Dior has launched a new formula of nail polish called Dior Vernis Gel Shine and Long Wear Nail Lacquer ($25 each) with some classic and new shades. I’ve been a huge fan of Dior nail polishes and loved the reformulation a few years ago. I didn’t think it was possible to get better but it has.
There are a variety of colors available but you may have to do some hunting to find a particular color. Not all counters or stores received the same shades. I purchased a few from Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and then ordered a couple shades not available at counters from the Dior Palazzo Boutique in Las Vegas.
I’ll have individual reviews of the colors I bought in the next few weeks (follow me on Instagram at @beautylookbook for a few sneak peeks of Tra-La-La, Aventure and Front Row). The brushes are slightly thinner and a bit more fanned out/rounded than the last version of the chiseled tip. Formula is amazing. I’ve been wearing one on my toes for 2 weeks without any chipping or tip wear. And another color on my hands lasted 5 days without tip wear or chipping.
I swatched all the new Gel Formula colors available at Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus counters (many thanks to the kind associates who let me pull out my nail wheel). Many of the classic colors have been re-launched (colors are identical to older formula with same name/numbers).
Swatched
155 Tra-La-La
257 Incognito
575 Wonderland
551 Aventure
758 Victoire (ordered from boutique, has gold shimmer)
661 Bonheur
754 Pandore
999 Rouge
769 Front Row
Mirage
853 Massai
494 Junon
403 Palais Royal
803 Metal Montaigne
618 Vibrato (ordered from boutique)
970 Nuit 1947
Not swatched
108 Muguet
237 Milly
268 Ruban
306 Trianon
428 Sienna
537 Riviera
659 Lucky
918 Hypnotic
I will have reviews up in the next week, I’m still putting the formula to the test with various base and top coats 🙂
The Dior Vernis Gel Formulas are available now at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Macys and Dior. Also available at Dior Beauty The Shoppes at Palazzo in Las Vegas, ask for Massiel and tell her I sent you! Their phone number is (702)-734-1102.
Marc Jacobs Beauty items from Sephora, accessories Marc Jacobs Sharpies, Heart Notebook and Postcard from Bookmarc located in Los Angeles on Melrose
I’ve recently fallen in love with a few more items from Marc Jacobs Beauty. I’ve been a huge fan of the Hi-Shine Nail Lacquers which I really like for the packaging, color pigment, and price. Today I am featuring three new items I’ve discovered.
Lola Hi-Shine Nail Lacquer ($18 for 13 ml) is a flawless bright jelly red, it’s a one-coat wonder nail color that covers the entire nail with one swipe, I’ve only tested for a couple days now but in my experience, Marc Jacobs nail lacquers have decent lasting power with no tip wear or chipping through day 5 or 6 (I use with Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Base Coat and Dior Gel Top Coat).
Role Play Lip Gel ($30 for 3.6g) is my new holy grail nude pink lip, it’s an interesting formula, not quite like a traditional lipstick, it is a gel lipstick with full coverage and a cushy moisturizing feel. This covered my lip entirely, it’s like a lighter modern version of what I wanted MAC Twig/Spirit to be, it’s a neutral rose pink nude that isn’t too light and not too dark.
Kissability Lust for Lacquer ($28 for 5 ml) is a sheer rose with gold and pink shimmers. It comes with a sponge tip applicator. The formula is very sheer so I recommend using this on top of lipsticks for more color, it has a vanilla scent with a cool tingley finish (thank goodness it did not irritate or numb my super sensitive lips).
I’m overall impressed with the lip products. I don’t know why it took me so long to try them. I am already looking to try more of the lipsticks. Now that Marc Jacobs Beauty has been out on the market for a while, I’d love to hear what your thoughts are. What have you fallen in love with? What would you recommend passing on? Yays or nays are all welcome.
You can find Marc Jacobs Beauty at select Marc Jacobs boutiques and at all Sephora stores. Online at Sephora.com and MarcJacobsBeauty.com.
I’ve been on a natural nude-pink nail polish kick ever since Tom Ford Sugar Dune was released for spring. I’ve since been wearing a lot of light and neutral pinks on the nails. For me light pink is a bit difficult to find, most are either too pale, too sheer or apply unevenly. I’ve still managed to find quite a few variations of light and nude pink with great formulas, application and wear. The colors that made my top picks:
Rescue Beauty Lounge Thank You ($20) is a nude pink with light pearl particles. It flashes blue and pink for a cool-toned sheen but has a nude pink base to prevent it from looking too pale. This color looks good on everyone I’ve seen it on. It’s shown below with two coats.
