YSL Couture Blush in Rouge Saint Germain Review and Swatches

This is the prettiest blush I had seen in a long time and I wanted it to be my blush for this season. I picked up the shade Rouge Saint Germain, as the red tones were perfect for the fall and holiday season. It has gorgeous packaging and I love the new envelope design that the couture blushes come in. There are ten beautiful shades to choose from which come in satin and shimmer finishes. From the swatches on Sephora and YSL Beauté, this blush, in the shade Rouge Saint Germain is a bright pink red.

Unless, it really is not.

More on this and swatches on today's blog.

YSL COUTURE BLUSH in ROUGE SAINT GERMAIN (C$54 for 3gm)

This new blush from YSL is described as 'a weightless, buildable blush with a seamless, lasting finish that’s virtually impossible to over-apply'. I think they took the word 'over apply' too seriously, creating a product that does not apply at all. If I have to swirl my brush 5 times in the pan to get the color on cheeks, I would rather just go without one! 
The blush is incredibly sheer, and requires way too much work to get it on cheeks. When it looks like I have deposited some color on my cheek, it warms up and appears slightly warmer and a little bit all over the place because as I was frantically trying to apply, my brush strokes failed to be targeted on cheeks only. Once it shows up, it looks like a natural flush of color and has a glowy sheen to it. It does seem to have some golden shimmer packed in it. And its packed so tightly, I can't work with the blush at all!
The packaging of this new Couture blush is pretty standard gold packaging, which is the same as their previous blushes and the Couture Eyeshadow palettes. It photographs beautifully and is really something to keep on the vanity! Its also very compact, so I always take my Couture Eyeshadow Palette with me when travelling and its always fits and works perfectly.

The Couture blushes come with this mini brush, which is a very good size for applying blushes on cheeks. The brush fits in hand comfortable and feels soft and non scratchy on skin. Too bad it did not pick any pigment from the blush it is packaged with!

SWATCHES
This is what the shade Rouge Saint Germain looks like in the swatches on the YSLBeauty.ca website. It look evenly pigmented, bright pinky red that swatches like a cream blush. It actually looks very satiny and creamy for a powder blush and for C$54 I was convinced this is the blush I had been waiting for.

Screenshot from YSLBeauty.ca

What it really swatches like. The swatch below is 3-4 swipes using fingers to get on my skin. Even then, it's a sheer coat of color. So disappointed. 

For the 'blended' swatch shown below, I literally has to struggle, because I couldn't see any color come off from the brush or my fingers.

Also, the shade just warms up after some time, making it more visible, otherwise I thought, there wont be any swatch to show how it appears when blended on skin. 

Overall, I am extremely disappointed. It looks beautiful - the packaging is gorgeous and the shade is what I wanted, but it just doesn't apply. Not with the mini brush included, not with my brushes and not even fingers! It's a very hard blush to work with. I didn't know what I was blending on my skin until after a few minutes of application, when I get to see the sheer wash of blush! Its the weirdest blush ever!! And also, it doesn't last anything more than an hour on me. I can't wait to return this back to Sephora.
I honestly wish YSL Beauty would do something about their quality. First it was the new Vinyl Couture Mascara that was very cheap quality, but beautiful packaging and now this!
Though I love and use YSL lip products (review here, here, here, here and here) I am totally staying away from YSL beauty this holiday season with hope that their products will appeal to me next year!