Thursday 14 February 2013

YSL Y Facettes Palette Swatches and Review

From the YSL spring 2013 collection, I chose the Y Facettes Palette. It does not appear to be part of the spring collection in the US, but it is listed on FeelUnique and Selfridges as Pure Chromatics #14.

Inspired by natural gemstones, the palette features an alluring mix of airy shimmery tones in pale emerald, candy pink, taupe and silvery blue that are perfect for this season. I've often been tempted by the Pure Chromatics line and finally decided to take the plunge with Y Facettes.

Like YSL's other Pure Chromatics 4 Ombres à Paupières, this comes with a dual-ended sponge applicator for dry application (pearl finish), and a dual-ended flexible rubber applicator for a wet application that produces a richer, more lustrous finish.

For such a luxe brand, it's surprising that the shelf-life stated on the box is a paltry six months. Unless you use this daily, it's doubtful that it can be finished within that time.

These swatches were done using the rubber applicator with a bit of water. This seems to transform the texture into a more creamy texture akin to L'Oreal Color Infallibles. They are not completely budgeproof though. When I ran my finger over the swatches after 15 minutes, some of the tiny shimmer particles smeared to the side but the swatch stayed mostly intact.


For this look, I applied the shades with the sponge applicator. It had no problem picking up the shadows dry, although it did require a bit of layering. Using Too Faced Shadow Insurance as the base, I applied the green shade from the upper lashline to the crease and the outer corner of the lower lashline, the blue in the outer "V", the pink over the browbone area and the taupe along the lower lashline.

The shadows lasted well through 12 hours of wear, with just a tiny bit of creasing at the inner corners and no shimmery fallout. I like the airy green shade the best, as it plays well against my skintone without looking too loud. The taupe shade is too subtle and pretty much disappears on my skin while the pink shade has a lovely subtle rose shimmer. The Pure Chromatics palettes retail for US$55 in the US, £39 in the UK and S$88 in Singapore. Do also check out MakeupStash's review of the gorgeous Arctic Night quad from the Holiday 2012 collection.

Other products used for this look: Coffret D'Or Silky Fit Liquid Foundation OC-B, Paul & Joe Highlighting Powder 002 and Cheek Color 08 Candy, Rimmel ScandalEyes Show Off Mascara, Canmake Lower Lash Mascara, Chantecaille Brilliant Gloss in Glamour, K-Palette Lasting 2Way Eyebrow and Catrice Kohl Kajal C01 Ultra Black. Rimmel ScandalEyes Showoff is the worst mascara I've tried in a long time. It is almost bone dry and the applicator is lousy for coating the lashes evenly, and pokes the skin with its spiky bristles. The Canmake Lower Lash Mascara is much better, with a slicker consistency and gives much needed length and volume to my sparse lower lashes.

List of ingredients.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you going to follow the expiration date guideline? That seems really weird. I haven't looked at the ingredients listing, but I'm sure they would put a lot of preservatives in it. Maybe they think it's because people will be using it wet which would support more bacterial growth.

Haru said...

Nope, there's no way that I'll be able to finish this quad within six months. I do like it very much and will use it frequently, just not daily. I think it should be able to last beyond six months but this is the first YSL quad that I own, so I'll just have to see how it goes.

Kas said...

I.WANT.THIS. it's so so pretty! I haven't had the chance to check it out in person yet - must go soon! :D