YSL Rouge pur Couture Glossy Stain... The Holy Grail

St Valentines Day... Tuesday the 14th of February... also known as the day you need to swiftly saunter down to your local YSL counter and casually buy ALL of the Glossy Stains they have in stock. Or perhaps if you, like me, don't possess the virtue of patience then you could always hot foot it to Selfridges whereby Glossy Stains remain exclusive until they are released to the masses on Valentines Day...

 #12 - Coral Fauve

Described by YSL as a "true revelation of the decade" (I love it and everything but, reeeally?) Rouge pur Couture Glossy Stain boasts a winning formula which encompasses both long lasting stain colour and a wet look finish - a match not usually made in heaven. Traditionally long lasting colour and gloss have had a pretty tempestuous relationship, and you either had one or the other, not anymore! According to the creators, Glossy Stains have harnessed "pure water soluble pigments to be fused in a transparent texture to provide non sticky, long lasting and high shine gloss". 

 Above: One coat     Below: Two coats

 Technical jargon doesn't really do it for me, for example nothing winds me up more than a product which claims to "work with your skins natural PH levels to provide the perfect colour for your skin tone" Errr... Ok... But the proof is always in the pudding when it comes to cosmetics and reading the claims on the packet another ten times after a dispointing new mascara application isn't going to make your lashes appear 100% longer in one brush stroke as you were promised. If it works, it works, and these Glossy Stains really do work. They're nicely pigmented, the product is easily layered meaning you can choose the intensity of colour, the fading is even and doesn't require panicked checks in the mirror every ten minutes because it manages not to migrate north, west, east and south to the surrounding areas of your upper lip, cheeks and chin. I basically want one for every day of the week... a Glossy Stain for every whimsical mood, what a world that would be.

 In hindsight if I were to leave you with one word of warning it would be to choose your shade wisely, I would recommend buying in store as I got mine online as a result of seeing the colour on another blog and deciding what was a pale coraly-orange on this particular lady would be perfect for what I was after... it actually turned out to be a deep pink and almost red when worn on me. Even the lady on the counter remarked that the colour looked very red indeed whilst I was perusing the shade range in person at my local Selfridges and went on to ask if it was actually number 12 I had purchased and that I wasn't confusing the colours...I wasn't but anyway to conclude, these are the my new make up love... so go and buy one, or at least go and buy me another one.

Oh, and at £22.50 a pop they are rather expensive...

Secret Camouflage

 I took the plunge today and finally bought the Secret Camouflage from Laura Mercier! Secret Camouflage is one of LM's cult products, up there with her primers and Lip Glaces and after countless recommendations from Lisa Eldridge coupled with mounting nominations and wins in various beauty awards, it was the least I could do but to trot to Harvey Nichols and buy some for myself.

 The concealer itself is extremely pigmented and only the tiniest amount of product is needed to conceal blemishes. My first impression was that the consistency was extremely hard to the touch and a little difficult to work with but all it needs is a bit of warming up with your fingers before application. I wasn't sure in the beginning if the hard texture was for me, but in hindsight my usual complaint with concealers is the product has too much slip and blends away to nothing leaving you and your (usually huge) spot right back where you started. So it really is the perfect concealer for, well, concealing! It is not however, suitable for using to fool people into believing you had your 8 hours sleep the night before. For that you will still need to rely on your Touche Eclat,or perhaps just go to bed earlier.

 The idea behind finding the perfect colour match for yourself is that you choose the compact of which the left hand side strip of colour closest matches your skin tone, and in theory the warmer toned product on the right can be used to custom blend your own perfect concealer depending on which area of skin needs concealing and more importantly which time of year you will be concealing it. This is hugely beneficial for me, as products seem to last me a lifetime meaning my concealer or foundation sometimes just isn't the right colour as I purchased in August and by the time November rolls around I'm manically smearing NC30 over my blemishes when really I could be doing with an NC20... 

 Secret Camouflage costs £26 and I got mine from my local Harvey Nichols. From my research I can't find Laura Mercier's UK website which strikes me as odd but nevertheless LM products can be purchased from SpaceNK, Selfridges online etc etc so if you don't have a luxury department store near you then purchasing online is another option... The SA matched me up as an SC-2 which I'm pretty happy with on my NC20 skin tone, but saying that I don't think I would have been able to determine the difference between the shade swatches provided on the SpaceNK/LM USA website. If you did want to buy this and lived out in the sticks then definitely have a look at KarlaSugars, reliable as ever, swatches before you buy!

MAC MSF - Soft and Gentle

I can't even begin to imagine how many Mineralise Skin Finishes MAC must sell worldwide on a daily basis, Google couldn't help me on this one either, so I'm going to take a very analytical and complicated guess and say a lot.


 After Soft and Gentle constantly being out of stock,  I went ahead and purchased its (inferior) sibling; the Iridescent powder in 'Belighftul' hoping it would fill the champagne highlight shaped hole in my life. Unfortunately I was to be disappointed with the noticeable chunks of glitter and its slight pink sheen, but alas, in a stroke of luck a friend who after having fallen in love with my Belighftul but had not been able to buy due to stock issues also, ended up purchasing Soft and Gentle as a replacement... A few unsatisfied weeks passed until we did the inevitable swap and we both lived happily highlighted ever after. 


 Well, this was until until Mahiki and its Zombies claimed that and the majority of my make up bag during my 21st celebrations back in August... but that's a whole different story and it was only up until a few weeks ago that myself and MSF Soft and Gentle were reunited at House of Fraser in Manchester.

 Soft and Gentle is described on the MAC website as a "gilded, peach bronze" which I'd say fits the bill pretty well. You get a huge 10g of product for your £20.50 which does seem quite steep, but it really will last you what feels like a lifetime. Only the tiniest sweep of product is needed to give cheekbones and brow bones a natural glow thats suitable for daytime and also looks incredible with flash photography. I would personally say Soft and Gentle is almost a powder version of Benefits cult classic Moon Beam.

 For comparisons sake I have swatched S&G next to Benefits High Beam in the top picture to get a real idea of the contrast against a highlighter intended for a cooler skin tone, as you can see in artificial lighting S&G shows up as a much warmer, golden highlight compared to the bottom picture which has been taken in natural lighting whereby the warmer tones aren't so visible. In my eyes this is the perfect highlighter and until the day its challenged then I'm pretty sure its my HG.


 In the unlikely event that this runs out before I inevitably lose it on my "travels" then I would 1000% repurchase and would highly recommend it to anyone who doesnt have the complexion of a Cullen... in which case, Lightscapade is the one for you. (Currently selling for outrageous prices on evilbay).