Unless you have been chillaxing under a rock, color correction seems to be all the rage with the beauty world nowadays, and while it’s nothing new, new products are always a treat to play with.
You know what’s awesome? When you get an email from Influenster saying that you made it into a Touche Eclat Neutralizer VoxBox for YSL. Yup! You know what’s not so awesome? When that box arrives and its contents are gone. Not just gone. Stolen. Someone between Influenster and my doorstep saw the blazing YSL logo and decided to help themselves to the contents of the box.
I feel really kind of “#firstworldproblems” for saying that when I opened the box to find it all but empty (except the torn information card), I was really sad and a little angry. I know it’s just makeup and that it was sent to me for free for reviewing purposes but dang… I sincerely hope that whoever ripped open the box to grab the corrector(s) needed them. Or at least, gave them to someone in their life to brighten their day.
On one side, I realize that several of the Influenster VoxBoxes are branded to high heaven, especially if they’re specific brand products, and that in doing so they have a “OH LOOK AT ME I HAVE “X” PRODUCT INSIDE FROM “X” COMPANY!” A brand like YSL is not cheap and many of their products are on the mid-to-upper price range in Sephora. Having the name plastered all over the box, especially as boldly as it is, is just asking for some curious person to come along and be like… “hmm, I wonder what’s inside the box.” Unfortunately, people at times, can be opportunistic and I shouldn’t be complaining about not getting my free product… but still. It’s the principle of the thing.
I emailed Influenster as soon as I received the box and heard nothing for weeks. I figured they weren’t going to be able to do anything for me. They only get a limited number of the product to send out to reviewers and so I was outta luck. I ended up following up with the email and actually got a response, finally, but it was what I expected.
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I still wanted to take part in the VoxBox since I wanted to try the product out still so I did the only thing I knew how.
I ventured out into the wilderness that is one of my local malls, walked into Sephora, and purchased the Bisque neutralizer at a whopping $38 dollars. (I also forgot to take fancy pictures of the pen and packaging before I opened it… sorry.)
Before I ramble on I wanted to mention that the YSL Neutralizers come in three different shades to cover 3 different problem areas:
- Bisque: A peachy-pink color to correct dark circles, dark spots, and is intended to illuminate.
- Green: Corrects blemishes and conceals redness for an even skin tone.
- Violet: Corrects yellow, dull skin for a healthy-looking glow.
It was a tie for me between the bisque color and the green color, but in the end, the bisque won out!
Thoughts:
- It’s pricey. 38 Robert Dinero’s for 0.08oz of the product. I mean if it works and is amazing then I guess that’s alright, but mostly you’re paying for the brand name.
- The packaging is very flashy and pretty, but it collects fingerprints like nobody’s beeswax. Alas, that’s pretty typical of any metallic, reflective packaging. C’est la vie.
- The “click to dispense” product is handy, but if you are click-happy you will dispense way too much product, and you will have no way to put it back or save it. It happened the first time I tried to get the product to come out. Whoops.
- The Bisque is super bisque-y and pigmented. (*More on this in a second)
About the Bisque ‘bisqueness’… it is super pigmented and is a pink toned peachy color meant to correct the dark under eye circles that lean towards the dark purple side of things. Now, that is all well and good, but for me it is super dark for my pale skin. I end up putting on way more concealer to re-adjust the neutralizer to make it match the rest of my foundation and face. You will also want to set this (with the concealer/foundation) with powder pretty fast as it does tend to crease.
If you are darker than me (which isn’t that hard to do), I think this may be a good product for you but if you are fair skinned (Like Mac NC/NW 10-15, KVD Light 42-44, etc) you will probably run into the same problem I have.
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It wears fairly well as long as you make sure to set it. It blends out really well and you only have to use a little bit of it to cover the dark areas that you need. I like to blend it out first with my finger and then with my spounge blender (either the real techniques one or the original beauty blender).
I did notice that if I didn’t prime my face, it tends to slip and slide around a wee bit especially if I was wearing it for longer than a few hours.
All in all, I wish that I would have just taken the fact that my VoxBox’s contents were stolen and shouldn’t have purchased it, especially for the price. Color correcting isn’t a new thing and I’ve been using my awesome Graftobian Glamour HD Correcter 5-pan palette (plus it’s less expensive at $28).
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Here are a few looks that I used the YSL neutralizer, hope you like them:
At the end of the day, this YSL neutralizer didn’t reallly work the best for me, but that’s just me. I know a lot of other people who really like the YSL neutralizers and their other illuminator “clicky-pen” products and that is perfectly fine. If you are thinking about trying them out, I suggest (as with anything makeup related) go to your local makeup store that carries the YSL neutralizers and swatch them for yourself or ask if you can get a sample.
((And, I did actually film a “demo” video / review talking about it but having zero energy as I am writing this review, it will be uploaded later. ))
Disclaimer: I was supposed to recieve this product for evaluating purposes via Influenster, but since it didn’t arrive, I DID purchase this item myself. All opinions are completely and utterly my own. If you would like to sign up for the Influenster program, CLICK HERE!
