Les Khakis de Chanel: Khaki Brun, Khaki Vert & Khaki Rose

The highly anticipated Les Khakis de Chanel nail polishes for Fashion’s Night Out have finally arrived ($25 each). These are exclusive to select boutiques in the US so you won’t be seeing these at your local department store counters, unless they have a Chanel Studio that carries exclusives or imports collections. I’ve been anxious to see what these look like in real life as each swatch photo I’ve seen looks different. These are some other websites I’ve seen pictures on:

Sophy Robson: New Camouflage Chanel Collection
Lacquerized: Chanel Les Khakis Collection Swatches
Paper Blog: Les Khakis de Chanel
The Purse Forum – Beauty Bar
Café Makeup: Chanel Khaki Vert
Makeup & Beauty Blog: Chanel Les Khakis de Chanel
Temptalia: Chanel Les Khakis de Chanel Le Vernis

Here is my take:

All the Khaki shades have a smooth cream finish with no detectable shimmer, even in the bottles. They apply with absolute perfection – creamy & opaque with 2 coats. The colors are so not me – but I still caved. Curiosity got the best of me because it’s Chanel. My descriptions:

Outdoor lighting, no flash:

Four sets of swatches in different lighting, Khaki Rose looks slightly pinkish here only because it’s next to a green and a brown, but scroll down below for the comparison set to see how un-pink it really is. All with 2 coats, no base coat or top coat (hand swatched by me, so excuse the messy finish and unclean cuticles).

High flash and natural sunlight definitely bring out the color, but I find the above photos are more accurate.

From the promotional images I had wondered how these compared to existing shades. While I should have known what to expect with the khaki military colored theme – I kept thinking in my mind, “maybe they’ll be more wearable than they sound.” Right now I’m undecided. My favorite in the bunch is Khaki Vert. While the following comparisons are not exactly dupes, I hope they will give you a better idea of what the shades are like. I don’t own many medium browns or greens for nails.

Chanel Particuliere vs. Chanel Khaki Brun

Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow, Chanel Khaki Vert, Chanel Jade

*Update* Someone commented how close Particuliere looked to Khaki Rose. Upon reviewing my swatches/photos I saw how it might be misleading so I did another proper comparison set. Here is Particuliere v Khaki Rose v Khaki Brun. Interesting how Particuliere almost looks purple now.

Overall thoughts: I have gone way outside of my comfort zone in buying these colors. My favorite color in the trio is Khaki Vert. I normally think Chanel does it best with the nail colors, but in this case I much prefer RBL Diddy Mow to Khaki Vert. (I bought Diddy Mow because it looked so good on Cafe Makeup – see her swatch/review linked.)

I can definitely see myself wearing Khaki Vert and Khaki Rose. The Brun shade – I’m not sure. It has me going “hmmmmmm …” I think if I had seen and tried it in person myself I would not have purchased it. Still, I have to give kudos to Chanel – only they can manage to capture my attention and $$$ with these odd shades for the nails.

All shades purchased by me. These are available at select Chanel boutiques around the US and is rumored to be online starting 09/10/10 for Fashion’s Night Out.