Although Spring is usually about glossy lips and soft pastel eyes, the makeup we saw on the runaway for SS15 was more about seriously smokey eyes, statement lashes and bold lips.

So when I received this marvelous little box from one of my all-time favorite makeup brands; Yves Saint Laurent, back in early Spring, I wasn’t surprised to see tucked inside was the bestselling Volume Effect Faux Cils Mascara and the new Couture Mono Eyeshadow in 15 Frasque shade, a stunning metallic gray shade with a brilliant finish.

In fact, Frasque, is one of 16 single iconic eyeshadow shades YSL released for Spring 2015. The color release is excellent, blending is super easy ( I find it best when you don’t use your fingers to apply) and the finishes range from mattes to satin. I was set for endless smokey eye looks.

To get a further acquainted with the new YSL Beauty launches, a select group of bloggers were invited for a makeup session with YSL at the ABC Department store a week later. We were scheduled for a makeover and mini-shoot. I was happy to find out YSL’s very talented makeup artist Bob would be working on me and he promised to take give me a look I haven’t tried before.

Bob is a master at contouring and highlighting’ all with his trusty and iconic YSL Touche Éclat Radiant Touch Highlighting Pen as you can see here he started off marking my fine lines, cheekbones and area above my eyebrows.

He also applied a soft yet edgy smokey eye on me using three shades from the Couture Mono Eyeshadows in Fougue, Caftan and a base of Toile. And of course Bob used the Faux Cil Mascara to coat my lashes, one by one, until even I almost forgot I those were my actual lashes.

And though one of the “classic rules” of makeup is go strong on the eyes, easy on the lips and vice versa, YSL is definitely about breaking these barriers and Bob chose a lipstick shade from another favorite product of mine the Kiss & Blush in the dramatic Prune Impertinente shade, a darker color I’ve never tried on before.