YSL Beauté | La Laque Couture 58 Nuit Blanche & 59 Nuit Noire

Shimmering like sequins upon the nails, La Laque Couture 58 Nuit Blanche and 59 Nuit Noire (CAN $27.00/Limited Edition), part of the Yves Saint Laurent Beauté Désir de Jour Collection for Spring 2015 (Lumière de Jour Palette previously reviewed), draw their inspiration from the duality found within each woman, although the complex nature of each shade seems to blur that line even more. Feminine charm, rebel spirit or a little bit of both?

Note that each bottle has a removable outer cap with the inner cap ridged for ease of use. The brush is well proportioned to pick up the right amount of product, while the bristles have an excellent flexibility and splay, making the whole application process relatively goof-proof. Newly reformulated, all La Laque Couture polishes now include Rose Oil to help strengthen the nails.

YSL Beauté | La Laque Couture 58 Nuit Blanche & 59 Nuit Noire

La Laque Couture 58 Nuit Blanche | A clear base filled with ultra-fine prismatic glitter as well as irregularly shaped mylar flakes. The formula falls on the thick side although still makes for an easy application, enabling the polish to stay exactly where placed without any pooling or migrating into surrounding skin.

Worn alone, there’s decent coverage with 2 coats (especially on shorter nails – there will still be visible nail line apparent on longer nails) giving off an icy, snowflake-like effect with an absolutely gorgeous iridescence. Layering Nuit Blanche – in particular over a dark shade – will bring out its twilight nature, displaying more of a blue/purple flash (as seen in the last swatches). Relatively smooth to the touch with a layer of top coat, be prepared for a bit of glitter dispersal upon removal (easily cleaned up with a second pass of your remover). Coats applied: 2, plus top coat

YSL Beauté | La Laque Couture 58 Nuit Blanche

La Laque Couture 59 Nuit Noire | A semi-sheer charcoal base that is filled with fine black and silver glitter pieces in a formula that is somewhat thinner than that of Nuit Blanche. There is a good amount of glitter per brushstroke – no ‘fishing’ required, and while dark, you’ll still see a light translucency upon the nails even with two coats, which I actually prefer as it keeps the look fresh & modern this way. Another unique feature of Nuit Noire, is the light moiré pattern that almost appears to be under the glitter but still at the surface level of the polish – elusive, mysterious and hard to capture in pictures, but you can just barely see it here. Coats applied: 2, plus top coat

With 1 coat of Nuit Blanche layered over 2 coats of Nuit Noire (as on the last three swatches shown below), you achieve what I call ‘accidental galaxy nails’. This combination looks even more spectacular in person, as you can clearly appreciate every single nuance and prismatic flash. The depth of tone achieved from layering these two, is nothing short of hypnotic to behold – I need to stop here, because I’ve run out of superlatives. No more words for the love (also, this combo is smooth to the touch with a layer of top coat).

YSL Beauté | La Laque Couture 59 Nuit Noire

YSL Beauté | La Laque Couture 58 Nuit Blanche over 59 Nuit Noire

Black & White – a theme that transcends time and fashion, and yet YSL Beauté manages to reinvent these two standard shades with the addition of glitter and flakes. Nuit Blanche is one of those lacquers that will leave you mesmerized simply holding the bottle in your hand (the snow globe effect), and I guarantee that you’ll want to layer it over EVERYTHING just to see the colour shift it gives. Nuit Noire has a quieter presence, until the light catches on the glitter pieces and just like that, it morphs into something elegant and feral at the same time. Verdict? Both are just spectacular and so well worth picking up.

Available at Yves Saint Laurent Beauté counters across Canada (Holt Renfrew, The Bay)