YSL Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stain in 16 Pourpre Preview

Seems like I've been eating my words quite a bit lately. When YSL came out with their Glossy Stains nearly two years ago now, I wrote them off as totally gimmicky. How can a lip product be a gloss and a stain while being effective as both? It seemed like an oxymoron. But I found myself at Sephora a couple weeks ago looking at the YSL section and decided to give these Glossy Stains a good swatching session. And I now put my tail between my legs and admit that these execute exactly as marketed. I was tempted to grab several of these upon swatching because YSL released these in some seriously gorgeous shades, but as they're quite pricey, I decided to get one first to see if I loved them enough to merit buying more. So I snatched up the one that caught my eye the most: 16 Pourpre Preview. The Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stains are packaged in rectangular black tubes (with a clear panel in the centre to show the shade inside) and gold caps embossed with the YSL logo. They have a light grape-like scent, but no discernible taste as it dries down. Each Glossy Stain comes with a pointed sponge-tip applicator, contains 6 ml of product, and retails for $38.
16 Pourpre Preview
16 Pourpre Preview

16 Pourpre Preview is a vibrant fuchsia-purple with a glossy cream finish. This is a permanent shade. The texture is lightweight and gel-like, and it goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It is more purple than YSL 19 Fuchsia in Rage Rouge Volupté Shine, brighter and more fuchsia than MAC Up the Amp, lighter and more purple than MAC Zen Rose Sheen Supreme Lipstick, darker and more purple than MAC Love Forever! Pro Longwear Lipcreme and Shiseido RS 320 Fuchsia Perfect Rouge, and more purple than Urban Decay Anarchy.

We all know I'm a sucker for purple lip products, but this one manages to be incredibly unique even in my personal stash. MAC's Up the Amp continues to be one of my favourite purple lip shades because it manages to be firmly in the purple camp rather than pink, and this is a more — for lack of a better term — amped up version of that. Even though it has fuchsia in it, it still manages to be a purple lip colour. What sets this particular shade apart, of course, is the finish. It really is both a gloss and a stain. Like, it goes on fully glossy, but good god, does it wear like a champ. (Fair warning: If you swatch this on your hand, it will stay on until the next day. Even after using multiple make-up removers and washing your hands a million times.) It stays glossy for nearly eight hours which is already a huge feat for any gloss, but after the glossiness fades, it leaves a seriously vibrant stain that wears over 12 hours. And even after that, there are remnants of that stain that you need a really damn good cleansing oil to remove. The best part is that they aren't drying at all. I think a huge drawback to lip stains in general is that they're ridiculously drying. These don't technically hydrate, but they don't feel uncomfortable or drying at all during the entire duration of wear. If you're someone who often finds that lip colours don't stay on your lips or hates re-applying lip products, the YSL Glossy Stains are a truly exceptional option, high price tag be damned. And if you're just a sucker for purples like I am (coincidentally, this shade is the Pantone Colour of the Year, too), 16 Pourpre Preview is perfection.