YSL Gloss Volupté 204 Corail Trapeze and 206 Fuchsia Oran

While I try to keep a balanced stash, the formula that dominates my lip wardrobe is YSL's revolutionary lacquer-stain hybrid, Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stains: I own six shades, one of which (1 Violet Edition) I'd repurchased after completely finishing, and test each new released colour, ever ready to acquire more.

So news of a new lip formula from YSL always gets my attention, thanks to their always on-point colour sensibility -- though admittedly much of it is spent in willing the pigment to come with with a 'Pur Couture' prefix and accompanying rose scent, rather than the dreaded 'Volupté' and mango combo.

....Yeah. Say hi to the Gloss Volupté, new to the core line, currently available in 23 shades at all YSL counters, otherwise known as some of the best damn glosses I've ever tried. With that unfortunate kicker: the extremely strong mango scent.

My shades are 204 Corail Trapeze (a soft coral peach) and 206 Fuchsia Oran (a gloriously bright neutral pink-red), both from the shimmer-free 'Pure' 200-subrange, and flattering to my vertical liplines while feeling comfortably cushiony and un-tacky on my lips, and being sufficiently actively moisturising (rather than just non-drying) to be worn without balm in the bitter depths of a Siberian winter. They also leave my lips feeling noticeably softer the day after.

Can you see the smooth balminess? The swatches may look a little streaky because the applicator is curved to fit around the lips, rather than the flat back of my hand, but I didn't go back to even up because I wanted to show how well pigmented both shades are and also how un-messy, with absolutely no too-slick liquifying and running down my hand. Fuchsia Oran also shows a bit of translucent stained-glass jelliness, while Corail Trapeze has a creamy liquid-balm finish.




While Corail Trapeze and Fuchsia Oran are both sufficiently pigmented to wear alone, the lip-hugging, stable (i.e. not prone to clumping, running or going patchy) formula means that these also layer excellently over every lipstick formula I own without disturbing the already-applied pigment beneath, and are translucent enough to evenly meld with while tinting the lipstick, without sitting on top like random oily goop. This isn't as mean a feat as it sounds -- a post is in the works on my surprisingly difficult quest for gloss topcoats that don't mess with lipsticks (er,  that's the working title...)

Wear-time for both my shades is good for glosses and on par with that I get from sheerer lipsticks -- they'll slowly and evenly fade over the course of much talking and sipping to balmy tints, and definitely require reapplication after eating. While absolutely unsticky, the Gloss Volupté do feel noticeably balmy/cushiony on the lips over hours, although much lighter than my beloved Chanel Extrait de Gloss formula.

Unfortunately for me, the lasting power of the mango scent is also impressive; I have a fairly acute sense of smell and can still detect it at least 2 hours after application, albeit faintly. And unlike the Rouge Volupté lipsticks, it's not deodorizable D: In an otherwise excellent formula, the scent's the only thing holding me back from acquiring all the other 'Pure' shades in the line, beginning with 209 Smoking (a fabulous layering black -- I've played with this in store and love its vampifying-but-not-muddying effect on all kinds of lip colours) and 207 Rouge Velours (a deeper pinked-red to Fuchsia Oran's vibrant reddened-pink, as shown on The Non-Blonde). Dear YSL, we can haz a rosy Rouge Pur Couture line of glosses?

Raeview has swatches of the full range, while The London Beauty Review features a shade from each of the four sub-ranges.