Dior’s latest release is a New Look Collection which includes a new formula of DiorShow Mascara and four new quints. If you don’t follow Rouge Deluxe already, I highly recommend you do. I found out about this upcoming release on her blog. My love for shimmery neutrals is still going strong and I ordered the neutral options in Grège 734 and Royal Kaki 454 from Sephora.com last week (gotta love their samples and super fast shipping). Here is a quick peek at both palettes side by side. A detailed post with better swatches on each quint to follow.
Dior’s Spring Garden Party Collection has a romantic and youthful palette of greens, purples and pinks. This season Dior has released two rose-scented nail polishes for spring in Waterlily 504, a soft iridescent pale green shimmer and Forget-Me-Not 694, a lilac purple cream ($23 each). Both are limited edition.
Dior Waterlily 504 is a soft pastel mint green with subtle shimmer that is fun and youthful. The texture is slightly thicker than other Dior nail polishes I own, but still applies with smooth full coverage. I find Waterlily very similar to Chanel’s epic Jade, but the Dior is slightly more leaf-green while Chanel has a bit more mint. There is something oddly irresistible about a soft minty-green shimmer even though it is anything but office-appropriate (in my mind). I agree with Café Makeup that the finish is more satiny with the Dior for this particular shade. If you want the classic high-shine finish you will need a top coat. Below I’ve swatched Waterlily with 2 coats and no top coat:
Dior Forget-Me-Not 694 is a lilac purple cream with a very slight hint of silver microsparkle. It applies more like a cream and the shimmer is only detectable if you look at the bottles closely. Forget-Me-Not applies smoothly with 2 coats. It’s a lighter version of Dior’s Purple Mix.
I pulled my greens and purples to swatch comparisons. I picked the closest shades to finger swatch here:
A more comprehensive comparison set:
When the promotional photos came out of Dior’s Spring Collection, my initial thoughts were “pass.” The collection has some of the most exquisite detailing with the design and gorgeous spring-like colors, but everything seemed a bit too pastel for my taste. However as photos of the nail polishes popped up on blogs I could not resist. I wore Forget-Me-Not all week and it lasted quite well without any chipping. While this is a brighter non-neutral purple, I still felt comfortable wearing this to the office on the fingers. The rose scent is very subtle and only noticeable when I hold my fingers close to my nose. Here are a few other resources I recommend (not comprehensive but just a few of my favorites):
If you’re considering these at all I suggest you act fast since they are limited edition. My local Nordstrom only had one of each shade left in the store by the time I called. Did you pick anything up from Dior Spring? What were your thoughts?
I first learned about Dior Golden Era 207 ($22) when Dior first launched their new nail polishes in the revamped formula online at Dior.com. I instantly googled trying to find swatches. I found some via The Purse Forum from sweetart and peach. (who I just found out has a blog called à la peach) and caved when I ordered Silver Lake last month. At this time I’m not sure if it’s just out of stock or is a limited edition – I checked Dior.com and can’t find it listed anywhere.
Golden Era 207 is a luminous sparkling sandy gold with beautiful multi-colored shimmers. There are glimmering particles of silver, gold, red and transparent tiny glitters suspended in a sheer golden-beige base. The finish is rather sheer but layerable. I needed 4 coats to achieve full coverage so I could actually see the gold color (just my preference). With 3 or less the nail polish makes the fingers glow with a soft sheen. I loved how à la peach showed the layering effect with multiple layers (be sure to visit her blog).
Here are some more shots and close ups:
If you look closely you can see the red shimmers:
I looked through my stash and didn’t see anything quite like it. The red shimmers add that extra oomph to make Golden Era truly unique. I think we need more nail polishes like this. (The red shimmer in this is like the flecks of teal in Chanel Quartz – they add extra depth, dimension and sparkle.) I pulled out my other Diors, no dupes to be found from Timeless Gold, Or Divin, City of Gold or Camel.
Swatch comparisons plus two more golds: Chanel Beige d’Or and Estee Lauder Extravagant Pearl.
I really hope this is just temporarily sold out on Dior.com. Golden Era is such a lovely color and being more of a neutral gold, I feel it would be more universally flattering than the Or Divin from holiday this year. Now if I could only find an eyeshadow like this …
One last shot of Silver Lake and Golden Era side by side:
Dior has released a new edgy metallic silver nail polish called Silver Lake in celebration of Allure’s 20th Anniversary. It’s exclusive to Dior.com for $22. If you’re interested I suggest you act fast because it’s limited edition. Silver Lake 071 is a gorgeous complex silver loaded with all sorts of sparkles in shades of silver, gunmetal grey, blue and black. On the nails it’s a cooler-toned metallic with very slight blueish tones. I adore it. First question on everyone’s mind is: how does this compare to Chanel Graphite (click here for feature from last July)? It’s similar in the complexity but different in color. The Dior is more of a silver-gunmetal while the Chanel flashes more gold. I think they are different enough to justify owning both, but that’s just me. Scroll down below for the comparison details but first up are some more shots of Silver Lake. Applied with two coats below.
