Lacnome From Lancome With Love Spring 2016 Collection Part I

Today starts my feature on the Lancome From Lancome With Love Spring 2016 Collection. Although I'm only bringing you one item today, I promise it's worth a read.

One of the items I was really excited about is the Color Design Lipstick in Paris Please. Given the promo photos, I assumed that it was a light lilac. Let me show it to you on my NW15 skin (sorry for the slight bruising in the upper right of the shot- that was from an IV):

First thought: OOOH PRETTY. Second thought: nice pigmentation, with a rich, creamy formula (that the Color Design lipsticks are known for).

Let's look at the tube again:

I have three major complaints with the Color Design lipstick line. I find the bullet poorly executed. First, the bottom is ROUNDED. So no, you can't ever stand this up. Second, I'd like to shake my fist at Lancome. The only shade identification is on the cap. If you take more than one cap off at once to compare (for example), you'd darn better well know what order they're in- otherwise you're SOL. Seriously, Lancome? FAIL. Third, this is a fabulous, creamy formula. The lipstick itself is fragile. I've yet to get a tube without huge gouges in the lipstick. Y'all have a wonderful product here- just rethink the packaging.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, something was nagging at me. Paris Please reminded me of something.

Oh yeah, Color Design Lipstick in Love It!, one of my favorite light pinks of all time (similar to MAC Angel). Let's swatch them together to see:

This swatch tells me everything I was questioning. I needed some tweaking with MAC Lip Erase to wear Paris Please but Love It! is a swatch and go lipstick for me. Paris Please is slightly lighter and much cooler than Love It!.  Love It! is much warmer and slightly deeper. They're both must-haves in my book.

Overall, if you get a chance to grab Paris Please check it out. I love everything about this collection, as you'll see over the next few days.

Monday Night Dreaming

I willingly abandoned Sunday Dreaming yesterday in lieu of finishing the Chanel posts. However, I've spotted a few things tonight that made me stop and say "I NEED THAT!" while browsing tonight.

So, here's Monday Night Dreaming because I can't help but dream with you!


1. Kate Spade 'Lipstick Palette' Scarf ($88)

This is the item that inspired the post. I love scarves, I love Kate Spade, and I love lipstick. I NEED THIS SCARF! It comes in both cream and black. It reminds me a lot of the petit fours scarf (which I nabbed at my local Nordstrom Rack- incredibly). I can pretty much guarantee this will be in my Nordstrom order this Friday (aka payday). This. is. awesome.


2. Kate Spade 'Falling Hearts' Scarf ($88)

I can't help it, I'm having a scarf-obsessing moment. After buying two Kate Spade scarves within a week (this one and this one), I want all of them. This is so beautiful with the hearts- and it's so girly for spring.


3. YSL Nail Lacquer ($28)

Nordstrom recently received 3 new and exclusive shades of YSL's nail lacquer.  Day Bloomer, Night Bird, and Weekender are all pink-red-coral shades. After loving YSL's spring polishes, I'd love to play with these 3 that scream summer to me.

4. Zac Posen for MAC 168 Brush ($36)

The new Zac Posen for MAC collection has dropped. Although I'm passing on the color items, I'm totally onboard with picking up this angled contour brush. The buffer brush ($54) is a bit pricey for me right now, but this one hits my sweet spot.


5. Laura Mercier Velour Lovers Lipstick in French Kiss ($28)

Spoiler alert: I love this formula. I have another shade queued up to review on this blog, but I'd like to find a second shade to feature alongside it. French Kiss looks like a bright, fresh pink.

That's what's on my mind right now.

Chanel Longwear Le Vernis & Le Gel Coat Part IV (Le Gel Coat, Le Wear Test, and Overall Impressions)

I conclude today with my final post in the series that features Chanel's initial offerings of Le Vernis Longwear line for Spring 2016. We've covered the colors in three groups: pinks, reds, and the others. Now it's time to talk about Le Gel Coat, Le Wear Tests, and my overall impressions.

Le Gel Coat:

I have been a connoisseur of so-called gel top coats for years. I've tested releases from Deborah Lippmann, Butter London, Sally Hansen, Guerlain, Dior, and have Essie's new version waiting on me. I have a good base of reference when discussing the pros and cons of these formulas, and I have to admit something. As awesome as Deborah Lippmann Gel Lab and Butter London's Patent Gel sets are... Chanel's Le Gel Coat is now the best gel top coat on the market in my opinion.

