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