Mrs Mia Wallace - LE "Pulp Fiction" polish from Urban Decay

"Trying to forget something as intriguing as this would be an exercise in futility."

Hello ladies! After a long hiatus I have a very special polish to share with you today - "Mrs Mia Wallace" by Urban Decay.  This Limited Edition polish was part of their collection celebrating the 20th anniversary of Tarantino's legendary "Pulp Fiction" (20 years! Bloody hell that makes me feel old!).  Not only was this an iconic movie, but it was a pivotal moment in the history of nail polish...the blackened vampy red (Chanel Rouge Noir, or Vamp as it was called at that time) worn by Uma Thurman's character Mrs Mia Wallace sparked a trend that continues to this day and earned Chanel over $1m in its first year of sale.  In 2000 it was still in the top 5 biggest selling nail polishes of all time. You can read more about the Chanel "Vamp" trilogy of polishes here and on Wikipedia. 



Mrs Mia Wallace - LE Urban Decay

It's been a long time since I was this excited by a single polish.  I first saw it on the lovely Ommorphia's blog and went straight to the shops the very next morning to grab a bottle.  I was lucky - I got the last bottle (and in the sale too! *swoon*).  Pictured here I'm wearing two coats with Essie 'Good to Go' on top.



Mrs Mia Wallace...and the sad sad stained cuticles (sorry)

I'm a big fan of the movie, and I'm old enough to remember when it came out (although I wasn't old enough to legally see it I hasten to add).  Back then I was unaware of the impact that this film had on the nail polish trends of the time, but now realise I inadvertently jumped on that bandwagon too...Reading about Rouge Noir brought back my memories of the very first nail polish that I can remember falling in love with.  It was a shade called "Cruella" (by the Body Shop?). It was a dark burgundy/oxblood crelly that looked to me like congealed blood on my fingernails.  I adored it, and spent a lot of my teenage years wearing that shade.  My mum hated it with a passion, so of course that made me love it all the more.  I now realise that it was a Rouge Noir knock-off.  Enough reminiscing...onto the polish of the day!

"Mrs Mia Wallace" (MMW) is an intriguing shade, and interestingly bears little resemblance to Rouge Noir.  It is a blood red shimmer with ultrafine gold and bronze particles that give it an stunningly intense fire and depth that you can see here.  The gold is quite apparent in the bottle, but not at all on the nail (and in this case I think that's a good thing).  The shimmer serves to give a warm tone to the cold leaning red, and gives it that 'lit from within' finish.  Interestingly, in indirect light/shade this polish looks more to me like an oxblood crelly, which is what Rouge Noir is, and then the light hits it and you get the amazing glow.  UD have packed a lot of complexity into this one little bottle.

I'm also completely in love the packaging too...the cap comes with the little Day of the Dead skull icon that Urban Decay have on all their polishes and the box is a delight - inside the box on a blood red background is printed an excerpt from Samuel L Jackson's famous speech from the movie...The whole thing just screams cool and has obviously been made with a lot of love.  Hats off to UD for a triumph of marketing!  I would have bought this shade just for the polish, but these extra touches make this feel really special.

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides....

But...and there's always a but isn't there?  I must admit that I found the formula to be pretty crappy on this polish.  On some nails it flowed as smooth as butter, but on others I had a strange lumpy effect with the first coat that was tricky to even out.  There were also little bubbles at the 'set down' point near the cuticle that I couldn't get rid of.  But by far the biggest problem was how much of a stainer this is! My cuticles look like I've been doing some axe-murdering in-between coats.  Even with pure acetone and my nifty cleanup brush, and even going over them twice, I just couldn't remove all the staining.  In future I will have to me much more careful with the application to minimise the amount of cleanup needed, because even though it was a b*tch to apply this is a shade I can tell I'll be wearing often.

This is my first Urban Decay polish.  I know that this is meant to be a very trendy brand, but honestly this is what I think of when I hear the name...

