This is a quick post to show you the two new nail shades from Dior in the Electric Tropic Duos in Aloha and Paradise, each $26 including a top coat. These colors are vibrant. I’m sure you could spot them from a mile away. They are that bright.
Aloha 638 was featured earlier (see one post down). My Dior Paradise 558 photo attempts = total fail. The neon simply does not do well with my camera. In this post are the comparison pictures of the two shades in the bottles and a few shots of Paradise. To quote Café Makeup, “Paradise is within an entirely different species of nail polish” – INDEED! I do have a couple Paradise swatches below. Note that I am not being modest when I say the photos below are extremely poor in quality and accuracy. Paradise is a jelly neon pink that dries to a matte finish. The texture is so interesting – just like jelly shoes. I highly recommend these sources for better swatches:
In real life Paradise is a hot sheer cool pink, it doesn’t glow like this in person, but this is the best I could do – see how it kinda blinds my camera:
One last shot:
Aloha (shown one post below) photographed much better! It’s my favorite of the two.
Dior and Chanel have both released hot colors for nails this summer. Dior’s Electric Tropics Nail Duos are the winners for representing a “true summer” resort theme with Aloha and Paradise. Chanel’s Mimosa, Morning Rose and Beige Petale, while absolutely stunning, seem more “spring” to me, but I feel both collections are wearable for year round – especially for us Southern California girls.
There are two color options for the Electric Tropics Catwalk Nail Duos ($26 each, on Dior.com, personally spotted at Nordstrom and Saks) which consist of a bright neon jelly-finish nail color paired with a quick-dry top coat. Aloha is an electified tangerine and Paradise is a glowing neon pink. The fact that both Aloha and Paradise are fluorescent made these incredibly difficult for me to photograph accurately. My camera doesn’t do so well with neons. Aloha photographed better so I decided to feature this one first.
The duos each retail for $26 which seem incredibly reasonable in price considering full sized nail polishes retail for $21. Aloha 638 is a hot orange that looks incredibly bright when any bit of light hits the nail color. In real life the shade it looks a bit more reddish – like a burnt orange color. Regardless of the lighting though, Aloha glows. The texture is smooth and slightly transparent due to the almost jelly like finish but goes on with full rich color in two coats. It dries to a soft semi matte finish but there is still shine. (Paradise on the other hand dries to a non-shiny finish.) These are officially THE brightest shades I own.
There is a little instruction card that comes with each duo:
Here it is in direct sunlight – electric! Two coats Aloha, 1 coat Top Coat:
In different lighting, not direct sunlight, but with flash – still neon (note, in real life, it’s more reddish):
At an angle you can see how it’s slightly transparent/see through near the tips of the nails:
No matter what lighting – it looks fiercely fluorescent, like a super bright orange electrified. In real life you can see more of a reddish hint to it so it’s not a pure orange on me, but more of a tangerine bright.
I thought Chanel Orange Fizz (here) and RBL Coral (here) were bright. Nothing compares to the Dior. Next to Chanel Coromandel (here) the Dior Vernis Aloha looks like it has no red, but it really does.
Overall Dior is the winner for summer brights. My bright nails combined with the beachy coconut smell of Jo Malone’s Sweet Milk Cologne make me feel like it’s summer. I personally prefer the Aloha far more than Paradise. It will go with a crisp white shirt, a silk navy blouse, a white and black printed button down – the versatility is amazing considering it’s such a vibrant in-your-face bright.
So far the top coat seems to be like a winner. Smooth coverage and my nails are shiny. No shrinkage of bubbling (huge plus). The texture seems thinner than most top coats so it’s not quite as shiny as some others. I’m really impressed so far but I’ll have to see how it wears in the next few days to really decide.
I liked these other reviews of Dior Aloha which I think you’ll find helpful:
I searched for possible dupes of Chanel Morning Rose and Beige Pétale but could not find anything in my stash that was identical to either shade. Those looking for cheaper alternatives, I do think with a bit more searching it might be possible to find similar colors from Zoya or OPI. However, I am usually of the opinion that Chanel does it best with nail colors.
I pulled colors in the same family for Morning Rose and Beige Pétale. There are quite a few similar shades, but no true dupes. I could not find any bright yellows to compare Mimosa to. But I suspect since this seems to be the “it” shade for summer, other blogs will be doing dupes soon.
L to R: Chanel Riviera, MAC Girls Will Be Girls, Chanel Mistral, Dior Flapper Pink, Chanel Ming, Chanel Morning Rose, Paul & Joe #12
A few shades swatched on the fingers (2 coats each):
Chanel’s Summer Collection has hit counters and I snapped up all three new Le Vernis shades in Morning Rose 557, Beige Pétale 567 and Mimosa 577 (yes, I caved for Mimosa). These are mood changing shades and as soon as I put these on I instantly forgot that it was cold and gloomy. Hours after swatching these, I still have a different shade on each finger and I feel like I’m wearing candy on my fingertips.
