2014-04-04



Yves Saint Laurent Youth Liberator Serum Foundation ($69) is the newest foundation release from YSL Beauty, introduced in Fall 2013.  The formula is infused with YSL’s award-winning Youth Liberator Serum to give the skin hydration, correct dullness and nourish the skin throughout wear.  Today I am sharing a review and swatches, as well as notes on shade selection for this foundation.  Read on for more!



Yves Saint Laurent Youth Liberator Serum Foundation.



The Youth Liberator Serum Foundation is packaged in a glass bottle with gold and black accents.

The top has a convenient pump. Both the pump and the lid are lightweight plastic.

• swatches •

BR20 Swatched

Before and After. Wearing YSL Youth Serum Foundation in BR20

Shade Selection Notes: YSL Youth Liberator Serum Foundation is offered in 10 “universal” shades.  I purchased this foundation online this winter, so this shade will most definitely be a winter-month shade for me because it is quite light.  The Youth Liberator Serum Foundation shades are offered in “BR”, which is “beige rose”, “B” or a “beige”, and one shade categorized as “BD” or “beige dore” which is meant for olive golden undertones.  Although I have a warmer skintone, I find YSL’s beige tones to be quite yellow on me (a little too yellow in my opinion) so I wanted to try beige rose to see if I could pull that off.  I was pleasantly surprised to find Beige Rose 20 not too pink, so it is more of a neutral beige and worked well on my skintone.  As for the shade level, I could have gone a little darker with my shade selection, however, one shade up from this is Beige 30, which wouldn’t be a problem, except that there is no Beige Rose offered in shade 30 – it just skips to Beige Rose 40, which I thought would be too dark at the time of year I purchased it (winter).  It is possible Beige 30 might have worked, but it looking at shade swatches from The Beauty Professor (which were quite helpful!) I could tell it looked quite yellow.  An ideal shade for me might possibly be a combination of a beige rose and a beige shade, (but I did not purchase another to test this out) or possibly Beige 40 when I get a little more color.

Full face makeup wearing YSL Youth Serum Foundation in BR20

 • review •

The YSL Youth Serum Foundation is a medium consistency foundation that can be easily blended into the skin and built up to full coverage if you need.  I like to use a Beauty Blender to apply it, but it also performs well when using a brush.  In the above photos I applied medium coverage, so you can still see some of my natural skin beneath.  The finish was rather surprising to me – almost appearing matte-like immediately after application, but then settling to a more skin-like finish after about thirty minutes.  I have oily and acne prone skin, and when wearing this foundation alone I get incredibly oily within 2 hours.  I found that using a mattifying primer underneath of the foundation helped greatly, and I was able to get all-day wear of out of the foundation with minimal shine.  In both cases, even with my oily skin, the foundation lasted all day without fading or degrading.  I also want to note this foundation does not feel like it “sets” on my skin, so I feel the need to add a light dusting of a finishing powder on top.

The serum-like formula of this foundation is intriguing.  YSL states it offers 24 hour hydration, and although my oily skin cannot handle this on it’s own, even when I wore a mattifying primer underneath, the foundation wore comfortably on my skin.  The Youth Liberator Serum Foundation has a strong floral scent, as with other YSL Foundations.  After application I can smell the foundation for approximately 5-6 hours, so if you are sensitive, you may want to try a sample of this foundation at first.  It is important to note that this foundation is an Octinoxate Sunscreen, offering Broad Spectrum SPF 20 (4% Octinoxate) which may contribute to the scent.

• ysl beauty foundations •

SUMMARY

Overall, I like the finish and feel of YSL Youth Liberator Serum Foundation on the skin and while I find I need to take extra steps for it to work with my oily skin, it is a nice foundation that I would especially recommend for those with dry or combination skin.  If you get along well with the shades offered in YSL foundations and do not mind a strong floral scent in your foundation, then this might be something for you!  If you have yet to experience a YSL Foundation I would recommend testing this one out at your local YSL Beauty counter to see what you think!

ROUGE RATING

YSL Youth Liberator Serum Foundation, 82% B-

Formula 6/10  |  Pigmentation 10/10  |  Application 9/10  |  Longevity 9/10  |  Overall Product Rating 7/10

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

$69, 1 fl oz / 30ml.  Available at Nordstrom and YSLBeautyUS

Available Shades:

B10

B20

B30

B40

B60

B70

BD50

BR20

BR40

BR50

Other makeup worn in this look: On the cheeks: Clinique Ginger Pop Blush.  On the Lips: MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencil in Revved Up

The post YSL Youth Liberator Serum Foundation Review appeared first on VanityRouge.

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