Review: Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stain #5 Rouge Vintage

My taste over the last few weeks has certainly passed over into the luxurious. I suppose that's what happens when you work 10 hour days and then come home where graduate school work is lurking. When I get off work at upwards of 7pm, I want some pampering. This would explain my little visit to Neiman Marcus yesterday evening (post pending) and my recent purchase of a rather ridiculously priced lip stain.

I'm a huge fan of lip stains. I think I finally mastered the application and find them useful tools to have in one's makeup arsenal. While my lip stain collection ranges across multiple price ranges, this is most likely the most expensive: The Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stain, which has a name long enough to rival the high price tag of $32 is a new glossy stain that recently launched. There are shimmer colors and cream/gel finishes and I opted for the latter as glittery lips during the work day isn't always the best look.

The color I chose, Rouge Vintage $5 is a fairly neutral rosy pink. I believe this would suit most skin tones and it's definitely office appropriate.

The texture of this is really interesting. It's nothing like your standard Benetint: it's not watery but the the color is translucent unlike long wear liquid lipsticks. It retains a glossy finish on the lips which does make it a little sticky but not anything like a MAC lipglass. This dried my lips out a bit but most products do. My biggest qualm is it has no longevity. When I went out to dinner with family, this left a ring around my lips and the color had worn off in the center and the color comes off on my coffee mug which makes reapplication a must.

I swatched it next to another lip product (Revlon Colorstay Liquid Lipstick in Premium Pink) so you could see the texture compared to another long wear product. The YSL is on the right. I thought the colors were similar but really couldn't see much similarity after swatching other than the fact they are both pink.

So while I definitely think it is an innovative product, I fail to see the "stain" properties of this. To me, it's more of a glossy liquid lipstick, which is nice as it's more long-wearing than your standard gloss, but wouldn't rival many stains that are currently on the market. I would try to test it out before purchasing only because the price is a bit ridiculous but most companies in the US have generous return policies. Honestly, I don't love it and while the weighty packaging certainly suggests luxury, it isn't always enough for me.

Have you tried this product out? Leave your thoughts below!