I know many of you have mourned the departure of YSL’s gorgeous gold-clad products from Edgars but if you live in Jozi you’re in for a treat. The first YSL boutique has opened up in Sandton City and boy is it worth the trip.

A destinational playground for luxe beauty junkies as well as anyone who’s addicted to the brand’s bestselling Touche Eclat highlighter pen (i.e. everyone), the new store serves up everything from make-up and fragrance to skin care. Yep, YSL do skin care too and you haven’t lived until you’ve felt the awesome that is their Top Secrets Universal Makeup Remover melting balm in oil (R550). It works like paint stripper but feels like an indulgent oil massage for your gesig!

Anyway, let’s get back to business. The new store is beautifully laid out and, despite being a gilded, swish-looking space, it’s not intimidating at all. There’s no having to ask someone to get you something from a glass case.

At YSL  ‘play time’ is encouraged so all the products in every shade are laid out for you to experiment with and make-up stations with mirrors are the order of the day. A clever move on the store’s part because to experience their items is to fall in love with them. A case in point? I really don’t need a R550 Rouge Pur Couture lipstick in my life. I mean come now. That’s just silly. But then you try it on and BOOM you’re down the rabbit hole of ‘I want, I want, I want!’

You really don’t know how luxe-feeling a lippie can get until you let one of these babies touch your skin. I was standing in the store with Chantelle from Not Another Poppie (a girl who’s just as jaded as I am when it comes to yet another lippie), grabbed her arm to give her a swatch and watched her eyes light up while her mouth went ‘Oooooh’.

Ooooh, indeed! These babies glide on like a magical unicorns slathered in rainbow-coloured tanning oil! (Okay, okay, so maybe that’s a bit much but GIRLS!)

My love for these lippies aside, my favourite YSL item is still their Rouge Pur Couture lip stains (R405). My bestie Karisa, who’s as frugal as all hell, is also a major fan. We love how they hit up your lips like a glossy lipstick and then, when they inevitably come off, they leave a gorgeous long-lasting stain in their wake.

Make-up heaven aside, the YSL store is also home to the brand’s exclusive Le Vestiaire fragrance line. In fact, it’s one of just 40 stores IN THE WORLD to stock them. Inspired by key fashion pieces in the YSL wardrobe, each 125ml EDP (R3 400) is intended to be unisex but I found that most of them either lean more to the masculine or feminine side of things.

There are some real winners in the line up, my heart belongs to Saharienne. While it’s inspired by YSL’s iconic safari-style jacket, this fragrance makes me think of the evening after you’ve spent a day at the beach.

You know that feeling, right? You’ve been in the sun all day and feel beautiful and brown and now you’ve just showered off all that sand and salt and applied a soothing, silky body lotion before slipping into a floaty off-the-shoulder top. Your body’s still radiating a little heat, but now you’re nice and cool and ready to step into the twilight for your first cocktail at the beach bar. That is what this calming mix of neroli, cottony white musks and soft pachouli brings to mind.

But ja! To wrap things up, if you’re a YSL girl, know that their new boutique is the last word in luxe.

Love, love

Leigh