Cult Beauty - YSL Touche Eclat

3 min read

Whilst it’s always great to celebrate new launches in the beauty world- and there are more than enough of them to do that on this blog every week – there are some cult beauty products we just love to celebrate. Classics that have stood the test of time, maintained their best-selling status, and products that many of us couldn’t live without. So, let’s celebrate one every week!

YSL TOUCHE ECLAT

Touche Eclat Cult Beauty product of the week

In the mid 1990s there was an alarming beauty trend amongst celebrities – the luminous white under-eye circles. It wasn’t a deliberate trend, it was just a, well, a bit of a beauty mistake. It was caused by the completely mis-use of a new beauty product in town – Touche Eclat. What looked great in the comfort of their home, or makeup room, looked bonkers in the flash of the red carpet!

Created by Terry De Gunzburg (who now has her own brand, By Terry), Touche Eclat – or Radiant Touch in English – was the concealer that wasn’t a concealer. Everyone thought it was for getting rid of under-eye circles, and that alone. And whilst it does do that, overuse in that area is not recommended. Touche Eclat is a highlighter pen. It does cover, unlike any other highlighter did, back in the 1990s, but it wasn’t made for concealing alone.

I sat on the floor of a Dublin hotel circa 2000 watching Donna Air (remember her) layer and layer it on her under-eyes, after my photographer, makeup artist, stylist and I had woken her from a hangover, to do the shoot for the Daily Record she had ‘forgotten’ about. My makeup artist had to ‘fix’ the ultra-luminosity she had created!

In the wrong hands, and applied badly, Touche Eclat is a dangerous beauty weapon. However, applied correctly you can see the appeal, and understand why, 23 years after its launch (yes, it launched in 1992!), it is most definitely a cult beauty product.

One is sold somewhere in the world every 10 seconds. It has been the UK’s best-selling beauty product. It’s such a simple thing, and yet before it, there was nothing like it.

It is MUCH copied, but never equalled, and it has developed since it’s inception. Back in the day, it was just one shade – now there are up to 12 on the global market. (Massively helping the luminous white under-eye issue for many!)YSL Touche Eclat where to apply

Also, with more awareness of contouring (thanks Kardashians), people use it properly, to highlight the areas of the face they wish to look luminous and radiant, for the light to reflect off.

Check out this handy little face chart, right, to see where Touche Eclat is supposed to be applied.

A foundation to complement the product Le Teint Touche Eclat, was launched in 2012.

YSL’s official description of their iconic beauty product, reads:

The beauty secret of the world’s top makeup artists and models, Touche Éclat is the original must-have for a radiant, flawless face. Capture 8 hours of sleep with the click of a pen. With a few strategic strokes of this award-winning complexion highlighter—dark circles, fine lines and signs of fatigue virtually disappear. Powered by the radiance-boosting Luminocaptide Complex, skin is instantly illuminated, so you look rested and refreshed—even if you’ve been up for hours. Sleek and sophisticated, it discretely slips into a makeup bag for quick touch-ups anytime. It’s the one beauty essential no woman should ever be without.

I stopped using Touche Eclat around 2005 when, for some reason, my skin reacted quite badly to it. These days there are so many radiance and luminosity boosting products on the market, Touche is no longer unique.

But it is, and always will be, the forerunner of all the under-eye radiance pens we have on the market today, and to its fans, of which there are many, it will always be the best.

There are Limited Edition, special issue versions of Touche Eclat released from time to time. This year, as part of YSL’s Kiss & Love Christmas collection, get your hands on this cute lip-print version, which comes in three shades.

Touche Eclat Christmas 2015 Limited Edition

YSL Touche Eclat, £25, available at YSL counters, and yslbeauty.co.uk