I’m late to the party on this one… I should just stop saying this as it seems I am perpetually late to the party. The truth is, I swatched these a long time ago but I’ve been so backed up I haven’t had a chance to post them yet. I’m having some much-needed down time this week and it’s giving me an opportunity to catch up on posting.

I missed the little metallic-duochrome revolution sparked by Chanel Peridot. The unanimous consensus from speaking to other bloggers and collectors was that Peridot was a game changer. A few people, having no inkling of the phenomenon that would soon follow, rushed to buy back-ups of the then unique color. Now, nearly every major brand has a Peridot-like shade. There are SO many dupes, in fact, that they’ve been affectionately dubbed “peri-dupes.” In the long-long ago, I often voiced my frustration that nail polish companies failed to remarket or recreate highly sought-after discontinued shades. Although greens are common now, four years ago, getting a dark green often meant shelling out the big bucks for an older shade like NARS Zulu or OPI Jasper Jade. The frenzy caused by those colors went seemingly unnoticed (or ignored) as companies released an endless cycle of the same shimmery reds every season. The prevalence of peri-dupes seems to suggest that there may have been a shift in market strategy. The question then becomes whether the peri-duping phenomenon will be isolated only to Peridot or whether color copycating will be a new industry standard. I’m conflicted. On the one hand, I like to see inexpensive dupes of more expensive colors. I sink money on Chanel all the time, especially lately, but I rather spend less when possible. I begrudgingly passed on Peridot because I had already purchased OPI Just Spotted the Lizard. (Granted, I had to be talked down off the ledge by Scrangie because I really wanted Peridot, just for the sake of having it, even after seeing her comparison.) On the other hand, I’m troubled by the fact that since nearly every brand released a peri-dupe based shade or collection recently that also necessarily means that they did not release something new and exciting instead.

Of course, I have to wonder whether Peridot would have been so widely copied if it had been released by a less prestigious brand. Would there be so many peri-dupes if the original was Wet n Wild Peridot instead of Chanel Peridot? I think the color is unique enough that the nail polish community would have gone ga-ga over it regardless of the brand, but my guess is that there would have been no industry attention to the shade without the Chanel name attached to it.

In any case, Peridot has definitely left its mark and here are four shades from the New Bohemian Luster Chrome Collection, China Glaze’s interpretation of the metallic-duochrome trend. I only have 4 to show you. I skipped Want My Bawdy, sorry, shimmery, metallic-y medium blues don’t usually appeal to me and the name offends my Victorian sensibilities, haha. I also skipped Rare and Radiant, the China Glaze peri-dupe, for the same reason I skipped the original. You can see swatches of the whole collection on Scrangie’s blog - her post is also worth checking out because it discusses other known dupes for the colors in this collection. According to Scrangie’s post, a few shades correspond with colors by Deborah Lippmann - I can’t give much insight on that because my collection is still catching up with recent releases.

China Glaze Unpredictable, oh, love this metallic-y goodness. Unpredictable shifts from yellow-green to green to green-blue. The finish, like the other colors in this collection, is very mirrored. If you look closely you can see my camera’s reflection on my nail.  As hard as I tried with my limited photography skills, I just could not capture the blue shift which is only visible at certain angles. This is 4 coats.

China Glaze Swanky Silk is a rose-toned gold duochrome. The gold is very light, as is the pink tone, which gives it an antique-like foil effect – that quality, I thought, made it office safe.

 This one is more subtle than the others and not as reflective. Because the reflections are less obvious, it only slightly darkens the color on the nail, making it appear tarnished. The application was good but Swanky Silk is a bit sheer, so this mani is 4 coats.

Here’s a side shot to show the delicate pink tone.

I decided to mattify this using Rescue Beauty Lounge’s Matte Top Coat after a couple of days of wear. This look is my favorite – I think the other shades would look great mattified as well. The mattification did away with most of the duochrome and left only a very light rosy gold overall color.

