I’m always drawn to matched lip and nail collections. I loved the Chanel Extrait de Gloss Collection (from 2010, see summary on Karla Sugar) and the recent MAC Fashion Sets, in particular Angel and Please Me (see lineup on Temptalia here, here and here). Right now I’m loving something that’s a little more mixed lip/nail combination and something a little less matched, but still in the same color family. Here are a few mixed and matched combination sets I’m loving right now. Swatches below as well.
Glowing neutrals
Left to right: YSL Golden Sand #54 Gloss
YSL Golden Shell #51 Gloss
Chanel Island #597 Le Vernis
Chanel Pêche Nacrée #515 Le Vernis
Corals and golds
Left to right: Chanel Nakkar #149 Glossimer
Dior Brown Panama #432 Addict Ultra Gloss
Chanel Holiday #617 Le Vernis
Chanel Delight #607 Le Vernis
Snapshot of jewelry from J.Crew’s Published June Style Guide and online at J.Crew here(I need one of those bracelets!) (Online versions of the J.Crew catalog are published on their website, currently May’s Style Guide is available to browse, I suspect June’s will be uploaded soon)
Pink lavenders
Left to right: Laura Mercier Nude Lilac Lip Glace
Dolce and Gabbana Lilac Nail Polish
Dolce and Gabbana Raspberry Lip Gloss
NARS Ratin Jot Nail Polish
What are lip and nail combinations are you loving right now?
Chanel’s Rouge Allure Velvet formula was released last fall (see swatches on Karla Sugar, Messy Wands and Rouge Deluxe). Being a huge fan of the luxurious feel of the regular Rouge Allures, I was excited to try the new Velvet formula, however the two shades that caught my eye were not available to the US. Since the initial release, Chanel has released La Distinguée 33 and La Furtive 31 exclusively on Chanel.com for a limited time ($32.50 each). Unfortunately it appears that La Furtive (released online last November) is no longer available on their website. I’m not sure if they will bring it back or not. I hope they do.
Rouge Allure Velvets come in the same packaging as the regular Rouge
Allures. I love the pop-up feature of the packaging and the sleek simple
black tube. The coverage is full on me and the lipstick adheres well to the lips. To me these are like a velvet/cashmere blend for the lips. Even though these are described as matte, there is still a slight sheen to these and the texture is soft/smooth. They glide on the lips without any tugging. Lasting power is medium. Finish is rich but natural coverage. Texture settles in to mimic the feel of your natural lip.
La Distinguée 33 is a peach-pink with a velvet matte finish. There is a slightly luminous mixture of peach and pink in the color which gives it depth and a soft glow, even with the matte finish. La Distinguée goes on my lips a brightened peach tinged with pink. On my lips it leans more towards the warm/peach side. It glows and definitely brightens the face without looking too bright.
La Furtive 31 is a satiny peachy nude. This shade was featured on the runway at the 2011/2012 Fall/Winter show (as seen on La Chanelphile and Café Makeup). This color is borderline too nude alone. It doesn’t make me look completely washed out, but almost. I think this one would look best with a slightly deeper liner blended over the lip first. While I feel the color can be easily duped by other neutral nudes (MAC, Bobbi Brown come to mind), I think the formula is absolutely to die for in terms of application and feel. I really hope Chanel brings this back online.
Photos and swatches below.
La Distinguée 33:
La Furtive 31:
Overall, a huge thumbs up for both shades. If I had to decide between the two, I would highly recommend La Distinguée 33. US girls note this is limited edition on Chanel.com, if you are contemplating this shade, order soon!
Here are some finger swatches of Chanel Beige #565. Two coats achieve a semi-transparent finish. The results from application (myself and professionally) were both a bit uneven. I personally think the coverage could be more even with three coats instead. It’s clearly a beige tinged with yellow undertones. The pearly pink flashes prevent this from looking sallow on my hands. Depending on the light sometimes I love it, other times I’m meh. It’s a nice-to-have shade, but not a must-have. It is indeed unique in my collection of neutrals and beiges though. Someone in the prior post asked if this was a repeat/repromoted shade. I believe this is new, but I’m not 100% sure. I do know early when I started noticing Chanel (in the mid-90s) that there were several variations of a “beige” shade. Le Beige, Natural Beige, Beige de Chanel or something along those lines seem familiar names, but I don’t believe any of them had any iridescent quality.
