifully. It comes in several shades and Number 3, Extreme Blue is one of the options (there's also a blackened navy which I haven't tried. Yet). Obviously, on very dark lashes the color is not that bold, but it stands out a little more than the Buxom blue mascara that looks similar on the wand. This is probably due the thicker YSL formula that gives lashes a heavier coat. Still, it's very wearable and not loud at all- the blue just brightens things up a notch and looks pretty against beige and champagne eye shadows.

Volume Effet Faux Cils is quite resilient and stays on nicely, though I had one smudging occurrence (in three months of testing) after touching my eyes on a super humid and rainy day. From what I understand, the Volume Effet Faux Cils performs better when it has something unto which it can hold. It might not be the one if your lashes are very sparse, but for me it's an ideal product because it boosts the appearance while the blue shade is keeping things from looking too harsh or dramatic.

YSL Volume Effet Faux Cils mascara ($30) is available from select department stores, Sephora and the company's website.

All photos are mine.

YSL Aquamarine #13 Ombre Solo Eye Shadow

Aquamarine (#13) is one of the two Ombre Solo single eye shadow colors released by YSL for fall 2010. The other color, #14 Satin Silver is a very pretty luminous pearl and I had my makeup done with it to complement Aquamarine, but in the end I passed on it because it's just a little too sparkly and I prefer to pair Aquamarine with low key shades.

Aquamarine might not be the obvious color choice for fall, but it's gorgeous and works perfectly with my skin tone to bring out my eyes. It's a great contrasting shade for dark brown and as long as the eye shadow is applied in moderation and blended well you won't end up with this retro look:

The texture of both these new Ombre Solo shadows is silky smooth. Aquamarine is low on shimmer (almost matte, actually), moderate on pigment but the color can be built up nicely for lining. I use it over a primer and the color holds on until I remove it. The talented Gilberto Santiago from Barneys has shown me hoy YSL Touche Eclat can be used as a primer. A tiny dab of the luminizer and a little brush work creates a satin-like canvas that enhances both the color and the performance of your eye shadow. It's a neat trick which I adopted, especially for evening.

Bottom Line: Superb.

YSL Ombre Solo Eye Shadows ($30) are available from most decent department store as well as online.

Aquamarine eye shadow photos and swatches by me.
Fashion photograph: Richard Avedon for Harper's Bazaar, 1957

Yves Saint Laurent Yvresse (Champagne)

I remember buying my first bottle of Yvresse on a sunny day in the early summer, not long after it was (re)launched under this name. I was vaguely aware of the issues surrounding the original name, Champagne, and the fact YSL was forced to make the change, but I didn't really care. My goal was to find a happy perfume and that was exactly what I got.

It was sometimes around 1994, I think, and fruity was not yet a dirty word. Perfumes from big fashion houses could still be exciting and really good. Yvresse seemed to be all that. A happy, sunshiny little thing that wasn't too silly and had a substantial base under an opening full of peach and nectarines and something that felt like a frothy Bellini. The thing is that Yvresse is sweet. Very sweet, actually, and on a wrong weather/skin chemistry day the peach-rose syrup takes over so completely I probably owe an apology to all the people who had the displeasure to share an elevator with me during the summer of 1994 or 1995.

The base is all oakmoss, wood and patchouli, and can smell like a very full-bodied chypre once you get there. But the sweetness and all that happy-sunshiny-bubbly character mask it quite well. There's nothing moody or broody in Yvresse, and it's so easy going it feels like the vacation I always wanted but never had the chance to take. The kind that is all beaches and cabana boys during the day and long steamy nights in slinky little dresses after dark. In essence, utterly not me.

I still liked it quite a bit and eventually finished the bottle after five years or so. I never repurchased until recently, when I started missing it. There's not enough oakmoss in our lives these days. I actually found a couple of bottles of the original Champagne, both in EDT and parfum. It was my first experience with the extrait (no longer in production, of course), and it's as lovely as you would expect. There's something dry and spicy in the opening, a little less Club Med, if you will. The development is pretty similar in both concentrations, but I think I'm getting to the drydown a bit quicker in the parfum. I doubt Yvresse (or Champagne) would satisfy a serious oakmoss craving, because for most of us it's a lot more about green or leather chypres and this Yves Saint Laurent perfume is closer to the house's Paris than it is Mitsouko or Femme de Rochas. On bad days the sweetness is more in the realms of Tresor and sends me scrubbing- not surprisingly, consider the perfumer of both (and also of Paris) is Sophia Grojsman and her signature is quite evident.

On good days it's a happy perfume that's easy to wear without feeling it's a dumbed down scent.

