ysl’s illicit nudes

YSL’s Illicit Nudes Collection debuts.

French fashion and beauty house YSL is reimagining the nude lipstick for a new generation of beauty enthusiast with a unique texture: a glowing matte effect. The Slim Glow Matte incorporates the very latest technology from the research and development centre outside of Paris where scientists are constantly working to find innovative colours, textures and shades that flatter all skin tones.

The formula for this new new product contains a star skincare ingredient: Mallow Flower extract harvested from the YSL Beauté Ourika Gardens located in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. This botanical nourishes and helps illuminate the lips.

It might seem like an oxymoron to call a lip colour glowing matte, but it illustrates how have technology has come in the last couple of years. Matte finish lipsticks can now be enriched with light reflecting micro fine pearls that creates a luminous effect. This is complemented with an ultra slim, square-cut bullet that gives you precision to push and accentuate lips’ curves. You’ll notice this version comes dressed in black and rose gold, with the iconic YSL Cassandre logo.

“There are a few things that make this collection of nudes different,” explains Tom Pecheaux, Creative Director of YSL Makeup. “Firstly, the technology. We have been able to create nudes with an undertone of colour, so that they are actually very colourful. Within the established colour families – red undertones, brown undertones and so on – we have found the perfect nude for every skin tone. Secondly, our textures give the lip colours an edge. These are nudes with an underlying glow, a radiance imparted by iridescent pearls in different tones, which further bring out your natural lip tone.”

He describes this lipstick as friendly. You can slide it straight from the tube for a powerful finish or dab it on if you’d like a little extra texture. You don’t need a brush or a pencil because the square shape of the bullet keeps the line in place: you don’t even need to blot it.

But how do you reinvent a concept that has been a staple for so long? “There is a nude for a woman in Senegal, and in Japan, and in Ireland, and in Sweden, and they’d all be different if you were to line up the makeup products. And therein lies the beauty of the nude, it’s about different parts of the world, different ethnicities, and embracing all the colours in between,” he continues. “So to create this in a collection you have to think of every woman, rather than specific girls. This is something you do anyway as a makeup artist, you’re creating with an open mind rather than thinking about what colour suits you personally. But above and beyond, it’s a wonderful time to be creating a nude collection based on all different kinds of skin tones just as the world is going through an important time of celebrating diversity. It’s fantastic.”

YSL The Slim Glowing Matte lip colour is available at yslbeauty.ca and sephora.ca