China Glaze Deviantly Daring, love, love, love. In the bottle Deviantly Daring is a green to blue duo-chrome. The shift doesn’t translate as well on the nail but, still, the result is a gorgeous greenish-blue with a foil-like metallic finish. This was very tough to photograph, like the others, my camera’s reflection made the color appear much darker.

Here’s Deviantly Daring at a different angle with less reflection to show the greenish-blue. I noticed with this whole collection that the brushstrokes become less obvious as the polish dries – which is good.

Sometimes, at some angles, the color shifts from a deep blue to the more electric blue, captured above. I wore this as a full mani, this is 3 coats and one coat of Seche Vite. I scooped this one up on sale at Sally’s - it was 50% off. Woot, woot!

China Glaze No Plain Jane seems different from the other shades in this collection. In the bottle it looks like a gold to purple duochrome. During application, it looked like there was metallic purple shimmery pigment suspended in a gray toned base. On the nail it just looked like a standard shimmery purple that would sometimes shift to a more gray-toned purple. The formula was very sheer, but it was good at 3 coats.

Finally, this collection features silver caps. I suppose this was done because this is a “chrome” collection. I own several old silver capped China Glaze polishes. Despite their age, the caps are still mostly pristine – which is unique for silver caps. My older silver capped OPI bottles are getting discolored. My previous experience with China Glaze silver caps made me pretty surprised to find that the silver caps in this collection are much lower quality. I had some acetone on my fingertips and the silver actually rubbed off on my finger! C’mon China Glaze, bring back those awesome older silver caps!

What do you think about the peri-dupe phenomenon? Do you appreciate more affordable dupes of expensive colors? Or would you prefer that companies expend effort creating new colors as opposed to copying already existing shades?

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Disclosure: No Plain Jane, Swanky Silk, and Unpredictable were sent for review by China Glaze’s PR. I purchased Deviantly Daring myself. Rescue Beauty Lounge Matte Top Coat was sent for review by Rescue Beauty Lounge.

Whoooooops. Apparently, Joy is from the warm set and Admire is from the cool set. My apologies, I mixed up the colors while I was swatching and neglected to double check the sets before posting. Thanks to Sminkan for pointing out the discrepancy. In any case, here is the second set of colors from the Romantique collection. Like before, these are all one coaters and I didn’t use a top coat. Enjoy!

(Please take note of my side comment in the Cool Set post concerning the color accuracy of these swatches.)

China Glaze Admire is a pink metallic-y shimmer. The warm set is much more ‘feminine’ that the cool set so I figured this color belonged to the warm set.

China Glaze Delight is a metallic-y brown. Love this one. I have a soft spot for brown cremes, but every once in a while a shimmery one finds it’s way into favor as well.

China Glaze Emotion is like… metallic pink bubble gum. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. In a way, it’s unique. I think I have to wear it as a full manicure to make a final decision.

China Glaze Magical is a sort of pinky-taupe metallic. Scrangie hated it, I love it. This is one is borderline work appropriate, if you can get away with slightly out of the ordinary work polish.

China Glaze Passion is an antique gold. This one is my absolute favorite from this collection. It’s very wearable. In my opinion, it’s not too yellow. I’m always looking for the perfect gold for when I finally try the MAC Antiquitease mani I’ve been meaning to do – I think Passion is it.

Finally, China Glaze Poetic is a… uh… bronze-y pink/peach? It’s a strange color. I’m not sure how I feel about it.

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Disclosure: This collection was sent to me for review by China Glaze.

For a few seasons now, China Glaze has released thematic, well balanced collections. Their main seasonal collections have consistently included something for every taste. So, golf clap to China Glaze – their design department knows what’s up.

Like seasonal collections in the past, Romantique consists of two sets, one cool, the other warm. Most of these colors apply perfectly in one coat. One Coat. People have been saying that for a while but I dismissed it thinking that one coat meant one massive-absurdly-thick coat but no, really, opaque bottle color coverage in one normal coat. The theme in this collection is a frosty metallic finish. When I first saw the promotional images I thought these were going to be chrome, they aren’t. Instead the finish is shimmery, nearly foil like. These colors, with their amazing pigmentation and viscosity, are going to be perfect for use with the Konad. All these swatches are 1 coat of color over 1 coat of base coat.

