Yves Saint Laurent Couture Palette 5 Couleurs #01 Tuxedo, #02 Fauves, #03 Afrique, #04 Saharienne, #05 Surrealiste, #07 Parisienne, #09 Love, #10 Lumières Majorelle, Swatches & Review

Yves Saint Laurent recently released 11 new and permanent eye shadow palettes. Before those started appearing at the counters, I could lay my hands on the limited edition Summer Quint Blues Lumieres, which has the same design. Read the story of the inspiration behind the palette's design and see my blue coral FOTD here.

I have already ordered a few (!) of these from Feelunique when they were having a 20% promotion 10 days ago but I haven't received my parcel yet. It should be here very soon though, so do expect some reviews coming up. In the meanwhile I have seen them popping at random counters, and here is the display from Breuninger Stuttgart. They did have the display but not the products though, but these are now available online at various retailers. Some of the shades are harder to find though, such as #06 Ruve Gauche, #08 Avant-Garde and #11 Ballet Russe. Breuninger had only 8 of the shades as seen below, so I took swatches for these three. 

#01 Tuxedo is a classical cool/neutral smokey eye palette with grey and black. It also has two glitter shades to carry a day look into a night one. 

Impressions: A cool grey, a warmer taupe and black make a great everyday palette. These three shades have matte to satin finish and they are very pigmented. White glitter shade has a transparent base so it can be applied on top of the others. I thought black glitter shade was a little dry and I have to test it to make sure that this doesn't have fall outs. This is one of the palettes I ordered, so I will be reviewing it in detail soon.

#02 Fauves has one of the best textures in the range. All the shades are buttery with great color pay-off. It is a warm brown palette, which would look especially good with blue eyes as well as on those of you with warm complexions.

Impressions: The texture of Fauves is to die for, my only problem with this one was that the below two shades were too close to see a big difference, I suspect they might apply very similar on the lids. This palette is also one of those I decided to order, so I will review it in detail soon and report about how these two shades look on me. I like the balance and the color combination of this one. You can also see lovely swatches here at Jenny's blog.

#03 Afrique is a stunner! This is the one which I was eyeing since I have seen the promo pictures. Plummy dark shade and complimenting rose gold and coppers make my heart skip a beat. No need to say that this one is also on its way to me. I can't wait to try it out.

Impressions: The textures in this palette are mostly shimmery, darkest shade has less shimmer, copper and rose gold are almost metallic. The palest shade is not very opaque but since all the others have great color pay-off, I think they will all coordinate well. The color combination reminds me of Dior's summer palette in Sundeck, which had some mattes thrown in, so the difference in textures justify owning both I think.

#04 Saharienne is a cooler natural combination with a gorgeous taupe and two light shimmery shades. The pigmentation in this palette was good but not as smooth and buttery as some other palettes, so I am thorn between getting this one or not. In the end I might give up just because of the taupe shade (lower right).

Impressions: This would work good on cooler and lighter complexions since it has a soft color pay-off. It took me more swipes to get the color density in this one. Nevertheless it is a lovely palette. Check out the swatches at Jenny's blog too.

#05 Surrealist is a purple lover's dream. It has four different shades of purple and a pale pink to highlight. The texture is mostly satin to shimmery and some of the shades show some transparency.

Impressions: Despite all the expectations, this one is not love at the first sight for me. After playing with it at the counter, I can see myself not reaching for it very often. The reason is that to me it lacks variation by color as well as texture. The textures are all shimmery and colors are all pretty much purple with same undertones. I couldn't resist it though, just because it is purple.

#07 Parisienne, be still my beating heart. Although the palette is more shimmery than I would normally go for, I love the selection of shades, not being too pink nor too plummy, everything is balanced with a taupe. Only if that taupe would have a better color pay-off. 

Impressions: Just by looking at the color combination in the pan, I can sigh happily. After I play with those though, I am pondering a little how all the shimmery shades will look on the eyes. To find it out, I ordered that one too, so I will report about it soon.

#09 Love is, well, not love. I ordered that one before I swatched it and now I am afraid this is the ultimate palette for a rabbit costume at a Easter Party. Shimmery, yellows, pinks, even fuchsia. *shakes head* I will have to see about this one.

Impression: No comment yet. I doubt though many of us can pull off these shades. I unfortunately ordered that sight unseen so you will hear about how wearable these are on me, very soon.

#10 Lumières Majorelle is not for the shy. I appreciate it when high-end brands release some bold artsy shades like this one. It reminds me of YSL's Pure Chromatics release from last year's fall collection, Palette Arty, reviewed here.

Impressions: Two of the shades, the medium blue and deep blue has sparse glitters in them which looks like they are prone to fall out. The soft green is very beautiful both color and texture wise. A pop of acid green might also look interesting. 

This post has only my first impressions. I will be doing a detailed review of the palettes I ordered. Linda from Silverkis also has a swatch galore of these and do check out her blog too to get a better idea if you are ordering sight unseen.

Are you eyeing any of the new YSL Palettes or have already tried them? I would like to hear your thoughts.