YSL Glossy Stain in No. 19: Beige Aquarelle

A gloss and a stain and long wearing? YSL makes a lot of striking claims with the release of its new Rouge Pur Couture Vernis A Levres Glossy Stains, and certainly has the beauty community buzzing! I took a good look at the shades, and most I find to be fairly dark, with the exception of 2.  Being a nude lip fanatic, I choose number 19, Beige Aquarelle.  Beige Aquarelle is a very pale pink, but with a neutral undertone.  This makes it very wearable for most complexions.


On application, the first coat feels very watery on the lips and so the color deposit with this initial coat is not even.  Within a few seconds, the coat sets slightly and thickens as well as becomes slightly tacky.  Once this occurs, I apply a second coat and achieve a nice even color distribution to my lips.  There is settling of the color into the lines of my lips. This layer also sets and thickens.  The finish is indeed very glossy!  


Now, from what I have read online and seen first hand, the lasting power of the dark shades (which are most of the shades) is really amazing! The YSL counter girls had some of the dark plummy shades on their lips and after 6 hours of wear had very glossy and richly colored lips! It was truly unbelievable! It looked as if it was a freshly applied coat of lipstick and gloss on top! I don't think the light shades fair as well, at least in my experience.  This is however, what I would expect from a light shade.  When I wore this, I found the pigment disappeared after 2-3 hours, but I could feel the gloss on my lips for much longer than that.  The tacky feeling definitely remained on my lips for several hours, even once the pigment was gone.  

Overall, I think if you want the most mileage out of this product I would select one of the darker shades.  I don't think the lighter shades deliver in terms of lasting color, but this is on par with what I would expect from a nude shade.  They definitely feel watery on initial application and then tacky throughout wear, so if stickiness bothers you in a gloss then I'm not sure you will like these.  On the other hand I think the stickiness is what keeps them lasting so long! I would also recommend trying these out in store if possible, since I found that several of the shades darkened considerably on my lips once applied. The YSL Glossy Stains are available now at counters, and Sephora.  Several of the shades were initially listed as Sephora exclusives, Beige Aquarelle being one of them, but I purchased this from the YSL counter at Bloomingdale's.  They retail for $32.00.