YSL Touche Eclat: 7 Shades Now Available + swatches

Little known beauty fact: while we only ever got one  pale shade of YSL's cult Touche Eclat complexion highlighter here, there were in fact others avaialable in limited distribution globally since the product launched. Not in Ireland though - or most places, as it happens - but other shades did exist. A bit like hens teeth, sure, grail quest rumours abounded of one for black skins and Possibly Other Colours Too. If you could find them, like.

Now though, the brand decided that they'd make those other tones available to all of us everywhere, and they'd add two new shades into the mix as well.

Et voila, Touche Eclat is all of a sudden a widely-available seven-strong suite of skin highlightin', luminizin', complexion-enhancin' tools and my interest is piqued. No longer just that one-product-doesn't-fit-all offering, which always had me doing a bit of a head-scratch, I can now see the potential of the line.

See, I'd never had a lot of time for it really - No 1, the lone colour available to us here didn't really suit me in the way we were always advised to use it - to brighten eyes - so it did nothing for my skin. And until I was taken to London by the brand in April for the press launch of the two new shades and the unveiling of the Complete Super Seven I totally had my Big Sceptical Head on me.

Did they win me around? Well actually, they did.  My main point of interest ahead of the launch was really this: had the brand changed anything about formulation and ingredients since the product launched originally? Using this around my eyes had always resulted in the dreaded reverse panda.  I felt Touche Eclat was well-copied and ripe for a reformulation - it killed my complexion as opposed to enlivened it.

Yes, as it happens, they have mixed up the tech a little over the years - but what's more interesting is that I've apparently been missing a trick with this product purely because of the fact that Touche Eclat shade No 1 just wasn't shade WON for me. (See what I did there?) The launch of the full range of colours is enough on its own to breathe a whole new lease of life into this product for me - and for a lot of us, I think.

So, if you've been at a loss with this too, then check it out again. The fact that there's a choice now with the colour offering is a huge help: there is actually one for moi. Hurrah! The pinkish offering (No 1) that didn't do it for me has been supplemented by a much more enlivening porcelain (No 2) - which already existed but wasn't for sale here - and I find it works so much better for my skintone.

I still can't really use this around my eyes - in any case I prefer a thicker cream concealer, but makeup artist Frederic Letailleur has made me see the full potential of these wands.

Forget the Irish application method of old and ditch using this as a dark circle corrector. Open up, instead, to embracing this for what it really is: a complexion highlighter. Buy a shade paler than you are - or, and this too was a revelation, darker and use as a liquid to contour with - and actually use it to add light to your face.

He showed us how - and it worked.  I know I sound a bit broken recordy, but for a product this old, and which has been copied to the extent that it has, to see it being used in the way Letailleur did made it fresh all over again.  There's nothing majorly new with the technology, ingredients or packaging but the two new shades have been a long time coming because apparently it proved challenging to match the missing skintypes in the lineup to the right type of light-reflecting pigments.

The new shades and the full roll-out of the complete suite of seven colours were also pushed forward as a result of makeup artist feedback. And you know who makeup artists are speaking to, don't you? Yup, real women. So, it's great that YSL are listening to what the people who buy and use the brand's products want  - and I'd say this extended shade offering is very much needed and not before time.

Recognise anyone? This is Frederic Letailleur demonstrating on Sunday Indo beauty editor Triona McCarthy how to highlight using the product. He advises application to the face using it but then using proper makeup brushes for a good finish.

So, he dotted the product on cheekbones, down the nose, on the cupids bow and on the brow bone and buffed it into a liquid base for a seamless finish. He wasn't of the opinion that you need to use the Touche Eclat tip as a makeup artist brush - it's an application tool, and no more, really.

That's my spiel done - the new shades are currently previewing at Brown Thomas counters now where they cost €35. They'll go nationwide from July 14th and will be permanent collection items so there's no fear on anything you love being discontinued.

The last thing to show you are swatches:

From left to right: N° 1  Luminous Radiance (the old reliable), N° 1.5  Luminous Silk, N° 2  Luminous Ivory (the one for me, hurrah!), N° 3  Light Peach,  N° 5  Luminous Honey,  N° 6 Luminous Amber and N° 7  Luminous Mocha.  The two new shades are five and six, fact fans.

What do we think?  A new take on an old favourite or are you a devoted fan in any case?