A note on the color accuracy of these images: These colors, due to the finish, are really difficult to capture accurately with my lighting set up. Most of the colors are deeper in real life. Additionally, the finish is not uniformly reflective like it appears to be in some of these photos. These colors have  a lot of frosty sparkle. I really recommend looking at Scrangie’s swatches which were taken in sunlight, in my opinion her images are a better depiction of these colors.

China Glaze Awaken is described as a platinum silver, I think it’s more like a silvery charcoal. This color is grunge-y. To me it has a steampunk feel to it. This swatch is one coat of color, no top coat.

China Glaze Cherish is a metallic-y moss green. I couldn’t capture the color correctly, it’s much more green toned in real life. This swatch is one coat, no top coat.

Adore is a metallic-y turquoise. This one is a standout for me. I’m going to go nuts using this color with Konad over black. 1 coat color, 1 coat base.

Devotion is a metallic-y lavender. This is my second favorite from this set. It may just be me but I feel like this shade of lavender was made to be worn with this finish. 1 coat of color, 1 coat of base.

Harmony is metallic-y purple. My third favorite, I feel like this color flattered my skin tone the most – I consider myself a warm tone even though I’ve never really understood all that jazz about cool tones and warm tones. 1 coat of color, 1 coat of base.

Joy is a metallic-y purple toned mauve. This is 1 coat of color, 1 coat of base.

I’ll report back with my Konading experiments at a future date.

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Disclosure: This collection was sent to me for review by China Glaze.

A while back I posted alternatives to Chanel Gold Fiction. I theorized then that Chanel was just testing the waters for a major price jack and after the release of the Moscow collection and the price increase of their regular polish, I think it’s safe to say that I was right in my assessment. As much as I love nail polish, I can’t bring myself to spend $30 dollars on one bottle, so I’ve abstained from the pricier Chanels even though in my heart of hearts I secretly yearn for them. My feelings must have been pretty obvious because my Mother picked up on them when we were doing some Christmas shopping together. We stopped by a Chanel booth and I lamented the price of Gold Fiction and said, “You know, it’s really just too bad. I would buy it for $20 but, on principle, I won’t buy it for $30.”

We walked away and that was that, or so I thought. My mother had been very generous to me throughout the year and Christmas isn’t a big ordeal at my house anyway so I wasn’t expecting anything. But on Christmas Eve, my Mother came home with a little tiny box,  inside was Chanel Gold Fiction. It was so incredibly thoughtful of her for so many reasons. First and foremost, it’s something that I wouldn’t buy for myself and I only told her about it in passing. I truly appreciate that she listens to my fanatical nail polish ravings which often irritate most people in my life. I’m also grateful that she actually got me nail polish. Let me explain, people in my life don’t buy me nail polish unless it’s at my specific direction. My roommates, for example, say, “hey, what do you want for X event?” I say, “Nail polish.” They say, “Ok, here’s a credit card, spend X amount.” Sounds weird, I know, but they’re guys so they don’t relish in gift buying. Other people in my life say things like “Hey, what do you want for X event.” I say, “Nail polish.” They say, ” Noooo, I’m not getting you nail polish.” Of course, I always appreciate whatever gift they ultimately decide on, but I chuckle a little whenever that happens. I mean, I know I’m hard to shop for, it’s not like I have some huge, pervasive, glaring hobby, that I’m constantly talking about and on which I spend all my free time. : P

Gold Fiction is surprisingly beautiful, shockingly so. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I do, but I’m still not sure that I would bought it myself. It did, however, make a wonderful gift. Sadly, now that I own Gold Fiction I can say that my previous suggestions don’t even come close to the color or the finish. Other bloggers have suggested that Gold Fiction is the truest gold on the market, I think I have to agree. The finish is sparkly but subtle, very refined and sophisticated. For me, it was a 3 coater. My only complaint is the incredibly annoying opaque bottle. *shakes fist at Chanel* Honestly, I like this polish enough that it’s making me reconsider my decision to refrain from purchasing the Moscow Collection. I think if I had the money sitting around, I’d set my principles aside and splurge for them.

