YSL (also known as Yves Saint Laurent) is famously known as a French luxury fashion house that not only have created some beautiful outfits that grace the biggest runways of the world, but stunning handbags that are edgy yet elegant. One of my favourite bags is their Cassandra line, which I don’t currently own but is on my wish list for far into the future once I’ve hit a few career / finance related goals.
The Couture Clutch eyeshadow palette line is inspired from this bag line which makes for some really beautiful luxe palettes. The palettes can come in 10 shades or 4 shades, recently YSL launched four new palettes in the 4 shade range and I decided when Sephora had their now almost monthly 20% off sale, to pick up the Over Brun shade. The YSL Couture Clutch Quad Eyeshadow Palettes are available from Sephora Australia, David Jones or Adore Beauty for $117AUD to $124AUD, or Sephora USA, Bergdorf Goodman or Nordstrom for $68USD
Packaging
I just had to put aside a section just to focus on the packaging because it is divine. As mentioned the Couture Clutch range is inspired by the stunning bags from YSL, most likely the Cassandra line which is such a beautiful unique take I haven’t seen other brands attempt (can you imagine a Chanel quilted palette??). The palette feels soft and plush to the touch and looks stunning, however be warned. If you are someone who is rough with their makeup and is constantly throwing them into makeup bags then you may want to reconsider this palette as you will likely scratch up the external soft leather.
Also thumbs up for the light embossing on each of the shadows, it rubs off pretty much after the first few applications but it’s a beautiful touch and just makes it that little bit more special. It’s a beautiful addition to my makeup collection 🙂
Application & Wear
The first words that come to mind is “buttery”, the consistency of these shadows are so soft and apply like butter to the eyelids. Now that sounds great and all, but I’m also pretty sure the concept of soft buttery eyeshadows will only appeal to certain makeup lovers. It means that you can build your look to be intense and smooth, but it also means you need to work with a delicate hand because if you go in with a heavy hand and a rough brush, you will likely pick up way too much product which ultimately just wastes the eyeshadow. And given the price point I can only assume that you’d want this palette to last as long as possible.
Thanks to it’s smooth consistency it felt luxurious to use, like I didn’t need to work as hard to achieve the level of pigmentation I wanted. It was softer than my Natasha Denona eyeshadows, but it kinda felt similar in the sense that it just made application easy and quick.
In terms of wear, I always use an eyeshadow base so I find most eyeshadows last all day long and this was no exception. I can’t speak for how it would last without a base, but I can only recommend people use one (if you don’t have a dedicated base I find concealer works great too). I love that due to the colour range in this palette it worked wonderfully for during the day, and was able to take me into the evening easily too. That’s the thing I love about most of these luxury quads, due to the limited colours it makes pulling together a look really easy because you only have one colour for each “part” of your eye, as opposed to huge palettes that leave me spoilt for choice.
Overall
I want to not love this palette because the price point is just a little bit insane, I mean for $124AUD I could buy a lot of good quality makeup. And maybe I’m just bought into the whole luxury brand appeal, but I really love the quality of this palette and can unfortunately see myself hitting pan on this pretty fast as well. So in terms of value for money? Absolutely not! But if you are a fan of luxury makeup and enjoy the experience, then out of all the luxury eyeshadow quads out there I would happily recommend YSL over the likes of say Chanel.
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