YSL Palette City Drive Arty Wet & Dry Eyeshadows from Fall/Winter 2013 Collection

Today I have one of the most interesting releases of this Fall, Yves Saint Laurent's City Drive Palette in Arty, in their Pure Chromatics Wet & Dry Eye Shadow formula. I am very enthusiastic about this formula and I usually love the shades and the different concepts. My recent favorites being their Boreal Palette from Holiday 2012 Collection, which I chose as my Christmas Eve make-up this year winning against many other strong candidates. I was also smitten by their Spring Release, loving that taupe shade, wearing it over and over again. Unfortunately their Pure Chromatics release from Summer, #13 (see the review here), was kind of a reshuffled palette, which disappointed me. This is why when I have seen the promo photos of upcoming Fall Collection, I was very excited to see some crazy color combination.   

YSL Palette City Drive Arty Wet & Dry Eyeshadows

There are two Wet & Dry Eyeshadow Quad released with Fall 2013 collection, Arty and Classy. These both have a special edition packaging. I love the design of those and the colors they chose, Arty have a fuchsia back ground, Classy is over black, so fitting to how they are named. Just a side note, I wore Classy today and will be reviewing it soon, so stay tuned.

YSL Palette City Drive Arty (left) and Classy (right) Wet & Dry Eyeshadows

YSL Quad Arty has an interesting color combination that I have personally never seen before. It reads very cool on the right hand side with sparkly silver and silvery black. The left hand side of the palette has vibrant colors of blue and acid green, which is, without doubt the most surprising shade of this upcoming season in any collection. 

Close up: YSL Palette City Drive Arty Wet & Dry Eyeshadows

Below I swatched the shades wet, using a spray filled with water and my Bobbi Brown Cream Shadow Brush to apply them. This is a synthetic brush with hard bristle, makes it easier to pick up cream products. Since YSL Wet & Dry Eyeshadows dissolve in water, after the brush is wet, upon contact, it acts rather like a creme product on the surface. Therefore I opt for this brush which helps me to pick up more product for a dense application. The shades in this palette are as follows:

• Vibrant blue with chunky silver glitters (upper left)
• Dense silver with metallic finish (upper right)
• Acid green with satin finish (bottom left)
• Deep anthracite packed with large silver glitters. (bottom right)

Swatch under full sun: YSL Palette City Drive Arty Wet & Dry Eyeshadows

For the eye make-up below, I applied the silver shade (upper right) on entire lid and defined my crease an the outer half of the lash line with anthracite shade (bottom right) in a C-shape. At that point I had a nice metallic smokey eye base. Now it was time to add some color. I started padding the blue shade (upper left) at the outer half of the lid, then the acid green (bottom left) to the middle. I used the silver and blue shades along the lower lash line too, silver from the inner corner to half way and blue from half way to the outer corner. I used a silver eye pencil to my lower water line (Chanel Silver Light) and to finish the look, I applied plenty of mascara.

In Action: YSL Palette City Drive Arty Wet & Dry Eyeshadows

Now let me tell you this, although I was content with the end result, the application was nothing but a breeze. All the shades in this palette have chunky glitters, which make them hard to apply. Especially once used wet, they just don't slide easly like I was used to from other shades of Pure Chromatics range. So I would say the formula here was unfortunately not perfect. But if you like the colors and the interesting combination, with a little bit of more effort you may get interesting results. Once applied over a primer (I used Nars Pro-Prime) it stayed put all day, without smudging and fading.

I really don't know any similar quad, which has an acid green in it, but if you only like the smokey part of the palette without the colors, which is the right part of it, you may want to check YSL Pure Chromatics #12, which is the ultimate evening look Pure Chromatics quad in my opinion. 

Some shades from YSL City Drive Arty Palette vs. YSL Pure Chromatics #12

As the below swatches show, the silver metallic shade in both quads are very close. The anthracite shade in Pure Chromatics #12 has less glitter particles, which makes me wish City Drive Palette Arty would also be like. Since there is the silver shade anyway, it would be possible to combine them anyway for a similar effect. 

Comparison swatches of some shades from YSL City Drive Arty Palette vs. YSL Pure Chromatics #12

Final thoughts: YSL Palette City Drive Arty Wet & Dry Eyeshadows from Fall/Winter 2013 Collection is one of the most interesting products of the season, which combines metallic silver, silvery blue and acid green. The formula with so many glitter particles in each shade is rather hard to apply and needs some patience. I really like the end result though, and how it stays put all day long without smudging and fading over a primer on a hot summer day. I wished the anthracite and blue shades would be less glittery, making glitter optional by using the silver shade as needed.

Can you wear the acid green? Do you like this color combination?

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comparison, eye shadow, palette, swatch, YSL, Yves Saint Laurent