Some girls will trample innocent people to get their hands on Chanel Le Vernis. Me? Um… not so much. Chanel is overrated. 99.5% of their colors are boring and the wear is not exceptional for the price tag. Excluding the amazing but impossible-to-find Chanel Holographic (which wasn’t released in the U.S. because why would they ever release something actually worth buying in the U.S.), I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Chanel that made me jump out of my seat… until I saw Chanel Kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope is the quintessential non-glitter ultra-bling polish. It’s like ultra-bling all grown up. The blinginess is more subtle indoors, it becomes a mirrored greenish platinum in indirect lighting. If you only ever buy one Chanel, it has to be this one.

Of course, this color was ‘Limited Edition’ as per Chanel’s modus operandi of creating articifical hype for their polish -insert eye roll- so sadly, it’s probably no longer available in stores. If you want it, you’ll either have to turn to evilbay scalpers and shell out absurd amounts of money for it or  you can settle for one of the very worthy alternatives.

Like I said before, I usually don’t buy Chanel nail polish *but* Chanel Kaleidoscope was so beautiful and unique, I just had to have it. The minute I saw a swatch of it taken by MUA’s Mrs_Brightside, I called Nordstrom and put a bottle on hold. That was incredibly out of character for me but it was totally and completely worth it. Even though I can honestly say that I love Kaleidoscope, I want to show you guys some possible alternatives to it. With the economy the way that it is right now, a luxury item like a 20 dollar bottle of nail polish, is probably not the most prudent way to spend money. Of course, some colors are must-have, recession or not, but if you can settle from something less extravagant, why not do so? (I’m a hypocrite, I know.)

First, here she is (are bottles of nail polish female? hmm) in all her glory:

*Heavy Sigh* In the sunlight, Kaleidoscope shimmers with ultra bling. Indoors and in the shade, it’s more of a subtle mirrored greenish platinum color. It’s beautiful but I have no idea why it’s called Kaleidoscope, neither does Scrangie. If the other shade is Gold Fiction, why not call this one Platinum Drama.

Essie Steel-ing the Scene is the closest thing to Kaleidoscope in my stash. These are actually fairly close color siblings. The main difference is that Kaleidoscope has the greenish tone and a lot more shimmer. However, if you really want to follow this trend but don’t want to blow the cash, Essie Steel-ing the Scene is a great alternative.

Here is Kaleidoscope and Steel-ing the Scene side by side. Despite several attempts, I couldn’t get the image to show the differences between these colors. I blame the inferior camera. While these colors are very close they really don’t look as similar in real life as they look in the image. Steel-ing the Scene has a smoother finish, less bling, less shimmer and is less mirrored.

Adorée Rockport Gray doesn’t have a mirrored finish. It’s a pseudo-metallic light silverish gray with some mossy shimmer throughout. Rockport Gray is not a dupe but it’s a pretty good alternative, especially for people who don’t want to go full out metallic. This is my NOTD right now, it’s subtle enough that I was able to get away with it at work. The application and wear is excellent.

I first lemminged Milani Key Lime Shine when I saw it on FiveZero. The polish doesn’t show the brush strokes, the lines on the surface are actually my nail ridges. If I did this as an actual mani, which I will soon, I would use Camo as a base to eliminate that issue. Key Lime Shine is a highly mirrored metallic light lime green. This is the only one of the colors exhibited here that is available at drug stores, although it is rumored to be hard-to-find.

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Disclosure: Adoree Rockport Gray was sent to me for review by Esther’s Nail Center.