Yvress is available from most official YSL distributors, online and in stores as well as from the usual and unusual discounters, usually for under $50. The current bottles are the 2oz and 4.2oz EDT. Any other sizes are older stock, which might not be a bad idea, considering the oakmoss restrictions. I have no idea if, when or how much Yvress has changed over the years.

Original Champagne ads: couleurparfum.com

YSL Spring 2010 Y-Mail Palette Blush Harmony Silky Finish

Aside from the cute packaging, the two face/complexion Y-Mail palettes in the Yves Saint Laurent Spring 2010 collection are very low-key. The face highlighter didn't entice me at all in its pink glory, and the blush is nothing we haven't seen before, except that it's actually very pretty and has a luxurious low-shimmer and very silky finish. The palette is made of three colors and with a little practice you can control how much your brush collects from each one of them.

The colors are on the lighter side and my complexion in all its winter pallor is probably the darkest one that can wear them (I suspect this holds true for the entire YSL spring collection). If I were tan the Y-Mail blush probably would have been impossible to detect on my face. I tested several brushes and found that such a light blush- both in color and in texture- benefits from using as dense a brush as you can find, be it angled or even a kabuki-style. A fanned brush is utterly useless here. The silky finish is pretty and the very low shimmer makes it office friendly and very natural looking.

Bottom line: Nice but too pricey for what it is.

YSL Y-Mail Palette Blush Harmony Silky Finish ($65) is available from most decent department stores and online. I bought it directly from the company's website.

All photos by me.

YSL Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils

Over the last couple of months I've gone through three mini tubes of YSL Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils. It is that good. Maybe not Armani Eyes To Kill good, but as these mascaras have slightly different objectives, they can happily coexist in my stash.

Volume Effet Faux Cils is the rival of DiorShow Extase mascara. Both add a significant amount of volume, but the YSL also contributes significantly in the length department  and envelopes the lashes in a very even and super pigmented coat (at least in black) that gives them a serious presence. Faux Cils really gives the impression you're wearing some extra lashes, which might not always be a desirable look, but if you're going for drama this is an excellent option.

This Yves Saint Laurent mascara's biggest advantage over the equivalent Dior is in texture. DiorShow Extase is very thick (to the point it dries out before you're 2/3 of the way through the tube) and might make application too messy and high maintenance (I made it work with very impressive results, but if you have very sparse lashes you might find it a challenge to avoid a mess). Faux Cils might not dress your lashes in a fat suit but it has far less goopy tendencies as reported by others, and doesn't dry up in the tube as quickly.

The mascara stays on from morning to night and I've had no smudging issues with any of the test tubes.

Bottom line: The navy blue one is calling my name.

YSL Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils ($30) is available from Yves Saint Laurent counters, Sephora and the company's website. The samples I had were GWP from various sources.

Photos by me.

YSL La Laque Spring 2010- Beige Mousseline (Beige Chiffon #41)

YSL has two nail polish options in the Spring 2010 collection. While Mauve Silk (#143) is the one more heavily promoted, I'm all purpled out and chose the sleeper #41 (Beige Chiffon or Beige Mousseline) instead. This is a true beige with a hint of pink like a doll's skin. It's a true classic, as wearable as it gets and has this effortless French thing going for it. It's perfect for the mannequin hand look without looking dead and would make a great summer pedi to accompany vibrant sandals that don't need competition.

Quality-wise, you need three coats to achieve full color. It can be a drag, but this La Laque dries pretty quickly for a creme nail polish, so even I can avoid messing it up. I've used Zoya Anchor and Zoya top coat (which I have been renewing every other day) and have yet to see tip wear even after a week.

YSL La Laque ($20) is available from most department store as well as online. I ordered it from yslbeautyus.com.

Nail polish bottle photos by me, mannequin photo: pamdora.com

YSL Rouge Volupte Lipstick For Spring 2010- Opera Rose (29)

There's no doubt the colors in the YSL Spring 2010 are very... springy. There's lots of pink everywhere you look, which makes it a bit hard for me to love it. Still, even I need some happy colors in my wardrobe, so my choice was Rouge Volupte lipstick in Opera Rose.

Rouge Volupte offers one of the very best formulas on the market. I've already reviewed it when I bought Exquisite Plum from the fall collection. The creaminess, lasting power, pigment and coverage are amazing. The new Opera Rose is no exception (there are three other new colors, all far too pale for me). It's very rare that I find a pink lipstick that covers so well there's no chalky effect on the lips.

