I was first introduced to Yves Saint Laurent’s lipsticks while perusing my local makeup wonderland (aka Sephora) years and years ago. I always wanted to buy one. But with the steep $43 price tag they never seemed justifiable to me. I mean $43 for a lipstick is pretty nuts if you’re not rolling in Kardashian level dough. There’s a lot better things I could spend $43 on. Especially since I have about a bajillion nude pink lipsticks already.
Over the years though, I kept seeing the most beautiful nude pink lip on instagram. Particularly on one of my favorite Canadian Makeup Babes – @ssssamanthaa. YSL #10 Beige Tribute Rouge Pur Couture Lipstick kept tempting me. So when the latest Sephora sale rolled around I decided to splurge. Treat yo’ self! Time to test it out. I mean I waited a few years and still wanted to try it. That means I should buy it, right?
I was so excited to get it in the mail. When my Sephora order came in I excitedly popped the tube out of the shiny gold packaging. It was beautiful. And a little heavy. I twisted the tube up and glided the color onto my lips. First thing I noticed? The smell.
Eugh.
100% not a fan of the smell. It smelled like an overly floral powdery perfumed elderly woman to my overly sensitive nose.
Maybe I can get over that? Maybe it’s the best nude color ever! I checked it out again in the mirror. I was totally underwhelmed. I already feel like I own this color. And I probably do! What the heck? I read loads of reviews and watched a handful of youtube reviews and no one said a bad thing about it. Everyone said it was the greatest nude pink of all time!
Unfortunately, I think otherwise.
Here I am wearing the YSL #10 Beige Tribute lipstick. Though it doesn’t look awful, it’s not really doing me any favors either. I actually kind of feel like it washes me out a little bit.
So I decided to compare it to my go-to nude pink lip that I’ve been obsessed with for the past year. Nars Velvet Lipglide in Unlaced ($34), NYX Natural lipliner ($4), and a tiny bit of NYX Tokyo matte lip cream ($6.50) in the center.
PS – All three of these products combined cost only $1.50 more than the one tube of YSL #10 Beige Tribute!
I also started to wonder how close this YSL lipstick was to the MAC Samantha Ravndahl lipstick I picked up recently. A $22 purchase.
THEY’RE BASICALLY THE SAME COLOR. Albeit the YSL has a nicer feel to it when on the lips, and it’s slightly more cool toned. They’re so close. For real. Look for yourself!
I definitely prefer the MAC Samantha Lipstick to the YSL #10 Beige Tribute. (If you’re interested in reading my review on the MAC Samantha Lipstick you can check it out here.)
Overall I’m glad I tried it because I was yearning for it all these years. Now that yearning has been put to rest. It may look stunning on Samantha, but it wasn’t on me. And that smell? Whyyyy.
I really really really wanted to love it, but unfortunately – I didn’t.
Still love you though, Samantha. Thank you for making a super close dupe that actually smells good for half the price. You da real MVP.
I think it just goes to show you that even though someone else might really love something, and it may look amazing on them, it may not work for you. So it’s good to try everything and really figure out what looks good on you.
