Balm for the Soul of a Tense Wizard? YSL Rouge Volupté Shine Lipstick in #17, Rose In Tension

Greetings from the vanguard of the wizard Khael’s latest crazy quest, fellow rogues!

As you may know, I was recently in travel mode, this time to the glorious deserts of Sharjah and Dubai. While there, I managed to amass quite the sack of loot, which I have displayed (not quite without shame) here! 😉 One of the items I acquired while on my desert adventure was inspired by yet another one of Khael the Wizard’s optimistically romantic misadventures. If you’ll recall, last time he led us to the glorious  UD Venom lipstick. This time, he came rushing up to us with a new quest…

Shaking the dust from his robes, he breathlessly described a ‘captive rose’ – a damsel in distress, he assumed – one who was ‘in tension’ – in chains, he extrapolated. In theory, this captive lady knew the location of a glorious magical artefact, and might be persuaded (if rescued) to disclose said location, and maybe bestow a chaste but grateful kiss upon the cheek of her rescuing wizard. He saw my expression, and hastened to assure me that that ‘they can’t all just be lipsticks!’. I privately suspected that if this captive rose existed, then she probably wasn’t the one with ‘tension’ issues, but the party reached a slightly eye-rolling consensus, and off we set into the glittering golden desert…

…several hot and dusty days later, we reached the semi forgotten catacomb (someone had to tell Khael about it, right?), and fought our way down to the bottom of it. We reached a large iron door, which Khael busted open in a single overexcited spell, rushing heroically inside to rescue…

Yep, another lipstick! This time the YSL Rouge Volupte Shine #17 in Rose in Tension. For Khael’s sake, most of us stifled the giggles.

 

We had to send Susie the Rockbard outside to compose herself, actually, she was laughing so hard. To Khael’s credit, his embarrassment shifted fairly quickly to curiosity, and he knelt down to examine the elaborate golden artefact. Although he might not have received his rescuer’s kiss, he did effectively shortcut straight to the actual loot. Every cloud has its silver lining, I suppose! 😉

This is the moment where we take time to appreciate the effort that has gone into YSL’s Rouge Volupté line (original, shine and sheer candy versions) packaging. It’s shiny, weighty, and has a lovely filigree logo band around the middle, with the colour of the lipstick underneath. If we’re nitpicking, there’s a little more flex in the filigree part than is necessary, but…yeah. Nipicking there a bit, sorry :-P. There’s a little part of me that finds the packaging ever so slightly tacky in pictures, but then when you hold it in your hand, the only thing you’re thinking about is ‘Ooh, SHINY’. It closes suitably smoothly and firmly, and the lipstick twist up mechanism is totally smooth and functional.

 

SHINY. (Khael is doing an arcana check – pipe optional, but he always seems to have one going).

 

Now onto the lipstick itself…

#17 Rose in Tension is a sheer, staining raspberry (deep reddish pink) that glides on very smoothly and can be built for really quite intense colour. The ‘Shine’ variation of these lipsticks doesn’t technically promises opaque colour, but this lipstick is actually quite pigmented. They also claim something like 8 hours of hydration, but like most similar claims on lipsticks this is absolute balderdash. Now, this isn’t to say that it doesn’t hydrate – it’s definitely not a drying lipstick, at all. It also has a rogueishly delicious mango scent, but no taste.

 

The sun came out – hooray for natural light photography! The bullet colour is quite true in this photo though, which I’m pleased about and made up for the overexposure.

 

Here’s how this lipstick’s colour, wear and hydration work for me:

1. Apply one layer – pigment is great, sheer stained glass effect is pretty, lips feel moisturised, etc 😀

2. Wait 1-2 hours: now the shine has gone, leaving a beautiful even stain, but I feel like I need a little more ‘juice’, so I apply another layer. The colour deepens (additive staining), stained glass effect is back, moisture yay!

3. Repeat step 2 until lipstick no longer desired.

4. Alternative to Step 3: forget to reapply lipstick after first couple of times, check lips ~12 hours later, be amazed that stain is still in effect! Seriously, the staining power of this lipstick is incredible, and you get a lasting stain from one layer. I’m not sure if this is true for all the colours in the line, but this one is a trooper!

 

Arm swatches! This is basically the colour of the stain, too (which I didn’t think to photograph, fail) 😛

 

So that’s basically how it works: hydrating for the relatively short wear time, leaves an incredible, even stain, lovely stained glass finish and beautiful raspberry colour. The colour of this one is really lovely, actually. To deviate from Khael’s story into real life for a second: I went in to get one of these lipsticks (I had a few ideas from blogs and my own snooping), and #17 wasn’t even one I’d registered as existing. I swatched it on my hand more out of curiosity than anything after seeing the colour on the tube, and immediately fell in love! It’s relatively deep on my skintone, so it has a ‘grown up’ feel to it, but it’s bright enough to keep a youthful, rogueish edge.

 

SHINY LIPS. 😀
My natural lips here are actually slightly pinker than normal, as I was swatching many things that day… you know the rogue’s keeping it real when you can see all the pores and pimples still in the picture 😛 As always, I believe that sheer lipsticks should be wearable without full makeup, as this one is!

 

The changing light in the picture above is courtesy of the same cloudy/sunny day, but the colour is true. When it’s cloudy, the lip colour looks a little darker – it really lights up when the light is bright, which you can also see in the arm swatch above. Even Khael had to admit that despite a dearth of rescuer’s reward kisses, the Rose in Tension really was something to behold.

All in all, I’m happy with this lipstick! I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking for long lasting, intense hydration (just go for a balm – this is definitely a lipstick/stain), but it’s comfortable to wear, stains beautifully, looks gorgeous in the tube and feels luxurious (which helps with the price). I should mention as usual that I don’t mind if lipsticks don’t have a long wear time, especially if they’re sheer, so if reapplication does bother you, this lipstick may annoy you a bit. Still, I tend to feel that since I have so many lipsticks anyway, reapplying a bit more often will just help me use one of the damn things up for once 😉

Khael might not have gotten quite what he was after, but the party declared the expedition a success anyway, as we carried out glittering golden treasure home. If you’re keen for more Rouge Volupté Shine action, and want to see some other colours, Divya recently posted and reviewed three other gorgeous shades here! I’m currently eyeballing another one, #3, the really quite intense, genuinely purple Violet Incognito – also, how perfect is that name for a rogue?

 

The practicalities: YSL Rouge Volupte Shine lipsticks cost NZ$ 56 / US$ 35 for 0.15 oz / 4.3 g, are permanent, and may be acquired from YSL makeup counters around the world, as well as from websites like www.yslbeautyus.com. I believe I got this one at the Dubai Mall Sephora!

Until next time, fellow adventurers, don’t forget to check for traps!

Syl

I am an adventuring rogue, not a mercenary for hire, and as such, all opinions expressed here are my own, based on a genuine fondness for/interest in this product. If you have any queries or suggestions, please do not hesitate to pin your parchment to the board (contact me) at thepaintedrogue [at] gmail [dot] com., or use the contact form provided! All images and text on this blog are the property of The Painted Rogue unless otherwise stated. If you nick off with any of it, be prepared to find a dagger in your back. Possibly with a legal troll attached to it. You don’t even want to *know* what he powders that wig with.