Good morning and Happy Easter everyone!! I hope you all are home and relaxing today 
I woke up to the best surprize ever – somehow the Easter Bunny was here and hid chocolate eggs all over the house! He’s awfully sneaky, he is (and also super-cute!! 
). Getting chocolate first thing in the AM makes this here gal pretty darn happy!
Unfortunately, for the next couple weeks, the Best Bang for Your Buck posts will be on hiatus (returning mid-April), but not to worry – this week I’ve brought you something that should make up for it: a YSL Glossy Stain in #7 Corail Aquatique!! I have been drooling over these babies for weeks now, and was fully prepared to order one sight-unseen from Sephora online, but then we had the good fortune to get Yves Saint Laurent at our local Sephora earlier than planned (how many times have I mentioned this BTW? Can you tell I’m stoked?)! So of course, my first order of business was snagging one of these babies for myself. Due to perfect timing, there was the 15% off for VIB’s this past week, so it was a perfect opportunity to save a bit off the kinda-high $34CAD price tag as well. The only problem was that because YSL landed unexpectedly, there are no testers yet of any products – so I still had to go by swatches I saw online to determine which shade I wanted and would suit me.
After getting reprimanded for opening one of the boxes to look at the shade in the tube (which is ridiculous, especially considering there were no testers, but moving on…), I had to make the call with relatively little to go on, so I chose #7 Corail Aquatique because it seemed like a no-fail shade – a soft peachy coral.
The stain comes in a short, plastic but sturdy black square tube with the signature gold cap YSL favors. You can see the shade of the gloss in a little strip on the side, though it’s not entirely accurate once applied (mine looks more rosy than coral). The doe-foot applicator is slanted which makes application easier. The stain has the same floral scent as many other YSL products; I’m normally not into this (except for the yummy smell of MAC lippies), but it’s not overwhelming and dissipates on the lips very quickly.
When I initially put this on, I was disappointed at how underwhelming it was – it almost looked like I had just put a lip balm on, just my lips with a touch of shine. However, within 30 seconds, it started to ‘develop’ and turned into this glorious juicy, shiny, subtle coral shade and it’s PERFECT! Exactly what I was hoping it to be. The technology of the gloss is really neat.
The gloss stain (it is NOTHING like any other stain I’ve come across!) feels tacky on the lips at first, but over the span of a few minutes it settles and it’s not problematic or uncomfortable at all (unless you’re really particular about how things feel on the lips). It wore well – if I didn’t drink or eat anything, I’m confident it would have lasted for several hours, but as it were we went to get lunch about two hours after I had applied it, and while the color remained, the glossiness dulled down a fair bit.
Overall, I’m totally loving this product and can understand why many other people have picked up more than one, despite the fairly high cost. They’re totally wearable, with a hint of shine and great colors, and with the promise of lasting wear time, make a great case to own one in every shade – you won’t need anything else!
Before I go, I’m curious – have you picked up a Glossy Stain yet? If not, do you intend to indulge yourself?
#1 by judit1661 on April 6, 2012 - 11:43 pm
If you go to raeviewer’s blog she has beautiful swatches of almost all the shades. She also has a you tube channel, but the blog has all the pics. Best pics I’ve seen of this. Thanks for sharing, this is on my ‘ someday’ list. Like someday when I get a job! XoXo — Judi
#2 by Latoya on April 14, 2012 - 8:54 pm
Good call, Judi – that’s actually where I got most of my info from too, was Raeviewer’s blog – she had such comprehensive swatches that I felt if I HAD to buy sight unseen, I could do so with fairly good confidence from her photos. The only concern was the difference in skintone.
I hope you do get one (or more) of these one day Judi – they’re lovely!!
#3 by Amy on April 7, 2012 - 6:04 pm
Pretty! I’m so curious about these…I tend to hate gloss products, but I may have to make an exception for one of these! The coral is gorgeous on you
#4 by Latoya on April 14, 2012 - 8:55 pm
Aw, thank you so much!!! I think you might like these Amy – they’re not so shiny but give the lips a great, moist look. There are so many pretty colors!!