The Le Vernis shades have recently increased in price to $25 each which is fairly steep. I remember when Chanel nail polishes were $18, but in all fairness the formula wasn’t quite as good as they are now.
Morning Rose 557 is a warm candy pink with gold sparkles (the sparkles are subtle)
Beige Pétale 567 is a sheer transparent cool-toned cream (I’m loving this shade even though it’s so basic, it applies so smoothly)
Mimosa 577 the most highly anticipated shade of summer is a vibrant pearly yellow (I wonder if I’ll be brave enough to wear this to the office)
The texture and pigment of the nail colors seems slightly different from the classic Chanel Le Vernis texture. I will have to play around with these more but all the shades for summer are 3-coaters. Morning Rose and Beige Pétale applied wonderfully smooth and without any issues. Mimosa, on the other hand, was a disaster for me. It took 5 attempts for me to get a decent finger swatch. I tried it on a bare clean nail, over Chanel’s Base Coat, over Seche Vite’s Base Coat and RBL’s Base Coat. The texture is thick and applies unevenly. It took a super slow and steady hand for me to get it to work. It was difficult to get the right amount of product on the brush. In the end, I applied 3 thin streaky coats. It evens out by the 3rd coat. I highly recommend reading British Beauty Blogger’s experience and Beauty Moogle Zone’s thoughts as well. Close ups below:
Swatches on fingers, 3 coats each color:
Added in Miami Peach (Neimans exclusive, repromote, reviewed last week) for fun:
My favorite shades are Beige Petale and Morning Rose. I’m smitten with Miami Peach too. Mimosa is surprisingly a wonderful yellow (the shimmer on the nail is beautiful) just very difficult for me to apply on my own. I think with practice or a professional application it will look amazing. I’m just not used to having such a streaky finish with the first coat (at least not for Chanel) but much like others have noticed, Mimosa evens out with 2-3 coats.
I did not have time to do any comparisons yet but will try to do some before the end of this week. Off the top of my head, Beige Pétale is more beige than Allegoria which I find more white.
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For Chanel Liberte v Misia: Liberte is more milky and less shimmery but more pigmented while Misia is brighter more vibrant and has a sheerer shimmery texture with more red.
For those wondering whether I prefer Chanel’s Miami Peach or Orange Fizz: right now the vote goes to Miami Peach. Do note that Miami Peach is less pigmented with a slight jelly-like finish. The gold shimmer is very fine and not very noticeable. Orange Fizz is clearly more orange and has that amazing rich smooth opaque coverage Chanel is well known for these days, it may be harder to pull off on all skintones.
Chanel Rouge Coco Shine was launched in the US yesterday. I stopped by Neimans to pick up the two exclusives: Rouge Coco Shine in Misia 45 (bright tangerine with a silvery sheen) and Le Vernis in Miami Peach 203 (repromote from years past but exclusive to Neimans). Both are perfect for summer.
Miami Peach & Misia (click picture to see the shimmers better):
Rouge Coco Shine Misia 45 is a bright tangerine with a slight silvery sheen. It does have shimmer but on the lips it doesn’t really show the frost. It glides on like a lip balm. Texture is sheer but since this is a brighter color it does show up on me. I do need a few swipes on the lip to get it to show. I’m unsure of the lasting power of this. I’ll report back later when I review a few of the other shades. It does feel weightless on the lips and moisturizing. It’s an easy to apply color with a flawless glowy finish.
Two swipes each lip (taken early morning, I think the lighting makes me look darker than I really am):
Miami Peach 203 Le Vernis is a repromote. It’s a soft but bright coral with a slight hint of pink. It has tiny bits of gold shimmer but you can only see it on the nails in direct light. It applies like a jelly color – slightly transparent. I asked for 3 coats because I wanted more color but 2 coats was just fine.
Chanel’s summer collection is due to be released very soon, but I still can’t get enough of the Spring 2011 Le Vernis shades (all nail polishes featured, reviewed and compared here in Dear Chanel, I Love You!). I’ve worn Black Pearl 513 on numerous occasions on tips and toes since December and I’ve worn Pearl Drop 511 twice.
Right now, Laura from Jonesy Loves and I are both smitten with Pêche Nacrée 515, a beautiful soft luminous peachy pearl that has the perfect balance of shimmer and cream. We got matching manicures this weekend after a scrumptious lunch. It was the perfect way to cheer up a gloomy cloudy day.
Below is what it looks like on me (two coats and it just glows):
Here it is on Laura who is fairer and cooler than me (Chanel Pêche Nacrée went with her white dress perfectly, see her full dress here):
On me (left) versus her (right), both of us had two coats applied, I like it better on Laura:
Bottom line: We can’t stop staring at our nails! It’s subtle but polished. Plus we’ve both agreed that nobody beats Chanel Nail Polishes with their perfect color, texture and sheen 🙂
