YSL Swarovski Couture Palettes

Go on, admit it.  If you like a bit of bling are you not just dying at the utter gorgeousness of these limited edition YSL Swarovski encrusted couture palettes right now?

I don't know what happened to my beauty radar but I knew nothing of these launching until I innocently logged onto Selfridges one morning at work and saw these beauties in the 'new in' section.  This is how all of my #feelingspendy episodes occur-they all start so innocently!

So here's the deal-these palettes have been created especially for Selfridges month long Beauty Project and are named after 5 iconic cities.  They're exclusive and limited edition and if you want one you pretty much need to act right now.  And shell out £69.50 each (the small print)

L-R 2 London, 3 Dubai and 4 New York

I bought three (I know I know) and I bought them blind without even researching swatches.  Pure impulse buying at its best.  The ones I liked the look of most happened to be named after my 3 favourite cities, London, Dubai and New York.

Matte lovers look away now because these palettes are shimmery which is what I love.  YSL shadows are buttery and pigmented and a dream to blend and I am more than happy with my purchases.  I am writing this up pre-swatchfest and I am not sure if I can actually bring myself to swatch them yet!

(I swatched them today-but they're heartbreakingly beautiful-all the swatches are 'dry' swatches but you can also use these with a wet brush)

No 2-London

The London palette is a mostly cool toned palette of taupe and bronze.  All of the palettes have the five colour format with a nod to the Mondrian pattern.  The bottom left and top right shades are exquisite.

Palette 2 London-swatches clockwise from top left corner with centre shade last

No 3 Dubai

The Dubai palette is much warmer tones with bronze, pink and gold.  It looks really summery and I can't wait to get a bit of a tan.  The top two shades are maybe a little warm for me but I love the bottom and middle shades.

Palette 3 Dubai-swatches clockwise from top left corner with centre shade last

No 4 New York

Palette 4 New York-swatches clockwise from top left corner with centre shade last

The New York palette is relatively similar to the London palette on first view and is again mainly cool toned.  This is the one I will reach for most often and I really love every shade.

No regrets at all on buying these, I can't wait to have a proper play with them.  We all need a luxe treat now and then right?

18/7/2014-A little update

Yesterday I was contacted by Sara from Color Me Loud who had been contacted by one of her readers to say that these palettes were exactly the same as the newly launched palettes (down to the same numbers) but with a hugely inflated price tag because of the Swarovski packaging.  They're 1.5x the normal price.

I think its prudent to note that on the Selfridges website these are marketed as limited edition, special edition palettes with city names-I bought Dubai, London and New York as they're my favourite cities and I thought they would be a lovely collectors piece.

I was disappointed when the palettes came and there was NO mention of the cities on either the outer packaging or the palette itself but at the time I didn't really question it.

Now it turns out that (taken from Sara's blog)

• Dubai is the same palette as #03 Afrique (reviewed here)
• Hong Kong is the same palette as #09 Love (swatched here, review coming up soon)
• New York is the same palette as #04 Saharienne (swatched here, review coming up soon)
• London is the same as #02 Fauves (reviewed here)
• There seems to be another palette which is missing at Selfridges website at the moment, it might be sold out. The name was Paris and it is the same one as #07 Parisienne (reviewed here)

I think both Sara and I feel disappointingly mislead by Selfridges that they have not stated on the website that these are in fact standard palettes but with Swarovski packaging.

A note on the packaging-this is a huge disappointment to me.  Having owned the palette for about a month it turns out the 'swarovski crystal' packaging is merely a sticker over the top of the palette which is actually peeling away at the corners.  For the £69 price tag this is not what I would expect from a brand like YSL