I'm absolutely delighted with my bottle of MMW, but unless they make something equally awesome I don't think that I'll be rushing back for more UD shades.  MMW has been a trip down memory lane, has reminded me of my first love, and despite the tricky formula is a stonking hot red shade to boot...really what more can a girl ask for?  If you fancy a bottle of your very own you'd best act fast, this LE won't be around for much longer.

I picked up my bottle for £9 (RRP £10) from my local Debenhams UD beauty counter.

Spotted! The 'Amazing' new Revlon Collection

Hello Ladies!  I was out shopping today (you know, where you decide to just 'go look at the nail polish' and end up buying 6...) and I spotted a gorgeous new collection from Revlon - The Electic-Chrome limited edition collection released as a tie-in for The Amazing Spiderman 2.  The reason for this post is that THESE ARE CURRENTLY ON OFFER! These sell for £6.49 each but Boots is currently doing a 'Buy 2 for £10' offer.

Here's a collection marketing pic I shamelessly nicked from the internet...

Electric Chrome Collection - Revlon

IRL these don't appear to have quite the multi-chrome pop that the promo shots are showing, and instead look more to me like gorgeous bright metallic foil shimmers.  A quick hunt for collection reviews suggested this was the overall effect on the nail, although I have seen a couple of shots where the blogger used black undies to give the shade more pop. I'll definitely be trying that.

left: "Super-Powered", right: "Spidey-Sense"

I chose 'Super-Powered' and 'Spidey Sense'.  It was a really close call though with the magenta 'Gwen's Crush' which is also lovely.  But in the end I'm a sucker for a metallic red so it had to be Spidey Sense.  You may recall that a few years ago OPI released a Spiderman collection (great review post on the PolishAholic) to tie-in with the first 'reboot' and in my opinion this offering from Revlon is more exciting.  I also love the gold spider's webs on the bottles, that's a really nice touch.

Swatches to follow...at some point...really I must get quicker at this swatch and post business!  But I wanted to get the word out before the Boots offer ends....

Picture Polish Illusionist

Hello Ladies!  Well it's a little late, but here's the final instalment from the Picture Polish LE multi-chrome set - the fabulous "Illusionist". (previous posts on its collection mates: Aurora, Borealis, Gravity, Altered State, Solar Flare).  To think I almost didn't buy this one! I thought it would be too similar to Aurora but for me, its different enough to justify having them both.  I've put some comparisons in this post, in a similar vein to the ones I did for Borealis and Altered State.  But first, here's some pure swatch porn...

Picture Polish "Illusionist" - artificial light

Illusionist is a Teal Green-Purple-Magneta multi-chrome polish with silver scatterchrome particles.  This is a similar colour shift range to Aurora (see below), the dominant colour is a lovely teal green and under shallow angles this shifts to purple, and magenta at large angles.  The scatterchrome particles give this a gorgeous silvery shimmer, and 'dusty' look.

Picture Polish "Illusionist" - artificial light

Pictured here I'm wearing a couple of coats on top of a single coat of black 'undies' with NE base coat and HK girl topcoat to sandwich it all together.  As with the other polishes in this collection, the formula is as smooth as melted butter. Its very sheer, so you definitely need undies with this, but you don't need to use black....I had a major lemming for this beauty ever since I saw these swatches from Emma at Imagination in Colour where she layered this over paler colours to great effect.  I'll definitely be trying this next.

Picture Polish "Illusionist" - artificial light

Here is a comparison to Aurora...as you can see the colour range is identical, its the finish that is different.  Aurora has a densely glittered finish and is packed with multichrome glitter particles.  This intensifies the colour shift (see below, upper right).  The silvery finish of Illusionist, from the scatterchrome particles, is a more subtle muted effect but really sophisticated.  Its basically identical to the relationship between Borealis and Altered State(comparison on Borealis page).

Picture Polish "Illusionist" vs. "Aurora" - artificial light

I picked up my bottle of Illusionist from the lovely Sally at Sally Magpies (link in the suppliers page) for £13.50.  I highly recommend it, especially if you missed out on Aurora. 

