YSL Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre for Fall 2011

Imagine my excitement when I learned 13 new YSL Beauté Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre ($30) shades had finally arrived at Neiman Marcus! I got right in my car and drove over. I hadn't expected to purchase five of them, but I did. I even had a hard time narrowing my selections down to "only five."

Discreet meeting of gold reflects and color. A game of variations, a magic fusion. Purity of light and lightness of pigments. Lloyd Simmonds reinterprets the iconic gold of Yves Saint Laurent through a collection of lip colors subtly infused with yellow, white, and pink gold pearls. Variations on a theme for lips as sublime as the most beautiful jewelery.

To me, these are gems - lipsticks that live my life, sheer, beautiful shades that enliven my face and make me look "naturally good." I'll be headed back for more - either back-ups or shades I didn't purchase on my first round. They were all so tempting!

Here are my "first five" shades of Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre, shown left to right in my photo above.

#104, Brun Métallique
#105, Rose de Madère
#107, Rose Boréale
#112, Rouge de Venise
#113, Rose Parisien

These gleaming lipsticks are all gorgeous. I took swatch photos twice, hoping to get true colors without showing too much of the gorgeous shimmer cast by the sunshine. The photo immediately below is one I was able to snap without too much shine. I swatched in numeric order, with #104 at the top and #113 at the bottom in my photos. Every one of these shades looks exquisite on my lips.

Brun Métallique (#104), shown at the top of my arm, is one of two brown shades I considered. This one had more rose in it, so it lept onto my purchase list. Everyone at Neiman Marcus was busy, so I swatched and helped myself. Then I asked Kathy Shoreman to pull the five I had selected, reluctantly leaving behind seven of them. I hesitated over #101, Violet Singulier, the blue shown in the photo at the top of this feature. It would be fun to have it for its curiosity value.

Rose de Madère (#105), second down, is an extremely sheer rose that leans brown. Rose Boréale (#107) is actually peachy pink to my eye. It looks fairly neutral in the tube. If you look at my photo of the tubes above, it's the shade in the center - seemingly a nude peach. In indoor light, it appears to be a light rose with a hint of brown. Rouge de Venise (#112) appears to be red in the tube, but it's not. It's a beautiful bright rose on the lips. That's the nature of sheer lip colors. You get a gorgeous hint of color that looks extremely natural. Rose Parisien (#113), shown at the bottom of my arm, is the perfect Parisian rose. It's going to appeal to anyone who loves rose lip shades.

You can see all the shades in the tubes at Blondy Candy. The gorgeous Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre shades have arrived at Neiman Marcus. If they aren't already, they will be available at counters soon. They are available to see at YSL Beauté's Web site, but I couldn't figure out how you might purchase them there.

I'm sure I'll be buying more of these, so you'll see Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre here again. It's my kind of lipstick!

Update: I realized after I published this feature that I got carried away by color. Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre is lightweight on my lips and has the typical Rouge Pur light fragrance that doesn't bother me at all (and I normally dislike lipsticks with overt fragrance). I've been wearing Rouge Pur (in its various incarnations) for years. The case, elegant as always, draws attention from my friends. I'll follow up later. There will be a second feature.

Photo at top courtesy of YSL Beauté; other photos by Best Things in Beauty