theNotice: a beauty blog

The product: Yves Saint Laurent La Laque Couture Tie & Dye Pearly Coloured Top Coat (Top Coat Coloré Nacré)

   ↳ in 01 Cool Coat, 02 Pop Coat, 03 Hip Coat, and 04 Ice Coat

The hardest part about writing this review wasn’t that the product was phenomenally good, or horrifyingly bad, or even incredibly surprising. Nope: the hardest part of writing this review was definitely, absolutely, hands-down the fact that I took almost two hundred photos of these, and all of them were stunning.

Not because of the lighting, or the camera, or the staging, of course. It’s just that the Tie & Dye topcoats are really, really cool — a four year old with a point & shoot could make these look absolutely riveting! 

YSL Tie & Dye Pearly Coloured Top Coats

YSL Tie & Dye Top Coats (partially mixed)

A brief overview of the effects

-01 Cool Coat reads as breathtaking blue-violet duochrome over a dark polish – perhaps because I swatched it over brown? On its own, however, Cool Coat is a dense white shimmer with pink reflects. 

-02 Pop Coat creates sheer veil of warmth (red), with a small amount of pink and gold shimmer. This one made my bare nails look a bit as if they’d been dipped in beet juice, but I can see it being a good “nothing” sheen on warmer, darker skintones!

YSL La Laque Couture Tie & Dye Top Coat swatched on bare nails

L-R: 01 Cool Coat, 02 Pop Coat, 03 Hip Coat, 04 Ice Coat

-03 Hip Coat translates into a cool pink sheen on the nails; more brightening and densely shimmery than Pop Coat. (I found this to be the most brightening “natural” shade for my hands’ colouring.)

-04 Ice Coat, finally, is a super-sheer blue jelly with strong blue shimmer. It’s a through-and-through shimmer (not a duochrome, like Cool Coat), and I think it would be the only one I wouldn’t wear on bare nails.

YSL Tie & Dye Top Coats 01-04 swatched overtop YSL La Laque Couture in 37 Taupe Mauresque ($25 USD), a shimmer-free brown from the Summer 2013 collection. [ flash ]

A bit more about the topcoats / I’d recommend… »

A launches from the past few weeks…

More importantly, Clinique just launched their Cinique ‘A Different Nail Enamel’ Nail Color ($16 USD). I think I speak for all of us when I say, “excuse me, but what?!” because I honestly did not see this one coming at all.

I don’t know if I should be incredibly pleased or extremely freaked out, but these 21 shades are available now alongside an ‘A Different Nail Enamel’ Top & Base Coat (also $16 USD).

Clinique 70s and Sunny, Really Rio, & Juiced Up

Clinique Fizzy, Indie Rock, & Made of Steel

See the rest of the shades! »

I’m not really sure what’s going on here, and I think it’ll probably turn out to be very ill-advised, but: intrigue! Suspense! Potentially terror!

What YSL has to say about the Tie and Dye La Laque Couture nail varnishes:

“Inspired by the Couture Tie & Dye, YSL nail lacquer plays colour in gradation effect just like a sophisticated total look. The coloured base is covered by a “pop coat”for a sugary glossy result. Top Coat can also  be used alone for a “sheer” glittery result on the nails.”

I’d like to see reviews for this one: if the concept works, it’s bound to be very cool, but I feel like we’re more likely to just end up with a lot of awkward swatches instead.

$25 USD & limited edition, in four shades. Get it.

The product: YSL La Laque Couture Nail Lacquer in 34 Jade Impérial

An alternate title for this, I think, could well be “the perfect winter nail to take you into spring,” but then, that would depend on where you were in the world, wouldn’t it?

We’re starting to see warmer temperatures here, and it admittedly (unfortunately) makes me love Jade Impérial less. As a winter nail, though–and it can be, for the future; it’s a permanent shade in the La Lacque Couture line, new with the Arty Stone collection–it’s absolutely on.

The formula

In all honesty, what really gets me about this polish isn’t the (gorgeous) shade — it’s the phenomenal formula.

Smooth and very fluid, the La Laque Couture formula applies beautifully, settling in so easily that even the nails on my right hand looked hand-model-flawless (and I am terrible at applying polish with my non-dominant hand.)

While two coats was perfect for this formula, I think I could have gotten away with one if I really needed to — and on some of my (smaller) nails, a single brush stroke was all I needed.

The packaging

Just to note, the chic gold gap of the polish does come off (à la Chanel, etc.) with a firm “click” — it feels very sturdy and well-made, keeping in line with the luxe profile of the thick-walled glass bottle without sacrificing function.

The brush (medium-wide and thin/flat) works perfectly as well; it reminds me of the OPI Pro-Wide brush in the way that it fans out to make application a breeze. This one is less-wide, though, and the bristles less floppy and straight, giving more control over application on the whole.

The shade

While I didn’t get around to photographing Jade Impérial until just this past week, I’ve been fantasizing about the colour all winter — that gorgeous, smokey green-grey.

There are a lot of ways to describe it, but I like to do it as a feeling: it feels like an abstract representation of a mild winter, obscured; green, but with hints of blue and a marvellously heavy dose of grey.

I’ve never been a fan of teal, blue-green, or jade, for that matter, but YSL’s desaturated take on the idea absolutely hits the spot for me — it feels so wonderfully unique, so unexpected.

The verdict?

The price tag of the La Laque Couture line ($25 USD/$27 CAN) is a tough one to come to terms with, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love this polish. 

From the colourful-but-melancholic shade to the flawless way that the formula applies, I can’t find fault in Jade Impérial — not even in the chunky glass packaging, which reads as wonderfully luxe instead of woefully cumbersome.

The shade isn’t exactly for everybody, but the formula — well, how can you not love a great formula?

Availability: Nordstrom; in Canada, Holt Renfrew & select Hudson’s Bay, Sephora, and Murale boutiques. This is a permanent shade.

The ingredients & layered holo swatches (because, well, why not) »

So, I’ve been seeing this guy who thinks–actually thinks, not a word of a lie–that Adele and Ellie Goulding are the same person, with like, different hair or under a different record label or something. I don’t even know.

The only explanation I can give you is that ridiculous music hipsters hate Billboard artists like beauty bloggers hate brands who don’t understand copyright law. It’s kind of the best thing.

Anyhow. Fun fact of the day, because I’m too feverish and disoriented to start covering Spring until next week (spoiler alert, it’s going to be an absolutely amazing season) — Adele showed up at the Globes last week with drugstore polish on her nails.

Shock and horror!

(Image courtesy Coty Canada)

Copy the look at home with a sheer coat of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in So Much Fawn topped with two coats of Copper Penny.

The Globes winner was wearing an additional topcoat to enhance the colour of Copper Penny, but you’ll just have to do without, I’m afraid: it was created exclusively for use at the Globes.

(I am secretly convinced that it was a reinforcing layer of vibranium covered in gold microparticles. Those nails talons are pretty hardcore; reinforced fingertips are totally the new exploding pen.)