I did notice that the new Dance Legend Galaxy series look a lot like the PP Limited Edition series! So there might be an option out there if you missed out on these.  The link above is to a blog that's in Russian, heaven knows what it says, but I'm guessing its something along the lines of 'bloody hell look at these stonkingly awesome polishes'....if anyone has any of these I'd love to hear what you think of them!

Picture Polish Borealis

Hello Ladies! Today's post is something really special - the ultra Limited Edition "Borealis" by Picture Polish.  This post is pure swatch porn, and I apologise in advance if it gives you a lemming you can't scratch.  The latest from PP is that there were only enough materials to make 400 bottles of this and it won't be made again.  Then again, they said there would only be 800 bottles of Aurora and then miraculously found enough material to double that number, so you never know....

This is a very picture heavy post, I went a bit nuts with the camera and then struggled to pick my favourites. 

Borealis by Picture Polish - artificial light

Borealis is the last release in the Limited Edition multi-chrome series that included: Aurora, Illusionist, Gravity, Altered State, Illusionist and Solar Flare.  These polishes are absolutely stonking, quite possibly the most gorgeous collection I've ever seen.  I was so excited to hear that there would be another addition, I sat over my laptop like a crazy woman pressing the refresh button every 2 seconds....quite seriously allowing my husband to witness the level of my polish crazies could be the first step to my divorce...but look how lovely....

 

Borealis by Picture Polish - artificial light

Some bloggers have described Aurora as looking like an amped up version of Illusionist (comparison of these in the Illusionist post).  It does strike me that Borealis is like an amped up version of Altered State so I did a quick comparison.  The finish on both is quite different - Altered State has the silvery scatter-chrome particles giving it a starry finish and a slightly 'dusty' look, and Borealis is packed with conventional colour glitters.  The multichrome shift colour range though is very similar, with Altered State being a paler, slightly more silvered version of the same colours that Borealis shows.

Borealis vs. Altered State

99% of the time Borealis appears to be an electric metallic blue.  This is the colour that pops out when the angle of the nail to the main light source is 'straight on'...

This is the main colour that shows on the nail

At slightly tilted angles, metallic purple pops out of the mix, oh lordy do I love a good purple, and this one's a doozy...

At slightly higher angles to the light, a metallic purple shines through

But my favourite surprise is that at high angles of the nail to the light this polish bursts into the colours of the sunset - magneta, red and gold.  This was hard to get on camera, because I had to position the light source behind my hand.  It's not a colour you see often when its one the nail, but it is totally amazeballs...

At extreme angles all the colours of the sunset appear, stunning

 As with the other shades, the only time there's a chance to see multiple colours on the nail simultaneously is in diffuse natural light.  Under artificial light this polish appears as one of the three main component colours seen above.  This is a crappy camera phone pic, but it's the only one I captured in natural light, and here you can see all the colours together...phwoar....

Picture Polish Borealis  - natural light (shade)

I'm  wearing two coats of Borealis on top of two coats of black 'undies' polish ('Just Black' by No7) with NE base and HK Girl top coat.  Like all the PP LE shades this is a sheer polish that requires another shade underneath to show the colour shift.  I think you'd need 4+ coats to get this opaque on its own, and who wants to use that much up in one mani? not me!  As with all the other shades, formula and application on this shade was perfect.

Picture Polish Borealis  - artificial light

So in the end, how does this stack up against the other shades?  It's certainly very pretty, and a fantastic addition to the collection.  On balance though, I think that Aurora is the better polish.  The paler colour of Aurora allows the multichrome effect to be more obvious all of the time.  The colour palette of Borealis is gorgeous, but for the most part this appears as a nice glittery blue, which is good but not as exciting as the pink/green combo of Aurora.

