Snapshot – Mint Greens

Here’s a small mint green collection (although Nouvelle Vague has a greater proportion of blue, it’s not really mint green, though), just for comparison.

Essie Mint Candy Apple – Essie Turquoise & Caicos – Orly Ancient Jade – Eyeko Vintage – Essence Viva La Green – Chanel Nouvelle Vague

[Dior] Silver Lake

I’d been after this for ages and even asked my husband – when he spent some days in Paris in November – to visit the Dior boutique at Avenue Montaigne and ask for Silver Lake. However, they had never heard of this shade (which was released in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Allure Magazine). Finally, I did an eBay bargain a couple of weeks ago.

Two coats. Silver polishes are great and this one is pretty sparkly.

Very close.

I also recognised that Silver Lake (on the left) is really close to Metallic Silver.

[Dior] Electric Blue

Electric Blue was last weekend’s choice, this is another shade from the Anselm Reyle Collection, which was released as a limited edition in January. This is a very bright blue.

Two coats.

Taken outside with my mobile phone.

Like many Dior varnishes, Eletctric Blue too, contains a hidden shimmer. Love this!

When I first saw this, p2 gigantic came to my mind, so I did a quick bottle comparison, and they are quite similar. If it wasn’t discontinued, gigantic would be a good alternative to Electric Blue, in terms of its bright, almost neon blue.

[Chanel] Tentation

Bought this yesterday at my favourite department store, Alsterhaus, along with the other three varnishes from the “Roses Ultimes de Chanel” collection. I liked Tentation at once; it’s a bright fuchsia with a visible magenta shimmer, at least in the bottle.

Great coverage after just one coat, however, photos were taken with two coats. I was so excited to try this (and have also been busy regarding Easter stuff), so I forgot the clean up… application thus looks a bit messy on the nail!

Sunlight – we had a few sunny moments this morning, but overall the sky is cloudy and grey.

With Streptococcus.

Now an interesting bit; upon application, a thought came to my mind… that Tentation might resemble Tibet, a vintage Dior polish. However, Tibet is overall a tad lighter, with its shimmer being more blue-ish.

So they are no dupes at all. But Tibet, on the other hand, is rather close (or even sooo close) to Essence Ultimate Pink.

[OPI] Krème de la Kremlin (+ comparison)

Cool name, I like this – so here’s another varnish from their Russian collection, Krème de la Kremlin, a dusty pink (which is similar to Chanel Rose Confidentiel).

Two coats.

Here’s how it compares to SpaRitual Love Your Mother and Chanel Rose Confidentiel. Index and little finger: Rose Confidentiel – middle finger: Krème de la Kremlin – ring finger: Love Your Mother.

Krème de la Kremlin and Rose Confidentiel are pretty close, while Love Your Mother is a tad lighter.

[Dior] Or Tsarine / Czarina Gold

This came out in 2010, as part of Dior’s Holiday Collection. Or Tsarine / Czarina Gold is a beautiful dark brown/bronze with shimmery golden particles.

I did these swatches before Christmas last year.

Here is how Czarina Gold compares to Essence Gold Old Buffy (Vampire’s Love Collection). The Dior one is on the right.

On pop up sticks, again, Czarina Gold is on the right.

[SpaRitual] Love Your Mother

SpaRitual polishes are completely vegan, but I particularly like their bottle shape and the cute names of some of their varnishes. This is Love Your Mother (probably alluding to Mother Earth), a dusty pink.

Unfortunately, the formula of Love Your Mother is pretty runny. It took me three coats to achieve opacity. But the result is beautiful; this makes a nice autumn colour as well.

Love Your Mother is similar to Chanel’s Rose Confidentiel; both share the same colour family. The left pop-up stick shows Rose Confidentiel, while Love Your Mother is on the right.

Baby Blue and Turquoise

I got my hands on Dior Saint-Tropez (401) but unfortunately can’t do a swatch – the wheather is still cloudy and thus, it’s a bit dark in the flat too. However, the shade is a beautiful turquoise, and I did a quick bottle comparison.

Chanel Riva, Chanel Nouvelle Vague, Dior Saint-Tropez, Barry M Pure Turquoise.

Saint-Tropez has a slightly bigger proportion of green in direct comparison with Nouvelle Vague, but it is as creamy as Pure Turquoise, while both Chanels have this subtle shimmer, which becomes nearly invisible after application.

[Nfu Oh] 66

Nfu Oh 66 is a pale green holographic polish. I like the bottle shape, too.

The holo effect is said to be stunning, which is true. This is how it looks in normal sunlight (two coats; as a base, I used Manglaze Matte-Astrophe, since the Nfu Oh Aqua Base Coat was not available any more). not quite convincing…

… but look at these two pictures taken under artificial light! (I topped it with Dior Top Coat and the holo effect did not become the least dull).

When I first saw 66, it reminded me of China Glaze He’s Going In Circles. Here’s a bottle comparison (66 is on the left); He’s Going In Circles is a tad darker, and the holo particles are different.

Something else I have to show you- when the polishes got here, they still had the official Nfu Oh seals, which did not look nice at all! This is after having tried to remove them.

The silvery bits were so persistent that they stuck to my hand.

Anyway, after what felt like ages, I succeeded and everything looked nice.

[Chanel] Fantastic

(I re-blogged this and added some new photos.)

Another of the Chanel Reds. This one is wine red and very shimmery.

Since my boyfriend thought Fantastic was very close to Gondola here they are, next to each other (Fantastic on the left). With flash:

No flash:

Quite different, don’t you think? In my view, Gondola is darker and glittery.

Another bottle comparison that might be more interesting – Calvin Klein’s Ruby Red (on the left) next to Fantastic.

Ruby Red’s shimmer is more intense and its formula seemed to me more watery.