Chanel.com’s exclusive Le Vernis shade in Beige 565 just arrived yesterday ($26 each). Here’s a quick look at the color plus comparisons. I couldn’t get good nail swatch photos before the sun went down. Hopefully I’ll be able to post better photos this week. Chanel Beige 565 is a true beige. I was hoping it would be a pearly beige with pinkish/pearl tones like the promotional photos online. It does have a luminous pink glow that flashes (much like Jade Rose, Rose Cache, Distraction) but it’s more of a nude-yellowish beige. I personally find it flattering and polished looking, although I’m not sure that fairer skins will like this. It might have too much yellow. Initial impressions are that this has decent coverage but it doesn’t apply flawlessly like Dragon, Riviera, Blue Boy etc. It’s not quite as difficult as say Mimosa or Riva to apply though. More thoughts to come later, but I’m happy I purchased this one.
You can see the shimmer when you hold the bottle at an angle in direct sunlight.
Comparisons to other beige-nudes below. Note that Chanel Beige Petale was not swatched because it’s so sheer. You can see it reviewed here though. I believe most of the other shades swatched have been reviewed in the past (use the search bar to find more detailed reviews and swatches). You can see that Chanel Beige is fairly unique and more of a beige-yellow nude. All photos by me. Kindly respect the copyright and do not republish without permission.
This summer Chanel has continued in the striped-bronzer theme and released two new variations of their Soleil Tan de Chanel bronzers in a luminous powder compact. The two colors this year are Sable Beige 907 and Sable Rose 917 ($60 for 15g/0.53 oz, both limited edition). Both shades contain 7 stripes of color each although to my eye, it appears that there are some repeats of colors within each pattern. The finish of both of these are subtle with a finely milled shimmer. It makes the skin glow without having too much shimmer. I recommend testing on the face in person since swatching on the hand or arm will not give you the same effect as on the face. I had similar thoughts/experiences to Product Doctor. The finish of these are softer than previous years. I also did not find these to be the typical bronzer, but rather a more luminous glow blush/highlighter – minus the frost or shimmer. This year’s releases are more glowy and sandy/beige than last year’s which I found more brown/bronzey.
Sable Beige 907 is a soft light beige bronze shimmer. I found this to be a lovely subtle warm contour. It can be used as a blush alone for lighter skins or over other colors of blush as well. I don’t recommend applying over a bare face. The texture needs some kind of base (foundation or tinted moisturizer) to show up. Sable Beige is the lighter of the two.
Sable Rose 917 is the darker bronzer. It has more bronze and pink stripes which make this more of a soft luminous rose-brown blush on my skin. On me the brown/beige dominate over the pink and shows up as more of a soft tawny bronze with a slight hint of pink. It’s lovely alone as a blush and has enough color to wear by itself.
More shots of both Sable Beige and Sable Rose shown side by side.
Swatched:
Overall thumbs up. When I called my Nordstrom Chanel associate, she thought I did not need either of these if I had both of last year’s bronzers. I still bought both. After playing with both I think she is correct, however if you found last year’s muddy on your skin, give these new ones a try. I can’t emphasize enough that what you see on the arm/hand will not translate to what you will see on the face. I’m about a 1/2 shade lighter (Chanel B30) than I was last year so I think both show up well on my skin. If you have doubts about which shade would look best on you, I recommend calling your Chanel counter to have a specialist help.
Are these must-haves? At $60 each and given my current bronzer collection, I could have probably just bought 1 although I can’t pick my favorite. I’ve been wearing Sable Rose regularly since I purchased it. It’s an easy no-fuss go-with-everything kind of color that works with all types of lip colors. I haven’t found one yet that didn’t work well with it.