Opera Rose is really pink with a warm base. It reminds me of the inside of a pink grapefruit, just with a little less orange. I wasn't sure I could pull it off but I actually like it, especially on a sunny day when the light outside complements the color. Adding a little lip gloss that has a bit of brown or purple makes me a lot more comfortable- it takes the edge off while still allowing the spring pink to shine and do its thing. Le Metier de Beaute gloss in Cocoa Creme is perfect for this purpose.

Bottom line: Is it spring yet?

YSL Rouge Volupte Lipstick ($34) is available from top department stores and online. I bought it directly from the company's website, yslbeautyus.com.

All photos are mine.

YSL Gloss Pur (Pure Plum 6)

It doesn't matter how many times I complain about the scent of YSL glosses, I still buy them for the color, shine and overall gorgeousness. Gloss Pur in Pure Plum (#6) is no different. The same weird mineral fragrance that really doesn't belong in a lip gloss tube, but such a fabulous shade, texture and shine that I reach out for whenever I want a sleek but not too dramatic look.

Depending on the amount you apply, it can serve as top coat for a lipstick or stand alone. When swatching on my hand or straight on the brush (see photo) the pigment looks a lot richer than it is on the lips, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the natural color of the lips- mine are quite dark. So when I wear Pure Plum it looks like a sheer red plum. It's the kind of color I can wear everywhere, though the high shine makes it a bit dressy.

Like all YSL glosses, the staying power is about average and it's not too sticky.

Bottom line: A staple.

Yves Saint Laurent Gloss Pur ($29) is available from all YSL counters. I bought it at Sephora.

All photos by me.

YSL Touche Eclat and Chanel Stylo Eclat Lumiere

YSL Touche Eclat has been around forever. I still remember many years ago when my mom bought this miracle pen for the first time. The concept of a concealer-highlighter was quite revolutionary and for a while YSL was more or less alone in this arena. I can't be sure, but the formula has probably changed and improved over the years. They have added several shades, which helps a lot, though my last visit to the Yves Saint Laurent counter at Saks found three SAs peering over my face trying to determine my undertone. It went something like this:
SA 1: "well, you're not pink. Do you have blue undertone?"
SA2: "No, she's not blue. You're not blue, Dear"
SA3: "Maybe yellow? I don't know"
SA1: "Green! What goes with green?"

Thus I was officially diagnosed as a Martian.

The chosen Touche Eclat shade, by the way, was No. 2. I use it as a highlighter and blend it with a soft concealer brush under my eyes and often apply a tiny amount above my upper lip to enhance the Cupid's bow. But Touche Eclat is not really a concealer, and at times I want something just as light, with the same texture, but also a little coverage. I've tried several products at various makeup counters and ended up with Chanel's Eclat Lumiere. It's actually labeled a highlighter as well, but testing and side-by-side comparing has shown that it gives me just a bit more coverage where I need it, like around the nose. I use Medium, No.35, which is a good match and slightly darker than my Touche Eclat. I couldn't take a decent photo that shows the shades and the difference, so the picture above is all you get, together with the recommendation to try both and see what works for you. And use a real brush when blending. Both pens have an applicator with plastic bristles that aren't good enough for the delicate blending task.

YSL Touche Eclat and Chanel Stylo Eclat Lumiere (both sell for $40) are available from most decent department stores and the companies' websites. I usually buy them at Saks or Bergdorf.

Photo by me.

YSL Rouge Pur Lipstick (Sweet Dark Purple 151 Violine Sucree)

There are four new shades of YSL Rouge Pur lipstick, and I was instantly tempted by Sweet Dark Purple (Violine Sucree, 151). Their Holiday Makeup Look actually features #150, Sublime Red, but I decided that I have quite a few true red lipsticks at the moment, and purple is a bit more versatile for me, so #151 was the one to come home with me.

Maybe I should have remembered that the Rouge Pur line is on the dry side. It feels weightless and never bothers my lips, but it doesn't add any extra moisture and requires some prep before applying (exfoliate, moisturize, blot). It's not too dry as to require topping with a gloss, though I play with various options when I want to tone down the color.

Sweet Dark Purple is a very berry shade and generally looks better in the evening. The texture makes it an excellent option for those holiday parties where you want to sip your champagne with constantly having to reapply your lipstick. It stays put beautifully. One warning, though: do an extra shot of Listerine and mind the rest of your makeup undertones, as the color can make teeth appear yellow.

Yves Saint Lauren Rouge Pur Lipstick ($30) is available from most top department stores. #151 isn't always in stock and it seems Sephora doesn't have any of the newer colors. I bought mine from yslbeautyus.com.

All photos by me. Fuzzy creature: Buffy.