YSL Terra Saharienne Collector Summer 2012

"Summer 2012", eh? Perhaps in Paris, not so much in Dublin. This rather lovely bronzer/blusher collector edition from YSL does give the appearance of a Summery glow, however.

I started using this before I photographed it but the excitement was too great..that and I was lazy. Bad blogger.
Anyhoo, I've been using this for about three weeks and am loving it. The regular Terre Saharienne powder is only a bronzer but the collector edition has three different shades of powder blush and bronzer which are pressed into a layered snakeskin print, for a summery feel (only effective if you happen to live in a desert or keep snakes. If you're reading this blog then that's probably unlikely).

I got no.2, "Sunkissed", Satiny light, rosy apricot that gives complexions a healthy glow. And that it does. The three shades of peach, tan and pink compliment each other nicely and really do give a lovely, natural glow. What I particularly like is that it doesn't require a huge amount of blending, you just swirl the brush over the powder to get a mix of all three and when applied it just glides on easily. It's pale enough that I don't end up looking like Katy Price but still has enough bronze in it so that I look like the sort of healthy person who is routinely exposed to Vitamin D..a non-Irish person, obviously. The other two shades of the collector edition are Harmonie no 1, "Tanned", a golden brown with a sparkling effect that brightens every skin tone and Harmonie no 3, "Bronzed", a matte light, intense brown with a bronzing effect to sculpt the face.

This is all three together (shaky photo courtesy of HTB while in the duty free, texting me to see which one I wanted), personally I think the first and third are a little too dark for me, the second one just strikes the right balance for my skin tone. The goldilocks of bronzers, if you will. I did attempt to do a photo swatch but I have the remnants of a spray tan going on so it's not showing up that well on camera. Granted, that's not that helpful but you'll just have to take my word for it that this is well worth trying!