Picture Polish Borealis  - artificial light

I picked up my bottle of Borealis from the lovely Sally Magpies (link in suppliers page) for £13.50.  At the moment the word is that this polish is sold out and won't be restocked, but given the restocks that the rest of the collection received I think there is still hope.  PP have courted controversy with this collection though, there is a lot of bad feeling out there about the restock of the original shades as some people felt they'd been 'tricked' into thinking they were more exclusive than they turned out to be in reality.  I think this would be a valid argument if the polishes were sold at a higher price than other LE shades. I do wonder though if customer reaction is going to influence future PP releases. Perhaps we will be less likely to see LE shades, and if that means we miss out on collections like this one I think that would be very sad indeed.  So fingers crossed that this collection is a sign of things to come and not the last of a dying breed....

 

 

Picture Polish Altered State

Hello ladies! Today I have the final instalment in the Limited Edition Picture Polish collection - "Altered State" (see collection-mates : Aurora, Borealis, Illusionist, Solar Flare, Gravity).  Please excuse the nasty cut on my index finger.  It's not pretty and it stings like a beyotch when rubbed with acetone I can tell you...anyway onto the swatches...

Picture Polish Altered State - artificial light

Altered State is remarkably similar to Gravity -  it's a Purple-Blue-Magenta multi-chrome (whereas Gravity is Blue-Purple-Magenta) with the 'scatter chrome' finish.  The shade of the blue is different, the blue of altered state is more of a denim/royal blue, and the blue of  Gravity is slightly more green leaning to come out as more of a teal blue in the sunshine.  But in essence, these polishes are very similar and just have the order of the multi-chrome effect reversed.  In each case, in most lighting conditions, the polish will appear to be the dominant colour.  So Gravity looks blue most of the time, and Altered State looks purple most of the time.

Picture Polish Altered State - artificial light - the dominant colour is purple

In these pictures I'm wearing my usual two coats of colour atop black undies ('Just Black' by No.7) and NE base, finished with HK girl topcoat.  Like all the Limited Edition shades the formula is great.  It's a sheer polish, so you will definitely need some type of base colour if you don't want to wait for 20 coats to dry...

Picture Polish Altered State - artificial light

This is a very pretty polish, and if I hadn't seen the other polishes in this range I'd think this was amazing. But as it stands, this is my least favourite of the bunch.  In order of awesomeness I'd rank these (best to last) Aurora, Solar Flare, Borealis, Gravity, Illusionist, Altered State.

Picture Polish Altered State - artificial light

The multichrome effect on Altered State is the weakest of the bunch.  It's almost impossible to catch a glimpse of all the colours on the nail at once.  Your best chance is in natural light, in the shade.  This crappy phone pic shows the best I was able to capture.  Nothing like the wow factor of Aurora, but still a very pretty polish especially with all the sparkly scatterchrome particles which look gorgeous in all types of artificial lighting.



Picture Polish Altered State - natural light

I picked up my bottle of Altered State from Rainbow Connection UK (link in the suppliers list) for £12.50.  It's currently out of stock, but I believe there is a restock due sometime in March so keep your eyes peeled :) 



Picture Polish Gravity

Hello ladies! Continuing with the series of Limited Edition Picture Polish shades today I have Gravity to show you (you can see also collection-mates Aurora, Borealis, Gravity, Altered State, Solar Flare and Illusionist)....

Picture Polish Gravity - natural light

Gravity is a blue to purple duochrome with the same holo shard glitters that Solar Flare has.  Like Solar Flare , Gravity has a more subtle duochrome effect than Aurora. In the shade, you can see both of the main colours on the nail at once, but most of the time this polish appears completely one colour of the three: teal blue, royal purple and magenta.

Picture Polish Gravity - artificial light

I'm wearing two coats of Gravity atop a couple coats of 'black undies' ('Just Black' by No7) with NE base and HK Girl top coat.  Like all of the Limited Edition collection polishes, this is a relatively sheer polish that applies smoothly and evenly, formula is fantastic and the brush is easy to use.