Tom Ford Sugar Dune ($32) is my ultimate perfect nude pink. As discussed in my review a few months ago, application can be a bit time consuming, it is one of the higher maintenance nudes but once applied is a clean polished neutral light pink. It is limited-edition so if you’re interested I suggest you try to track one down sooner than later.
Burberry Nude Pink and Ash Rose ($21 each) both beautiful polished clean neutrals. Scroll down through the archives (last couple weeks) to see a more detailed review on each shade.
Nude Pink:
Ash Rose:
OPI My Very First Knockwurst can be found at a number of retailers. I either purchase my OPI from Drugstore.com or Ulta. I found this to be the most difficult to apply and it required three coats. However the price of OPI is much more affordable compared to high end brands. Most of the time OPI applies just as well (sometimes better) than other luxury nail polishes. In this case, this one was a bit of a nightmare to apply. It required three coats but I love the color of this shade.
Chanel Rose Cache ($27) is a classic sheer natural pink. It has that secret-shimmer in the bottle that disappears once applied on the nail. It looks different on everyone I’ve seen but is a universally flatting easy to wear/go with everything kind of nail polish.
Dior Incognito ($24) is my favorite classic nude pink. It’s not too dark and not too pale. Just the right in between. Do note this one is coming out in the gel formula (have not tried yet). You may want to wait for that color to be released in stores near you. But for now I’ve been a huge fan of all Dior’s nail polish formulas. The application is smooth and flawless with very good lasting power. Everything from the formula to brush design of Dior’s nail colors makes application very easy.
Zoya Rue ($9) is a classic nude pink with a hint of cool-mauve. I haven’t had much experience with Zoya but the brand has performed well for me on the occasions I have tried it. Rue was part of a recent nude collection. It’s a lovely natural pink cream. Below is Rue shown with three coats.
What’s your favorite nude pink nail polish? Do you have any staple go-to’s? If I were pressed to pick just three, I would narrow down my picks to Tom Ford Sugar Dune, Dior Incognito and Burberry Nude Pink as my favorites.
As promised here are some comparison swatches for two of the Dior Voyage Transatlantique Manicure Sets in Yacht 210 and Captain 750 (Saks exclusive, limited-edition).
Captain is a classic red. You will most likely find it very similar to other classic reds. It has a bit more warmth than other Diors without being orangey. Captain has no blue. It’s a bit brighter and warmer than Dior Trafalgar. Captain also has a jelly finish. Below compared to Dior Calypso (discontinued and more pink), Tom Ford Ginger Fire (more orangey), Chanel Coromandel (deeper and more red), Chanel Enthusiast (pretty close but slightly darker) and Dior Tie & Dye (darker).
Dior Beauty has released a Saks-exclusive collection called Voyage Transatlantique which consists of a new highlighter, 5-pan eyeshadow palette, two glosses, two lipsticks and three nail colors. I picked up two of the Manicure Duos in Captain 750 (a vibrant red) and Yacht 210 (a cool-toned nude), both of which come in a manicure set with a mini Dior nail file and nail stickers ($30 each). I spotted the items at Saks Beverly Hills a few weeks ago but they did not have a tester unit up yet and some of the product had not yet arrived in store for sale.
Both Dior Captain and Yacht nail polishes applied smoothly with two coats. I found the brushes to be a bit thinner with these than other Dior nail polishes but the brushes still have the tapered round tips. There was no difference in application for me though. Both were applied with Chanel Base Coat and Top Coat. The stickers look super cute but I found them to be a bit too big for my fingers – at this point I’m still not entirely sure how to use them. More photos and swatches below (comparisons to come in a separate post shortly, but so far no dupes.)
Captain 750 is a flawless vibrant red. It’s has a slightly warmer tone than most other Dior reds but it’s not orangey. This had a thin jelly like texture but the pigment is very impressive. The application was absolute perfection with one swipe. Below I have it applied with two coats.
Yacht 210 looked like your standard nude cream. However it is a bit cool-toned making it more clay-like but not quite grey. It’s a mix of beige and grey cream and doesn’t make me look like death. It applied perfectly with two coats.
