You Beauty! YSL Touche Éclat Neutralizer in Green - review

Annabel Rivkin finds a masterful complexion corrector

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Annabel Rivkin21 April 2016

There is a difference between lovely Pink Lady apple cheeks and that broken-veined redness that can strike around the nose. Rosacea is on the up and no one knows why. Hormones in the water? Over-zealous scrubbing? Anyway, apple cheeks look youthful and bucolic; angry, ruddy patches read as ageing and possibly alcoholic.

Enter the YSL Touche Éclat Neutralizers — in particular, the green one. ‘Green?’ you may reasonably ask. ‘Why would I paint my face green, you maniac?’ Because green takes your skin balance from in-the-red back to zero. From ruddy to blank canvas.

Skin needs to be freshly moisturised to absorb the finely honed formula, and even then I think you need a tinted moisturiser or a base over the top, but YSL are masters at these subtle complexion-correcting recipes. The difference is addictive, especially when it dawns on you that if you draw this stuff on over spots and blemishes you are all the better primed for concealer.

Green over red is not a new idea but I’ve never before known it so creamy and easy to apply. It shouldn’t matter that the pen itself is smooth and cold and tremendously elegant, but it is and it does.

Yes, I know it seems counterintuitive to add blusher over the top but it’s all about choosing where the flush should lie. Anyway, I’m binning blusher this spring in favour of bronzer brushed under my cheekbones and then swept up on to the apple of my cheeks. It’s kind of modern and sculpted. Try it.

Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Neutralizer in Green, £25, at debenhams.co.uk