Picture Polish Gravity - sun light

This is a gorgeous polish, like its collection mates this is something really special.  Picture Polish is a bit on the spendy side, but for these polishes I'd say they're worth every penny.  With my love of metallic purple polishes Gravity really appeals to me a lot, but being objective I would rank these polishes (first to last) as Aurora, Solar Flare , and Gravity.  That being said, these are some of my favourite polishes in my entire collection, so third place ain't bad.

Picture Polish Gravity - artificial light

I picked up my bottle of Gravity from Rainbow Connection for £12.50 (link in supplier page).  It's currently out of stock, but a restock is due sometime in March...

Next up will be Altered State, the last of the collection that I picked up.  I have no idea why I didn't buy Illusionist at the time, I think I had some mad idea that if I left one behind that was evidence that I'm capable of restraint, which we all know is a lie.  So I'll be eagerly awaiting the restock too....

Picture Polish Aurora

Greetings Ladies!  Allow me to introduce you to one of my favourite polishes of all time....Picture Polish "Aurora"....

Picture Polish Aurora

Aurora is, bar none, the most astonishing multi-chrome polish I have ever seen.  Like its name suggests, this polish is the embodiment of the Northern Lights.  The colour shift is predominantly Emerald - Magenta - Purple but there are hints of blue and gold peeking through.  As if all that wasn't excitement enough this polish is also packed with multichrome glitter that is similar to Ozotic 528 (hardly a big surprise given that Picture Polish is made by the same company as the now-discontinued Ozotic).

Picture Polish Aurora - one bottle, a rainbow of colour

Pictured here I'm wearing a couple of coats of Aurora over a plain black polish ('Just Black' by No.7) to make the colour shift pop.  As usual, there's NE base underneath is all and HK Girl topcoat to finish it off.

Picture Polish Aurora - a chameleon polish

This polish simply has to be seen to be believed.  Sadly this is really limited edition.  Originally it was announced there would only be 800 bottles worldwide and that customers would be limited to purchasing one bottle each.  Nail polish addicts worldwide went absolutely crazy trying to get hold of it and it sold out in tens of minutes.  Then miraculously they announced that a further 1000 bottles were going to be made available.  That's some smart marketing right there...

Picture Polish Aurora - natural light

The best colour shift is seen in natural light, in the shade.  It's then that you see several colours on the nail at once and it's 10x more beautiful than this crappy phone camera picture suggests.  In fact it was so pretty that I actually had to drive with gloves on because the effect was so distracting I was worried I was going to crash my car.  I'm absolutely serious about that.  This here is crash your car nail porn. In artificial light, most of the time this polish appears one colour, but whichever colour it picks is GORGEOUS...sit back and enjoy the show:

Picture Polish Aurora - artificial light

This emerald green shade is the dominant colour, and its a beautiful jewel tone, I'd love a polish that was just this single colour all the time. 

and it's also a lovely royal blue....

and a fabulous magenta/purple....

It's so many colours, and all of them gorgeous. What I loved about this polish were those moments when three or more colours were on the nail at the same time, the combination of the green and the pink is just astonishing. 

I bought my bottle from Sally Magpies (link on supplier's page) for £13.50.  There will apparently be a restock of this shade sometime in March (at Sally's and at Rainbow Connection).  So get your clicking figures at the ready ladies because you're not going to want to miss this. 

I predict that this will be my favourite polish of 2014...

Also check out collection-mates Borealis, Gravity, Altered State, Solar Flare & Illusionist.

Picture Polish Solar Flare

Hello Ladies! I've got something very special to share with you today..."Solar Flare" by Picture Polish.  This is one of the recent Limited Editions that Picture Polish released in a frenzy of smart marketing. They generated so much hype in the build up to their release that these sold out almost immediately.  Luckily I managed to get my hands on most of them so I'll be sharing them with you over the next few posts...

Picture Polish Solar Flare - artificial light

Solar Flare is a Russet-Gold duochrome polish with a dusty holo finish and scattered shards of sparkly holo particles.  It's astonishingly beautiful. As a duochrome the shift is quite subtle, the polish does have a dramatic colour range, from a russet brown through to an olive gold, but the colours don't appear on the nail simultaneously - it looks one colour all of the time, but that colour changes.  Most of the time the dominant colour is the russet brown seen in the top left picture above.  Each of the three colours are absolutely gorgeous and the scatter holo and dusty finish is stunning. 