Both colors are beautiful classics. The colors are fairly simple and seem standard but they apply flawlessly and give a nice clean polished look without extra work involved. Lasting power for me has been very good with Dior nail polishes so far with up to 6 days no tip wear or chipping. (Note there is a third shade called Sailor which is a bright deep blue if you like to collect Dior nail colors, however I passed on it.) Stay tuned for comparisons later this afternoon. Did you pick up anything from the Dior Voyage Transatlantique collection?
The Dior Voyage Transatlantique collection is currently exclusive to Saks locations and the Dior Palazzo Boutique in Las Vegas. Both Manicure Transat duos retail for $30 each for the set of stickers and nail file.
I’ve been playing with a few Burberry nail polishes over the past few months. I fell in love with the color of Oxblood No. 303 even though the brush was a bit difficult for me to work with. I ordered both Nude Pink No. 101 and Ash Rose No. 103 ($21 each for 8 ml/.27 fl oz) sight unseen as they seemed like the perfect delicate nude pinks.
The formula of these two colors is similar to that of Oxblood in the sense that the first coat applies streaky and uneven. Adding a second slightly thicker coat (after the first coat dries completely) results in a flawless finish although application does require patience and an extra steady hand. This is a polish where the best application is to load the polish onto brush a bit thicker than you normally would and skim lightly over the nail in one quick steady sweep. In my experience I’ve found most pigmented nudes a bit more high maintenance to apply in general, I’m not sure why this is the case. Sheer nudes are easy to apply but require multiple coats to show up. The Burberry nail polishes fall somewhere in between for me. (For more detail on the formula, packaging and brushes, refer to my review on Oxblood.)
Nude Pink No. 101 just might be my perfect polished nude pink. It is a perfect blend of nude and pink. I find that it has enough color in it to prevent it from looking too nude. Here it is with two coats. I used this with Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Base Coat and Rescue Beauty Lounge Top Coat. Lasting power was quite impressive at over 6 days without any tip wear or chipping.
Ash Rose No. 103 is a lovely mauve pink with a slight hint of grey. This one is pigmented but has a slightly transparent quality. It has enough nude to prevent it from being a cold mauve. The transparent finish makes it look a bit more natural than other mauves look. I applied it with two coats below.
I didn’t have time to photograph comparison swatches yet although I am working on a post I hope to have up by the end of the week. So far I couldn’t find any dupes. Burberry Nail Polishes retail for $21 each at Nordstrom, Burberry and Saks. What’s your perfect nude pink?
Chanel just released a small collection focused on lips and nails. I spotted a new tester unit of the collection at Nordstrom this past weekend and was excited to try the new lip colors, however many of the slots for lips had colors that were from spring and previous collections. The counter rep did not know which ones were supposed to be featured with this collection stating all the colors in this set were repromotes. This turned out to be partially true – for a full list of what’s in the Variation Collection check out Specktra.net. I left the counter with two glossimers (swatches later this week) and the new nail lacquer in Coup de Coeur #609 ($27 for 13 ml/0.4 fl oz).
Coup de Coeur #609 is described as a lacquered plum. It’s just that – however it proved to be challenging to photograph. It has quite a bit of red mixed into the color but on the nails and in real life it’s a purply-plum shade. In sunlight and on the camera it wants to look more red – which is why you may see it look very different in reviews or message boards. To my eye it looks more like a mauve plum with a very slight hint of red.
Coup de Coeur #609 applied very smoothly with full coverage after two coats. It has a high shine finish like most Chanel nail colors. It’s a classic shade that I think will be universally flattering.
Here you can see all the shades pulling more red in the direct sunlight:
More comparison swatches, left to right (previous reviews linked for each shade in case you want to see more swatches): Chanel Infidele, Coup de Couer, April, Paparazzi, Provocation, Elixir, Rescue Beauty Lounge Bruised and Chanel Rouge Moire.
Overall Coup de Coeur #609 is a lovely classic plum. It looks very similar to April on the hands, the difference is that April is warmer and more reddish. From arms length I think would not be able to tell the difference.
Coup de Coeur #609 Le Vernis from Chanel retails for $27. I only spotted it at one store last weekend but the collection should arrive at your counters soon. Online now at Nordstrom, Bloomingdales and Saks.
