When you want to love a product, but don't: Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Neutralizer

As a member of Influenster, I occasionally get sent products to try and review, not only on Beauty Babble, but on a number of other sites, and given that I love the allure and appeal of the Yves Saint Laurent brand, I was particularly excited to have been selected to test another one of their new products, the Touche Eclat Neutralizer (if you recall, I had the opportunity to try one of their mascaras last year). These neutralizers (there are three colors -- purple, green and peach) are intended to specifically target troubling skin concerns, such as blemishes, acne, dark circles or sallowness. And of course, the product is packaged in YSL's signature metallic tube with a fancy, push up pen applicator.

I was sent the bisque shade to try, which is the apricot/peach color, and on the first day, I attempted to use it as I would my traditional concealer -- over my foundation. But this went wrong...very wrong...because the color is indeed SUPER peachy and not the neutral undereye concealer color that I'm used to. So lo and behold, my undereye area certainly no longer looked dark, but now it looked peach, and that was not a look I could sport in public either. I wound up having to use my powder to blend the color out and bring my face back to a normal shade, which wasn't the end of the world, but made me think I was probably using the product wrong.

So Day 2, I tried again, only this time I remembered hearing from a makeup artist somewhere that correctors (which are different from concealers) are actually meant to be applied UNDER your foundation (duh). So this time, I started with the neutralizer, and I was again impressed with the lightweight, easily blendable coverage. Only then I followed up with my full-coverage Dior foundation (which I adore, by the way), and when I looked at myself in my makeup mirror, I still had this insatiable urge to pile on undereye concealer. The peach tone definitely neutralized the darkness a bit, but it wasn't to my liking, and I felt like I needed more coverage.

By Day 3, I was STILL attempting to make this product work because 1) it's YSL, 2) it's worth $38 and 3) the packaging is just so darn beautiful.  I tried applying it to one eye and not the other, thinking this would be the true test of whether or not it was doing anything. And alas, after applying my foundation I couldn't tell an inkling of difference between the eye I had used the neutralizer on and the eye that I hadn't. FAIL.

Maybe I just have particularly bad undereye circles (because hey, I'll be 32 in 6 months and we all know that makes me OLD), or maybe I'm just particularly picky about the amount of coverage that I like. But either way, it dawned on me that as much as I wanted to love this product, it just wasn't going to happen.

In good faith, I couldn't recommend that anyone spend nearly $40 on a product that did nothing, although I can't comment on the effectiveness of the green and purple shades. Perhaps used as a spot treatment, versus on a larger area like the undereye, it works better. Although truth be told I have tried the Smashbox correctors in the past (which serve a similar purpose), and I didn't think those did diddly-squat either, so perhaps I'm just not a correctors kind of gal.

I'll be passing this product along to someone that will hopefully get much more joy out of it than I would, but in the meanwhile, I'm still excited that I got to give it a shot.

Have you tried this product or any other correctors? What are your thoughts on which you'd recommend and why? Let me know in the comments section below!

*As stated above, I received this product for free from Influenster to try and review on social platforms, however, as you can tell from this blog post, I would never alter my opinions as a result of being sent something for free.