Why? Let's take a step back and talk about some top coat basics first. After reading review after review of various polishes with one particular flaw by the reviewer, I feel that it's my duty to drop some actual knowledge on you.

Choosing the right top coat isn't personal preference; it's chemistry.

What? Yes, I typed that correctly. The 3-5-7-9-everything free revolution keeps taking various chemicals out of nail polish, so this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Nail polish is composed at its base with the following: pigments (Color), resin/plasticizer (makes it flexible), solvent (mixes ingredients and evaporates), and film forming agent. Each brand has their own patented formula, but your polish was created by chemists.  You can start doing some research if you want, but I got my info from my personal chemist- my father. What makes each brand different from the others is their "formula." They create top and base coats to accompany the color lines specially created to work in harmony with their line. Those nasty bubbles? Incompatable formulas.

So no, there isn't a one-size-fits-all topcoat. Nothing infuriates me more to see a blogger trashing a gel release and using Seche Vite (I could go into the issues with that topcoat, but that's for another post).

Bottom line: spend the extra money and make sure you're using the right base and top coat for your polish for best performance. I used Chanel's Le Base Coat with Le Gel Coat in all of my wear tests. In fact, I switched to Butter London Nail Foundation for a couple of the swatches since I was running low and drying time went up. So, stick to Chanel's complete system.  And no, I won't be testing Le Gel Coat with another brand.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's talk about how I used Le Gel Coat and why it's top of the heap. Like any longwear topcoat, you should wait until the color is totally dry, and wrap your tips (to protect against shrinkage).

I believe it's the best (although it's a bit slow to dry) because of the overall improvement of wear vs no top coat and vs prior top coats put out by the brand. 

• Chanel v Butter London: Both are amazing on me, but I actually use Butter London's regular base/top coats when there's not one available by the brand. So the improvement between Hardware and Patent Gel isn't as dramatic as it is with Chanel. Both get an A.
• Chanel v Deborah Lippmann: They perform about equally on me, but I have to give the edge again to Chanel because Deborah Lippmann's regular base/top coats are awesome and have been staples in my rotation.
• Chanel v Dior: I'm not a huge fan of Dior's Gel Coat, despite having used 3 bottles of it. It doesn't seem to extend wear time that much for me.
• Chanel v Guerlain: Not even close; Guerlain's bottle design lead to it drying out within a couple of months.

I'm not going to compare it to OPI Infinite Shine, Essie's new gel coat, or Sally Hansen since the price point is so different.


The Wear Tests:

For full disclosure, I tested the following shades: Rouge Essentiel, Chaine Or, Roubachka, Ballerina, and Garconne. The other shades were merely swatched and removed. In all cases, I used Chanel Le Base Coat, 2-4 coats of the polish, and Le Gel Coat. I carefully wrapped my nail tips with Le Gel Coat. Although wear time varied slightly per polish in my experience, I did note the following:

• Prolonged exposure to hot water and humidity even days after application were really hard on my nails. Most of the damage that I noted to my mani occurred just after a shower. I discussed this with one SA at a local counter and she had a similar experience with a long, hot bath. Just be aware with this formula and protect your nails accordingly.
• Since these polishes are much thicker than the original Le Vernis, dry time is longer between coats. You don't need to wait for the layers to be 100% dry between coats, but you must wait for them to be dry to put on Le Gel Coat. Likewise, I wouldn't call Le Gel Coat a quick dry formula.
• The new brush actually was far more maneuverable for me than the original. It's a matter of preference.
• Lighter shades tended to wear better than darker shades on me- and it wasn't just that I didn't see wear. Perhaps it has to do with the dense pigmentation?
• Ballerina had by far the best performance (5 perfect days before removal), and Chaine Or the worst (2 days). Even Chaine Or outperformed the original Le Vernis.
• Polishes varied immensely in terms of application. There's a reason why I posted some of the less-than-perfect manicures for Shantung, Mythique, Roubachka, and others. I set my phone timer for 15 minutes when I do cleanup with an ELF concealer brush and acetone. I don't think it's realistic to think that the average woman is going to spend more than that on cleanup. Even if it wasn't perfect, when my time was up, it was time to photograph.

