Part of Chanel’s 2011 Spring Collection, Collection Les Perles De Chanel, Black Pearl and Pearl Drop, are the 2 colors that made me go, “Hmm…it will either fail or sink.”
To be honest, after the epic gorgeousness that was Fall’s Paradoxal, I was severely let down by Riva. It felt so common. I had honestly seen it before – both with and without shimmer. I could wax bitterly lyrical about how disappointed I was by Riva, by not only by the color but the application as well. Rather than rehash, check out the post.
I’m in the middle of road for Black Pearl and Pearl drop. While both had fairly good application with the formula being a bit on the thin side, I once again felt that this was something I had already seen.
What Chanel tried to do was make a cute little tips and toes set – I was told that Pearl Drop was meant for your fingers and Black Pearl was meant for your toes. Wear it at a resort, blah blah blah. You get the idea. Anyway, picture spam below!
Last note: I wanted to compare the nail polish against the real thing – a black pearl. Obligatory shot included.
What Chanel did here was capture the iridescence you would find in a black pearl. It’s a hard sheen to capture because it has so many colors – green, grey, gold and a multitude of other colors depending on the lustre of the pearl and the type/kind. Don’t worry, there won’t be much jewelry or gemstone chatter from me in this post…I think.
When I saw this in sunlight, it really reminded me of my mother’s Tahitian Black Pearls that she has. She busts out with them once every NEVER because she can’t be bothered with getting them out of the bank. I saw them ONCE when I graduated from college, but that was it. I remember I was struck by the sheer size of the pearls as well as the lustre and the color. When I say size, you have to understand that the average pearls you see in the store are small – roughly 7 to 7.7 mm. Her Tahitian Black Pearls are a crazy 13-15mm in size. Practically double the average size of a pearl. Ok, I’m done. Sort of. I swear I’m done with jewelry chatter.
I didn’t lie – I had to provide picture of Chanel’s Black Pearl nail polish vs the color of a real black pearl. 😀
There is a faint gold shimmer that only comes out in person. It barely registers here. What Chanel tried to do was mimic the peachy golden glow of white pearls. They did a pretty good job. While this color wasn’t bad, not sure if I’d wear it faithfully.
You can see the shimmer better here.
Overall not a bad collection, but just not enough to wow me. Sorry, Chanel. If I had to give this a grade, I’d say this is a C for colors and an A for the formula.
So I left out OPI on the picture, but it’s there. FYI: Middle Finger = Nubar’s Raspberry Truffle, Ring Finger = OPI’s Tease-y Does It and Pointer and Pinkie finger = Femme Couture’s Red Caviar. RC has a very pretty subtle shimmer you can’t really see and it barely hints at a shimmer on my pointer finger.
Ah, now you can see the shimmer in the pointer finger, but it’s still incredibly subtle, isn’t it? RT and TDI are practically dupes! Just a reminder: Middle Finger = Nubar’s Raspberry Truffle, Ring Finger = OPI’s Tease-y Does It and Pointer and Pinkie finger = Femme Couture’s Red Caviar.
