YSL Beauté Touche Brilliance in Pink Topaz

Inspired by the revolutionary click-pen concept of Touche Éclat, Touche Brilliance ($30) wraps the lips in a sheer wash of color and iridescent shine. YSL's Bright Pearl Complex, composed of light-reflecting mother of pearl, creates a mirror-like shine that gives lips a full look. The precision pen places color just where you want it for a flawlessly even application every time you use it.

A very nice friend gave me one of the colors, #12, Pink Topaz. Each Touch Brilliance has a tube color that approximates - only approximates - the shade of the gloss. Don't select colors by the color of the tube! I don't think that #12 is one of the new spring colors (based on my perusal of YSL's online site), but this color is perfect for me. She has coloring very similar to mine, and when a famous actress admired her lip color, she decided I "needed" Pink Topaz. I agree!

Touche Brilliance lends sheer and shiny color to my lips, and it seems to seal in any lip color I apply under it. I can live, talk, and breathe, and it stays put for a very satisfactory length of time. It looks very natural. It does have a fruity fragrance/flavor, which I could do without, but it's not unpleasant.

Here's a swatch photo of Pink Topaz, taken under less than ideal conditions: indoors, without flash, and without much light because of rain and clouds. Even so, you can see how beautifully shiny it is, with enough pigment to offer a pretty plum-rose tint to my lips. I'm smitten. Wasn't this a nice gift?

YSL Beauté currently show 10 shades of Touch Brilliance available. You can find it at their Web site and YSL counters at department stores. Sephora doesn't appear to offer it.

Photo courtesy of YSL Beauté