Dior Silver Lake 071
Dior Silver Lake versus Chanel Graphite
Close up comparison shots to a few other metallic silvers:
Chanel Graphite, Dior Silver Lake, Dior Silver Pearl
Comparisons to more shades: Chanel Graphite, Dior Silver Lake, Dior Silver Pearl,
Dior NY57th, OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous
Bottom line: Yes, you can dupe it with other brands, but I love Dior’s quality and finish. The color is to die for and I prefer it over Chanel Graphite. Those new to my blog, welcome! Kindly do not leave links in the comments as I like to keep this an advertising-free and spam-free blog. Also note all content and photos are copyrighted which means I do not allow photos to be republished, hot-linked, or used on other websites, message boards, forums, blogs etc.
Also, check out Makeup Magpie for her lovely swatches and comparisons.
Dior Couture Golds 554 Quint ($59 for 6 g/ 0.21 oz) has finally been spotted in-store at Nordstrom. I’ve looked everywhere online for this and have yet to find it listed anywhere yet. It appears to have had a slight delay in release compared to the other items in this year’s holiday collection (much like last year’s Five Golds). If you’re looking online I suspect it might be a while before we see it show up. I’d recommend you call your Dior counter to see if it has arrived. Couture Golds is a particularly festive mix of golds and creams. The colors in the palette are all high frost/shimmer with the exception of the dark blackened-brown. I would describe the shades as (from top left going clockwise finishing at the center):
frosted ivory cream
frosted warm coppery gold
shimmery warm golden bronze with slight beigey tones
dark matte black-brown with gold flecks
sparkling yellow-gold champagne that has slightly chunky reflective particles
All have excellent color payoff, except for that dark color which I think needs a dense brush and quite a bit of packing on to get decent pigment. All together Couture Golds has a beautiful glowy quality that is perfect for holiday.
Is this a must-have? My initial thoughts were “yes! this is the best palette of the season yet!” I still feel that last year’s holiday quint, Five Golds wins hands down, but I did think this year’s Couture Golds was a huge thumbs up until I swatched it on the arm and thought it looked oddly familiar – like Endless Shine. Here is Couture Golds with some comparisons and swatches. You can judge for yourself on the similarities. There are differences in sparkle quality and undertone. Perhaps they just look identical because of my skintone. For me, they are too close for comfort. After seeing them swatched side-by-side I couldn’t help but feel a bit let down thinking this was simply a re-hash or a previously released quint. I couldn’t fit everything on one arm, so swatches are grouped into twos.
Overall, I still feel that Couture Golds is the best eye palette of the holiday season. The sparking champagne in the center is so gorgeous with the chunky reflective particles. I prefer it over Endless Shine (even though they are very similar) so I can justify keeping it instead of re-gifting it to someone else. Will I be using Couture Golds this season? Absolutely yes. I just feel it could have been a bit more different than something previously released by the same brand.
Have you seen Dior Holiday in person? What were your thoughts?
Dior Exquis #611 ($22) is one of four nail colors in the Dior Vernis d’Or Collection this year for the holiday season. The theme this year for Dior is gold and each of the nail lacquers are infused with gold powder. Exquis has the complexity of colors like Chanel Peridot and Dior Bronze Libertine but I find that Exquis is softer & slightly less edgy making it easier to pull off for everyday. It is an intriguing color of taupe and brown mixed with gold shimmers. Depending on how the light hits your hands sometimes it looks taupe, sometimes it looks dark brown, other times a golden fawn. The finish is smooth and glossy. It requires two coats for full coverage. I’ve grown to love the chiseled tapered brush – it makes application so much easier.
Pretty gold veins:
I could not find a dupe in my stash. I have seen dupe attempts pop up online though some look quite close. The closest I have is Dior’s Bronze Libertine (Neiman Marcus exclusive from last year), but it’s not quite the same.
Some more comparisons on the nail wheel, L to R: Chanel Khaki Rose, Dior Aztec Chocolate, Exquis, Underground, Czarina Gold, OPI Melody in Mocha, OPI You Don’t Know Jacques, Sephora by OPI Already Famous, Dior Bronze Libertine.
Coming eventually, each shade from Dior’s Holiday 2011 collection but for now, here are the four lined up (all are limited edition so I recommend you act fast if these are on your wishlist):
On the West Coast in Southern California, Dior spotted at Nordstrom & Neimans (just not the quint yet) and Chanel Holiday spotted at Neimans but without testers. First a sneak peek at the nails for holiday. Left to right: Dior Or Divin 221, Exquis 611, Apparat 871, Merveille 651 & Chanel Rouge Carat 587.
