The Emperor's New Eyeshadows

I think I'm on record as being a lover of smoky eyes? That and red lips. But mostly, the smoky eye thing. I would say that at least four out of seven days I can be found wearing a combination of greys or blacks on my eyes. I swear by my Blackground Paint Pot, I love my  black  greasepaint sticks, I love my grey shadows, I can't get enough of my Guerlain Kohl. I just dig the black. I think it's the rock chick in me really, I've always been a rock lover and although I'd say I was conventional in most things these days I think my nose stud and love of black make up remain as little acts of rebellion. I know I'm definitely the only Mum in the playground at 9.00am rocking the full on black eye make up look... I'm not sure that's a good thing! Anyway! When I learned that YSL were releasing a palette full of blacks... well I had to take a look. Then when I looked, well I had to have it but not without a great deal of thought I can assure you.

The Noir Terriblement palette. Four shades of black, one shimmery white, housed in a the usual beautiful gold YSL compact but this time finished off with a black pleated satin band embossed with the YSL logo, which you can wear around your wrist. I've not tried that yet, but it might go with my Christmas party outfit quite well. Only because the logo is subtle though!

So anyway, I deliberated long and hard about this palette, I've been mulling it over since I first heard about it and then once it was released I went to swatch it in town and then thought for a few more days before buying...did I really need four black eyeshadows? (no), did I really want four black eyeshadows? (well that was the tricky bit). I wanted to know if they were different enough for a black connoisseur or if they were identical, I also wanted to know about the finishes on them. After a swatching session my only remaining question was could I justify the price (£39). Eventually I decided that given my love of smoky eyes, my passion for black, then it was probably a more justifiable purchase than many other things I do buy and that was that. Now I'm well aware that to some, maybe even many, you will think I must be on drugs. All I can say is that I love it, am delighted with my purchase and I find each black to be quite different, although it is subtle!

So here we go with the swatches, this is the bit where you start thinking I've really lost the plot I'm sure ;)

 Please forgive the orange swatch of foundation in the middle of my hand....oops!  Okay, so what we have is top left, a grey/black. Top Right, a darkest purple/black with shimmer. Bottom Right is a sort of brown/black. Bottom Left is a shimmery black and the middle is a silver/white. Oh just looking at the swatches fills me with a kind of joy parallel to the joy a good cake brings me. Clearly I need help ;)

Oh and here's a subtle look I did a few days ago with plenty of the white to tone it down, so by my reckoning, that makes it perfectly suitable for day wear. Since I have no social life, it HAS to work for day wear! It's a horrible photo I'm afraid, I've had to crop the worst of my hair out. God knows what I was thinking that day!

So what do you think? Am I mad? Could you go for a palette consisting mainly of four blacks? I LOVE it and I'd even go so far as to say it's possibly my favourite thing I've bought all year.

I also bought a Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre lipstick at the same time which I'll blog about separately. Swoon!

Pin It