YSL HOLIDAY 2012 COLLECTION
YSL - The Black Collection - Holiday 2011
“If I were to keep just one item of clothes, it would be the Tuxedo…” - Yves Saint Laurent
YSL have taken a different approach to holiday collections this year by focussing this one mainly around different hues of black. Black. I know what you're thinking, 'but, i've got one black - do I really need more?' and well, I guess the answer is up to you. Following on from their collector Tuxedo Touche Eclat which I spoke about a month or so ago, they continued the classic tuxedo theme through to this collection too. I have to be honest, I find YSL far too expensive for my budget, so when I see collections like this things immediately jump out at me as to whether they're worth the money for me or not and I think this collection is a real mixed bag. One thing I do think the collection does totally personify is that of Winter and Christmas in particular. I love the new packaging of the palettes too, wrapped in a classic pleated belt style covering - I love this touch! So the two palettes are the Palette Blanc Terriblement and the Palette Noir Terriblement. The first one i'm going to show you is the Palette Blanc Terriblement:
Palette Blanc Terriblement | YSL Holiday | £39
It's a very softly milled highlighter with three different sections, blue toned, pink toned and gold toned. When swept together they cause a gorgeous pure white with multi-dimensions of tone, and sweep across the cheeks gently to create a subtle highlight. I think this is similar to NARS Albatross, but I think this would suit more skintones due to the different undertones in it - the NARS is just gold, and I find I often need a little more pink in my cheeks due to my skintone. I've been reaching for this quite a bit since I got it, and I love using the pink bits on the apples of my cheeks with the gold as a slight contour. I then do a swish of all three and blend into my blush for a gorgeous shimmery party look! You can of course tone it down and just use a small amount - usually for daytime as the sun pigment can make you look a bit shimmery if you use too much.
Palette Blanc Terriblement | YSL Holiday | £39
So here it is, the piece de resistance of the collection - the palette with four black shades. Aesthetically, it looks just beautiful. I love how it totally personifies the tuxedo with the different tones of the black with the classic white, and how gorgeous it really is. The only problem for me is, essentially it is just four black shades. They do range from glitter to intense pigment to well, lighter black. As you can see in the swatches shown above, they are all quite similar. The two on the left hand side are much less glittery, whereas the two on the right are far glittery and therefore also seem a richer black to me. I was a bit baffled really as to why there needed to be four blacks in a palette, and personally I can't see a huuuge amount of difference between them. I turned and showed the swatches to Del and remarkably he was like 'yeah, they're four different shades of black'. So I can see the appeal but personally I could not justify £40 on four different black shades. If i had to choose i'd say the white and the very last black (bottom right) are the most gorgeous, with it being a bit akin to some of the glitterier NARS shades, but with much less fall out, but if i'm completely honest i'd have preferred some variants on greys and silvers so I can create a full tonal eye with one look, rather than just a black look. I do however like this palette and I will now use it as my go-to for a good black, but worth £40? I honestly don't think so. I'd much rather the highlight palette over this one!
Gloss 44
Gloss 45
Gloss 44
Gloss 45
Golden Gloss in 44 and 45 | YSL Holiday | £21
I love these glosses. They come in the iconic square YSL packaging which any seasoned makeup addict could tell you is YSL before you even showing them the lid detailing, and they're both beautiful. I'm not really a gloss girl (i know, i know it's all horribly ironic!) but these are the kind of glosses I prefer. I like either gloss with rich pigment so it replaces my lipstick, or gloss that just coats the lips and makes them sparkle. These are so sugary sweet looking I just want to slap them on and go party straight away! If I had to choose, I definitely prefer Gloss 45 to 44, as it's one of those types of sparkle where the different colours totally pop once applied to the skin. This really brings out the glitter and it is so pretty. One thing though is that I don't like how they're not named properly, I found it quite hard to get any information from the Internet about them and I just can't connect with numbers. Names are there to bring personification to a product to help you relate to the collection and believe in what it is telling you. I can't relate to numbers and that is just a tiny gripe that I personally wish they had named!
Overall if I had to choose I'd pick the Palette Blanc Terriblement because I think it's really unique and isn't like anything else in my makeup collection. I'd also definitely pick up the gloss in 45, because it's just so beautiful! When I put it on I was like, wow. It's thick but not sticky and remarkably soft for a gloss. I do like the whole vibe of this collection but some of it I personally could not justify due to just how much it costs!
YSL Holiday 2011 Collection is available now from department stores and some bigger Boots.
What do you think of this collection? Do you agree with me about the palette or do you love it? What do you think of the glosses? Let me know! Hope you liked my sparkly tinsel photos! Couldn't help myself..