Now, let's talk specifics. The first polish that I tested was Rouge Essentiel. Looking back, I should've taken my nightly shower before doing the mani to prolong wear time.

Day 1:

Things seemed good, until the evening of Day #3, just after a really long shower:

Patching it just seemed to make it far more vulnerable, sadly.

Day 4:

Here's what it looked like by Day 5 on most nails, when I had to remove it:

Tip wear throughout, large chunks on some nails. But for someone who normally gets wear like that within 36-48 hours tops, 5 days is excellent.

Let's be honest. Even with a good base coat, I was scared to see what having a red polish on my nails that long might do to my nails. Phew, not too bad. This was after a couple of swipes of acetone only. I consider this great news! (Note- I was scared to file that pinky to induce tip wear.

Given that most Chanel reds chip within 24 hours, I give this 2 thumbs up.

Wear Test #2: Roubachka

I had a working theory on these polishes, so Roubachka was the second perfect polish to test. (I'll explain later). Like Rouge Essentiel, it's pigment-packed and a darker color.

Day 1:

Note: I did a lot less typing than normal due to some medical issues.

Day #3:

Look at that. Hmmm....

Wear Test #3: Chaine Or

For this test, I decided to try it without Le Gel Coat. I suspect that a lot of this had to do with the metallic formula being softer, but it was an utter disaster. I didn't photograph it, but it was literally rolling off of my nails in under 24 hours. Total epic fail.

Wear Test #4: Ballerina

This one shocked me. I didn't photograph it until Day #4. Look very carefully on the middle finger. THATS IT.

This one has actually one additional coat relative to other shades. Yet, it's wearing like iron.

Check out my hands, in the sun (ok, the car), taken on Day #7. Only issue was that ding on my middle finger. Still.

I had to remove it on Day #8 to finish swatching- and it looked the same. I'm convinced that if I hadn't dinged it on Day #4, it would've looked perfect. Le Gel Coat remained shiny throughout.

Overall Impressions:

What's up with the varying wear times? I suspect it has to do with the darker, richly pigmented shades. I've also had better results with say, Deborah Lippmann Gel Lab with lighter shades. This is such an amazing combo that it'll be in heavy rotation. It's not that it's harder to see the damage to the nails with lighter shades; the formula just works better. Think about drying time, perhaps.


That wraps up my posts on Chanel Le Vernis Longwear. I'd like to think that I've given them the time that they deserve.

Chanel Longwear Le Vernis Part III: The Others

And we have arrived at the final of the three posts detailing my reviews of Chanel's entire Le Vernis Longwear launch for Spring 2016. If you missed the other two, check out the pinks and the reds. That leaves us with "the others". In terms of a mixed bag, this is by far the most chic grab bag I've ever seen.

"The Others" consist of Roubachka, a inky eggplant vamp, Chaine Or, a most metallic true gold, Particuliere, a mushroomy brown, Monochrome, an icy grey, and Garconne, a green-tinged mid-tone grey. They round out the collection nicely and serve as a grounding counterpart to all of the romantic pinks and reds.

A quick note-the final post in this series will be the review of Le Gel Coat and my extended wear tests.

We've already made our way through 2/3 of the collection, so this last 1/3 should be a breeze.

Roubachka:

Let's talk about the name for a moment- turns out, it's Russian (of course) for a certain style of adorned blouse that peasants used to wear. I love it as a nod to Coco Chanel's Russian influences.

When I first saw this color, my initial instinct was "run away" following Sunrise Trip. I'm happy to report back that it's not an epic disaster or a staining monster like the former. It removed like a dream after multiple days without any staining.

Now that I've assured you about the formula, let's talk about the color. It's darker even than Rouge Noir and is the closest thing to black in the current collection (Speaking of, I'm devastated that Black Satin wasn't remade in this formula.). Three full coats are required for full opacity. And.. cleanup is a bear. I took these photos after 15 min of cleanup. It took another 15 and a shower before they were really ready for prime time.

