Chanel Riva from the Collection Côte D'azur

Happy December!

So after much heavy decision making, I've decided to get the Chanel Riva from the Collection Côte D'azur. Nevertheless, I am quite happy that I bought it. I love pale blue polishes and this one, I must say is stunning. Some people may not see any uniqueness about it, but I like it a lot.

I took a picture of it in direct sunlight and under fluorescent lights because both pictures came out with different color variations. Under fluorescent lights it looks like a vibrant baby blue creme. It's not that vibrant in person, it's a lot more pale. Very similar to the sunlight picture.


Sunlight


Artificial light

Riva is a pale blue base with very subtle turquoise flecks. It is quite sheer. I did it under four coats to reach this color.

I took my time to do apply this because I love the color and wanted it to turn out nicely. Waiting out between each coats really helped. The formula was actually pretty good. It wasn't thick like the usual Chanel polishes. I wasn't disappointed at this polish, although I was disappointed with the price. For a nail polish that costs almost $30 (after tax) is just a little ridiculous in my opinion. But that's the price I pay for being obsessed with nail polish I suppose.

So that's all I have for today!

Chanel Les Khakis De Chanel Collection

I finally have the Chanel Les Khakis De Chanel collection polishes to show today. I know I'm a wee bit late on these and that they're already sold out and all that junk. My apologies for that.

I went through some trouble trying to obtain these. The Chanel website was giving me trouble when these were released. I ended up calling up a Nordstrom in Seattle to order them.

A lot of people did not find interests in these, but I have an obsession with colors that are out of the ordinary for nails. When I saw swatches of these, I told myself I must have them, and I do not regret buying them at all.



Khaki Brun


Khaki Rose


Khaki Vert


The formula for these were surprisingly good. It was a little thick but it worked out fine for me. All of them were under two coats, they were fully opaque in one coat, very pigmented. But of course I did two out of habit and to even it out. In my opinion, the colors are unique and there are no dupes I can think of for them. I know there are colors that are close it but not quite the same!

Did you guys ended up getting these as well?

Chanel SoHo Story Strong and Steel

It's almost Friday!

Today I have two nail polishes from Chanel's SoHo Story collection. Being that I'm from New York, when I heard this about this collection, I was quite excited. I ended up purchasing the SoHo de Chanel highlighting and blush powder and the Quadra eye shadow palette in Stupendous; but I didn't even get to try any of them yet -_-


Cute pouches it came in


SoHo de Chanel Highlighting Powders and Blush - I like the brush it came with :D


The Quadra Eye Shadow Palette in Stupdendous

And now the swatches..


Strong is a a deep burgundy brown. On the bottle it looks more burgundy, but on the nails it looks almost black with hints of brown and burgundy shimmer. Very nice color for the Fall


Steel is a charcoal gray-black with silver micro-shimmer. Here's something very interesting; I was applying this during the night time with a very dim lamp on. As I was painting it I noticed that it was looking a little blue-ish to me. I thought my eyes were playing with me. So I decided to take a picture with flash.


(Please click to enlarge)

See those flecks of blue shimmer?! Cool.. (wait.. or is it just me?)

The formula is decent. It was a little thick, but these are highly pigmented. Seriously, one coat did the job, but I'm never comfortable with one coat, always gotta slab on another coat to smooth out any imperfections.

Though I liked both of these colors, they're not at all unique. For $23, I'm sure you can get a ton of polishes that are alike or similar at least. I *believe* these are still available on the chanel.com website and other department stores that carries Chanel.

Well that's all I have for today!

Comparison Time

Hi all!

It's time for some comparisons again! There are three comparisons again this time, so let's get started.

A little roundup

First up is a comparison between Chanel Nouvelle Vague and Orly Gumdrop.

Left Orly Gumdrop, right Chanel Nouvelle Vague. As you can see, they are dupes! The only difference is the really subtle shimmer that Nouvelle Vague holds and Gumdrop is a teeeeenie bit more blue, but the difference is barely visible. Gumdrop is easier to get your hands on and it's a budget friendly alternative if you want Chanel Nouvelle Vague.

Next up: a coincidental dupe! I bought Kinetics Shall We Dance? at Alice and Jo's havesentials and found out it looked really close to GOSH Purple Heart.

Left GOSH Purple Heart, Kinetics Shall We Dance? on the right. The only difference is the way the light hits these polishes. These polishes are identical. They're both evenly duochrome-y (which I couldn't really capture on the wheel) and have the same smokey dark purple, mossy green colors. These are dupes.

Last but not least of this comparison post, I have two periwinkle cremes for you; China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle and Orly Cashmere Cardigan.

