Collection: Yves Saint Laurent 2013 Spring

When shops like Sephora or Hudson’s Bay run occasional 10–20% off sales on cosmetics, I like to take the opportunity to pick up high-end nail polish brands I haven’t tried before. So, the last time Hudson’s Bay ran such a sale, I picked up two such polishes: a Burberry and an Yves Saint Laurent.

Today, I’m reviewing the Yves Saint Laurent. (Remember when the fashion house changed their name to Saint Laurent Paris? So gauche. 😉 But the cosmetic company is a separate entity, so it keeps the YSL name and logo.)

YSL polish is luxury-priced, so it comes in a fancy gold box and with a fancy gold cap, making them a pain to photograph.

Jade Impérial (34) is a slightly dusty jade green cream. I think it just about qualifies as a pastel, even with the grey tone. However, it is definitely muted enough to be versatile all year long.

Dusty, greyed shades can have a dullness to them, but the pigmentation in this particular polish is excellent and the muted quality of Jade Impérial does not translate to muddiness. If you love greens, this is a really gorgeous one! It does, however, recall the infamous Queen Helene Mint Julep Mask (holy crap, when did they change the packaging?!).

The packaging does feel expensive, though I find YSL’s makeup packaging to generally be on the gaudy side.

The brush is the typical flat brush with a squared edge. It is on the wider side, but the corners are also rounded-off just a bit, so I found it quite easy to use.

The polish itself is very nice, as well. It applies smoothly and evenly as you’d expect a pricier product to do. Two coats was perfect for full opacity. The polish dried quickly to a reasonably glossy shine.

While I don’t feel that the formula is perfect, it’s certainly not disappointing. It’s trouble-free and a pleasure to use. If there’s a remarkable color in the line that you’re in love with, I think it’s probably worth the splurge.

Yves Saint Laurent La Laque Couture Nail Lacquer is US/CA$27 and 0.34 fl oz / 10 mL. The formula is free of toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). It is made in France.

Yves Saint Laurent Beauty is a separate company from the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house, which is owned by Paris-based Kering. YSL Beauty was purchased by Clichy, France-based L’Oréal Group from Gucci in 2008. (The acquisition included the worldwide licence for use of the YSL and Boucheron brands for perfume and cosmetics, and the license for the beauty and fragrance divisions of Stella McCartney, Oscar de la Renta and Ermenegildo Zegna.)