I happen to love colors like this, so I pulled a few out to compare:

I was quite surprised at what I discovered. Tom Ford Black Cherry is close to Roubachka- although I'll give the formula nod to Tom Ford (2 coats) over the Chanel (3 coats). Vendetta is close, but a part of a shade lighter. Chanel hasn't released anything like this in awhile.

Chaine Or:

Let's also talk names here, too. Although I don't have a PR sheet to look at, I can't help but wonder if "Gold Chain" isn't taking its inspiration from the iconic gold chains on Chanel bags?

Chaine Or is what I would call a true metallic gold. In other words, it's beautiful but a true PITA to work with because of streaks. I It's almost molten in the bottle.

Gorgeous, right? It looks like liquid gold. (But of course every nail lover is cringing with what the formula is likely to bring)

I'll speak more to the wear issues I ran into with Chaine Or in my next post.

I knew I didn't own anything quite like Chaine Or because I tend to shy away from pure yellow gold. This is a standout in the collection simply because Chanel hasn't done that many golds before.

A quick note on the block- it should show you that a) I'm not photoshopping b) I'm a real person- I had to double up on nail wheels. It's also why I show less than perfect manis- I want you to see what a polish is really like to work with.

Bottom Line: This is pretty and (spoiler alert) caused some wear issues for me that I'd associate with it being a pure metallic shade.

Particuliere:

At first, I was a little surprised that Chanel selected this shade to make a comeback in the new line over other popular shades. After playing with it, I'm glad it's back. Turns out, it's better.

Particuliere first entered the Chanel lineup in Spring 2010 with Tendresse and Inattendu- a somewhat surprising lineup for spring centered around neutrals. This taupe sold out again, and again, and again. It pushed the needle 6 years ago; today it's just an accepted neutral. Well done, Chanel.

How is the reboot different than the original? Well, I am in lust with the reboot, which is very close to being a one-coat. It's much thicker and sturdier. I also find it much easier to work with. And look- a different mani angle!

I pulled a few neutrals for comparison, as well as the OG Particuliere:

Bottom Line: If you loved the original, run to get the reboot. Chanel reinvented a classic here.

Monochrome:

I previously featured this icy grey (which I couldn't tell if it was silver or grey in promo photos) on the blog as one of my two initial selections from the line. I can't wait to play with it this late winter/early spring- it just seems right about this time of year.

Rather than re-swatch, I'm going to cheat a bit and repost the initial mani that I did:

This really isn't the green grey of the two (no, that's Garconne), but my prominent pink undertones are playing tricks with the color and your eyes.

I have a bit of a surprise- I'm going to repost the nail wheel I photographed earlier for Monochrome, but look for it to show up again when I discuss the other grey. I also am posting this since it's been awhile since I've seen the sun.

Bottom line: I find this to be clean and fresh- and palette cleansing out of the entire line. It's a must-have in my book.

Garconne:

Every line does a mid-toned grey; Chanel was honestly missing one from their lineup. Dior used to have one prior to their reboot (I was going to swatch mine in comparison but discovered it has dried out), Christian Louboutin does it to perfection.

Garconne (or, waiter) has some serious green undertones. And somewhat of a thick formula, as the above picture demonstrated. I was initially hesitant due to my strong pink undertones but my collector's tendencies took over. Look for more on this shade later.

As it turned out, I was somewhat right about my undertones pulling this color way green:

Hmmm.. still not sure what I think of this one on me.

Although I already posted a wheel (previously seen on the blog) for Monochrome, I went ahead and put it on this wheel too. A word on the 2 different Chanel Frenzys- I bought one when it was initially released, lost it, then repurchased a few months ago. It looks like 2 different colors!

Bottom Line: It's a nice, somewhat edgy addition to balance all of the sweetness in the collection. It was one of the last ones I purchased because I had reservations about how it would play with my undertones.

I'm surprised to say that we've now reached the end of my detailed overview of all of Chanel's new Longwear Vernis. I'll post my thoughts on Le Gel Coat and my wear tests probably tomorrow- I want to enjoy the Daytona 500 today with some friends instead of writing blog posts. Likewise, I'm burnt out from cranking out these 3 posts in less than 24 hours so I'll skip Sunday Dreaming (otherwise the best part of my week).