Many have asked how these compare to last year’s. A more detailed comparison post to come soon.
Several have asked how the newly released Delight nail polish compares to Quartz from last fall stating they appear to look very similar. When I first saw Delight at the counters, I thought the exact same thing even though this shade was described as “bronzey”. I thought perhaps the department store lighting is playing tricks on my eyes. Once I got home, I put them together side-by-side and I found they were quite different which is why I didn’t include Quartz in my original comparison. I do strive for color accuracy for this blog, but varying monitors and differing light conditions can make it hard to tell what a color really looks like, even with numerous comparisons to other brands/shades. To answer those who have asked, this is what I found:
Delight is more golden, highly metallic/sparkley and warmer in tone
Quartz is not as frosty, has more silver/taupe/grey tones, and applies with a more subtle shimmer finish
Both shades contain multi-colored particles which makes these difficult to photograph. Quartz has those gorgeous teal flecks of micro-shimmer that you can only see at certain angles. Delight also has quite a few variations of metallic shimmers which is why it looks bronzey in the bottle but more lighter and more golden on the fingers. Multiple views below under different lights and at different angles. Note that I had no direct sunlight today, the weekend has been cloudy. I drove about 20 minutes away from the coast looking for a cloudless area (and an excuse to pick up one more sprinkles cupcake), but no luck finding sunshine today.
Swatched on the fingers, two coats for each shade:
And one last nail wheel comparison to Tom Ford Burnt Topaz (so you can see that Delight isn’t quite as bronzey, but more golden), Quartz (is one of those shades that looks different in every photograph), and Graphite (to show how Delight has a similar sparkley finish):
I hope this extra comparison post helps compare Delight vs Quartz! I personally really loved Quartz, but I think due to the taupe-ness, it can look a bit drab on some skintones sometimes (mine included). Delight has more glitz and warmth which makes me think this will be a bigger hit with a wider variety of skintones. It’s easier to wear in my opinion, even though it’s highly metallic, it’s still work friendly but has enough omph to wear on a nice evening out.
Also, for those who asked about the rest of the collection, I did purchase quite a bit from the Chanel Summer 2012 release, but most likely won’t be reviewing them due to time constraints. Some quick thoughts:
Bronzers are softer than last year’s and less brownish (at least on me) with a more finely milled shimmer. If I could only pick 1 it would be the Sable Beige. I don’t think they are must-haves, but that is just my opinion. I still bought both.
Sable-Emouvant Duo is gorgeous. It’s a pumped up version of the Taupe-Delicat, definitely a must-have, although probably very similar to other bronzey-coppers and beige shimmers from other brands. The pigment is excellent and the shimmer isn’t overly-frosty. Stunning and very easy to wear.
Sirocco or Calypso Glossimers aren’t must-haves if you have a lot of Chanel Glossimers already. The golden-beige is very sheer and virtually transparent. I found the coral is a bit different from other orangey glosses Chanel has released, but still very close.
En Vogue Rouge Coco Shine applies with a pinkish sheen rather than the orange it appears to be in the tube, different enough from Flirt to justify owning.
Empreinte Rouge Coco Shine looked really pretty in the tube, I haven’t tried it on the lips yet, I assume it will barely show up on my lips.
Brun Intense eyeliner was a pass since it was a basic matte brown (I already love and adore BB’s Gel Eyeliners).
Peach Cuivre eyeliner is an intriguing metallic peach that I could not resist. I have no idea how I’m going to wear it though. I suspect it’s similar in concept to those metallic eyeliners from Armani but I don’t know how they compare (I never checked out the spring collection in close detail).
My top 5 picks from the collection include the nail polishes in Island and Delight, Peach Cuivre Eyeliner, Sable Beige Bronzer and the Sable-Emouvant Duo. For more details/discussion, I found the Chanel Summer 2012 forum on Specktra helpful with descriptions, extra photos, swatches and all those extra tidbits of awesome info from Chanel lovers around the world.