Secret Peri-Winkle on the left, Cashmere Cardigan on the right. Please imagine this is more periwinkle (a tad bit of purple), because the color freaked out my camera. These are not dupes. Secret Peri-Winkle is lighter and a bit dustier than Cashmere Cardigan, while Cashmere Cardigan leans more towards purple. The difference is big enough to justify you owning both ;) These are not dupes.

And of course, to round it all up.. A little summary in the form of a shot of the nailwheel;



These were the comparisons I had for you, dear reader! If you have requests for more comparisons, feel free to ask me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Something Really Pretty..

Hi all!

How are you all doing on this grey and rainy Saturday? I'm still a bit tired from my day with Michelle and Michèle, but it was so worth it! We scored quite a few nice things so I'm sure you'll see them soon on one of our blogs :)

Today I have a polish for you that is a little more expensive than the polish I normally buy, but the minute I saw it in store, I actually already knew I had to have it. I'm not really into these LE's and I don't really get the whole Jade hunt that's been going on (as it sells for over $200 on eBay - yikes!). Anyway, without further ado... I present you: Chanel Nouvelle Vague!

Chanel Nouvelle Vague, three coats in daylight. The first picture isn't really color accurate, that's why I added the second pic. My ringfinger shows the color best. Nouvelle Vague is a pale light blue or turquoise polish with very subtle shimmer. This is three coats, but it would have been good (as in: no VNL or bumps) in two coats. Application was a little tricky since the first coat went on streaky and a little bumpy.

Nouvelle Vague is a part of the latest Chanel LE which also contains Mistral and Rivièra, but I didn't get those because, well, they're pink (and I own too many pinks already). I love love love Nouvelle Vague and I might even end up buying another bottle..

And a little preview from what's coming up at Nailswatches:
The Ciaté Summer Collection 2010.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Chanel Intermezzo

From the fall 2009 collection comes this white milky polish with pink shimmer. I have three coats and the nail line is still visible. One of the reasons why I am not a big fan of this polish. It is nothing special and a bit streaky. Not worth the price for me, but I am sure the sheer lovers out there will like it :)

Z podzimní kolekce roku 2009 je tenhle mléčně bílý lak s růžovými odlesky. Na fotkách mám tři vrstvy a pořád ještě prosvítá. To je i jeden z důvodů proč z tohodle laku nejsem moc nadšená. Nepřijde mi nijak extra úžasný a navíc ještě pruhuje. Jsem si ale jistá, že vyznavačky podobných laků budou slintat blahem :)

Woah! Chanel Gondola

Hi all!

A quickie today since I'm not at home at the moment, but I soooo wanted to share this polish with you! It is my first ever Chanel polish! I've been lemming this one since November 2009, ever since I saw swatches on MUA. I finally gave in when there was a sale, so now I'm the proud owner of Chanel Gondola! She's a part of the fall 2009 collection from Chanel and the only Chanel I considered buying.

I stared at the bottle for a couple of hours straight before I finally used her for a complete mani - I'm not gonna swatch this one only, she deserves to be worn!

Chanel Gondola, three coats with one coat of Nubar Diamont. Two coats would have been sufficient for wear only - macro is evil. Gondola is red with a twist. It's not plain red, but it's not burgundy or berry either, but somewhere in between. The shimmer in this polish is gold and red, which makes it awesome to look at. She's a true stunner in my opinion!

Application was not what I expected of a € 21,50 polish though. I had some lumps in the polish, so not all my nails were pretty. I want the polish to be smooth, but I had a few nails that weren't. That's not supposed to happen when you're buying something with this pricetag. However, further application was good. The dryingtime was good was well, even more because this was three coats and I thought I'd had to wait forever to dry.

I've worn this polish three days (I went to work on one of those days, so that means a lot of typing) and I had one minor chip. I was hoping she would be flawless, but she's not.. Too bad! Her beauty convinces me to wear her again. Whoah, so pretty..

I will be wearing her a lot in the future though, because I just love the color. It's not a plain color, it's so interesting to look at. What do you think of Chanel Gondola?

I wish you all a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

New Gray Nail Polish for Spring 2010

Remember when Chanel tipped us off that they'd be debuting a new nail polish shade at their Spring 2010 runway show?

Well, today they did. And gray is the word for spring.

Fall 2009's must have shade, Jade, was designed by Chanel creative director Peter Philips to accent the sea green highlight tone in their Fall tweed.

And this putty-ish shade (According to Style.com, its name is Particulière) is similarly complementary, acting as a smart accessory to the mainly monotone beige, gray, ivory and black nubby weaves in the Spring show. And it offers and edgy counterpoint to the tattoos Philips designed for the show.

The shade, which commenters are sounding off on at All Lacquered Up, appears to be a purple based gray that's a hair paler and purpler than Sephora by OPI's Metro Chic - one of the polishes at the forefront of the gray manicure movement back in Fall 2008 - and cements the dark nails trend that emerged in New York and remained consistent in London, Milan and now Paris.