YSL Ombres 5 Lumiéres #11 Midnight Garden

Over the past few days, I've been wearing the Yves St Laurent Ombres 5 Lumieres #11 palette (US$56) from their Jardin de Minuit (Midnight Garden) collection for fall. I purchased this earlier at Bergdorf Goodman in New York back in July.

I hardly ever purchase anything from YSL but this collection caught my eye with the gorgeous ad visual. Ombres 5 Lumieres #11 features a striking combination of purple and green shades. It is rare to find a palette in which I actually liked all the shades and felt that they could not be that easily duplicated.

In particular, I loved the deep forest green with teal shimmer and the unusual mint shade with light blue shimmer. The palette includes two double-ended sponge applicators that work quite well. The sleek gold metal compact is a fingerprint magnet though.


For this look, I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance as the base. I applied the deep green shade along the upper lashline, the mint shade over the browbone area and along the lower lashline, the pale lilac shade in the crease and the deep purple shade in the outer half of the crease.

Stila Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Emerald was also used to line the upper lashline.

The three darker shades in the palette are very well-pigmented whereas the pale lilac shade takes a bit more layering to show up well. The mint shade applies as more of a wash of micro-fine shimmer. I like to use it at the inner corners and along the lower lashline for an illuminating effect. The eyeshadows are easy to apply and blend. Only a few stray particles fell on the under eye area during the application process and they were easy to clean up.

Thanks to Shadow Insurance, the eyeshadows lasted amazingly well on me today for over 15 hours with just the tiniest bit of creasing at the inner corners.


For the second look, I used primarily the purple shades, plus the mint shade to highlight the lower lashline and Stila Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Royal to line the upper lashline.


I simply adore this palette and can see myself reaching for it frequently. I'm not sure if it is available at DFS or the airport dutyfree in Singapore but it is still available online at various US-based retailers like Sephora.com.