Solar Flare - this russet brown shade is the dominant colour on nail 

In these pictures I'm wearing two coats of Solar Flare on top of two coats of 'Just Black' by No7.  Using a black undercoat on any duochrome polish really makes the colour shift pop.  I also have NE base and HK Girl topcoat to finish this off.


Solar Flare - the gold shade pops at more extreme angles relative to the light source

I'm absolutely in love with this polish.  Application is flawless, and the finish is just incredible.  It dries naturally as glossy looking as the HK topcoat you see here, but I added topcoat to extend the wear time.

The finish really reminds me of an A-England polish with extra scatter holo shards I did a quick in-bottle comparison of Solar Flare with a couple of my favourite A-England polishes; Briar Rose and Briarwood.



top (l-r): A-England Briar Rose, Picture Polish Solar Flare, A-England Briarwood
bottom (l-r): Picture Polish Solar Flare, A-England Briarwood

The dominant shade in the Solar Flare looks to me like a cross between Briar Rose and Briarwood, although of the two I think it's most similar to Briarwood.  The A-Englands are two of my favourite polishes, so having Solar Flare embody them both, PLUS be a duochrome, PLUS have the big sparkly scatter chrome particles is almost too much excitement for me to handle.

This polish is utter amazeballs.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  And if you think this is swatch porn just wait till you see collection-mate Aurora....

I bought my bottle of Solar Flare from the lovely Sally Magpies for £13.50 (link to the shop is on my suppliers page).  These shades should be getting a restock soon, so keep an eye out.....


Comparison: Chanel Taboo & Nails Inc Regent's Palace



Today I have a new comparison to show you - Chanel Taboo vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace.  I'll start by giving away the ending - these are not dupes.  However, it's worth taking a closer look, the comparison isn't as crazy as you might first think.

Readers of this blog will know that I have never been so excited, or so disappointed by a polish than I was with Chanel Taboo (my Taboo review and swatches).  I won't repeat my review here but the main reason for my disappointment was the vast difference between the in-bottle and on-nail impact of this polish.  In the bottle it looks like instant galaxy nails - it's utterly packed with phenomenal looking colour, sparkly bits and what-not.  On the nail, it looks for the most time, like a dull dark black/purple.  The 'pop' in the bottle is only seen in flash, and direct sunlight, and even then only when you're really looking at it.  The formula is also pretty pants, quite gloopy.

So I wondered - supposing you don't want to spend £18 or can't get a hold of this limited edition.  What else could you get that would look as good or better?  Step up to the plate Nails Inc Regent's Palace....



Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace (middle, pinkie)
Natural Light

In close up here you can see some evidence of the sparkly bits in Taboo, and you can also see it's in a much darker base than RP which has a fairly indigo base to it.  Both polishes have a lovely shimmer, but the brighter toned base of RP means that this shimmer is much more evident on-nail in a variety of lighting conditions.  Pictured here is two coats each of colour atop a Nail Envy base.  There's no top coat here.

Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace (middle, pinkie)
Flash

When you look at these under flash, you can see more of the bottle-beauty of Taboo coming out and the tonal difference in the bases is more pronounced.  I don't often take swatch pics with flash on because a) it makes me look like a scary albino lady and b) 99% of the time you're not going to be looking at your polish by flashlight so it's not really a fair test of how pretty it will look (I wouldn't have had such a lemming for Taboo if I had seen it in more natural lighting pics I think).
Taboo does have more sparkle than RP for sure, although bear in mind that this sparkle is not actually visible by eye a lot of the time.  So to add some extra zing to the RP I then popped on a thin coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire (possibly the best layering polish of all time, there is nothing that this won't make more fabulous.  It's like the mani equivalent of bacon).
 


Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace with Max Factor Fantasy Fire (middle, pinkie)
Natural Light 

Wowza! Regent's Palace on its own is a fabulous metallic purple shade (see my purple metallics comparison post here) but layered with Fantasy Fire it's stunning.  Again, not a dupe for Taboo, but certainly punching far above its weight in terms of price comparison and on-nail 'pop factor'.
Finally with flash, it's the return of the albino:



Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace with Max Factor Fantasy Fire (middle, pinkie)
Flash

In terms of on-nail impact, sparkle, and purple-ness (I know that's not a word, but it should be) for me Regent's Palace plus Fantasy Fire is a clear winner.  In terms of price it's also a no-brainer: the Chanel will cost you £18 but it's Limited Edition so if you miss out in store I've seen this changing hands for £30-£50 which is just insane.  I got the Nail's Inc in a set of 3 from TK Maxx (bargain polish heaven) for £9.99 which by my maths makes this £3.33, but full price would cost you £11.  Fantasy Fire is £3.99 in Boots/Superdrug for a mini bottle.

So for my mani that's £7.32 vs £18, or full price it would be £14.99 vs £18.  At full price the argument is less compelling, but Regent's Palace is one of the few Nails Inc polishes that I would be happy to pay full price for.  Even on it's own, without the Fantasy Fire topper, I feel that Regent's Palace is a better all-rounder than the Chanel.  Blasphemy I know, but there you have it.
 

Chanel Taboo

Today's NOTD is the highly anticipated Limited Edition polish from Chanel - "Taboo".  This was released in the UK on 28.06.13 and I headed straight to my local Chanel counter to grab a bottle! I've been eagerly waiting for this to come out since I saw the promo swatches in February.


Chanel Taboo - Artificial Light

This is now only my second Chanel polish. At £18 a bottle it's a significant investment for me, but from the swatches this looked like it had been designed specifically for me.  I am crazy for purple and red shimmer polishes, so Taboo which is a combination of both, is pretty much my ideal combination.  Described as the secret lovechild of "Vendetta" and "Malice" this is a purple based polish with purple, royal blue and burgundy shimmer particles.  In the bottle there also appears to be larger silvery particles, that look like the 'scatter chrome' particles you find in the Ozotic 900 series.

Chanel Taboo - bottle shots

These bottle shots show the predominant shades in this complex polish - purple and burgundy.  Sadly, and it pains me to say this, I'm a bit dissapointed in this polish.  That incredible fire and complexity of colour seen in the bottle doesn't translate to the nail.  On the nail this appears a rich blackened purple, but there is very little spark from all that shimmer.  I suspect this polish will be a lot more impressive in sunlight, but I live in Scotland and sunshine is a rare event so I couldn't swatch this in full sun.

Chanel Taboo - Natural Light

The formula is very thick, this is definately a one-coater, although I'm wearing two here (plus Nail Envy base and Seche Vite topcoat) because I made a poor attempt of the first coat and left a few thin patches that I needed to even out.   It also smells very strongly, I don't know what chemicals they've used in this shade but they must be powerful.  Perhaps they needed it to suspend all that shimmer.

All in all I'm not sure that I'd recommend paying £18 for this polish.  It is lovely, but it's one of those dissapointing polishes that looks so much prettier in the bottle that on the nail.  Unless you can walk around in permanently sunny conditions, or with a camera flash pinging off you nails, then you won't see a lot of evidence of all that lovely shimmer. 

Perhaps I'm just sad because I waited so so long for this to finally get its UK release.  The previous Ltd Edition shade "Malice" is one of my favourite polishes ever, probably in my top 3, but I don't think its sister shade Taboo will make the top 10....

Postscript:

The next day the sun obliged me by popping out for a few minutes so I took a picture of Taboo in the sun.  You can see here that there is a but more evidence of those shimmer particles, but still nowhere near the sparkle power of Malice.  You can also see the significant tip wear - this was after just one day (although admittedly I did do my cleaning in this...but I do wear marigolds!)

Chanel Taboo - Direct Sunlight