Chanel Nail Varnish

♣♣♣ Price ♣♣♣

This is available from Fenwick priced at £13.00 for a 13ml bottle….. ouch! A hefty sum to pay for a varnish but since I got this as a gift, I'm not complaining!
However it's worth taking a look on ebay for cheaper deals or even www.bizrate.co.uk which searches for slightly lower prices for you.

♦♦♦ Packaging ♦♦♦

The varnish comes in a black box with a gold trim and white lettering, along with the colour number and name, in this case it was 18, Rouge Noir

Open the box and you are faced with quite a chunky cuboid bottle. On taking the lid off I was very surprised to find that the brush wasn't attached to the lid. Instead there is another screw top lid under this and the brush is attached to this. I'm given to thinking that this is Chanel's way of making their varnish or should I say 'enamel' a little more exclusive. I have added a photo of the bottle etc in the even of not having explained myself!

♣♣♣ What does Chanel say? ♣♣♣

Not a great deal on the packaging:
'Nail enamel, avoid heat or flame'
So no great promises of chip-free, long lasting etc

♦♦♦ My Experience ♦♦♦
I tend to use very subtle pale pink or even clear varnishes but since this was given to me as a gift, I thought that I would be daring and try it on my toe nails, not daring enough to apply it to my finger nails which are in a little bit of a mess at the moment!

~ Smell …… an extremely overpowering varnish based odour, which has to be said hits the back of your throat or nasal passages if inhaled too closely!

~ Application ……

• Not that easy to do with the fiddly little applicator top. It is cylindrical and quite short and stubby and it's quite tricky to manipulate.
• It has to be said that I'm not the world's best at applying varnish, especially with my left hand.
• Many may know that the correct way of applying varnish is to paint a strip in the middle of the nail and then two strips at either side.
• It goes on relatively easily and the overlap of the strips isn't as obvious as some other varnishes that I have used in the past.
• It takes quite a while to dry. Fine if you have the time or the patience, the latter of which I'm not blessed with in great abundance. I had to wait a full 5 minutes before reapplying the second coat. It's a very thick varnish and I could possibly have got away with just the one coat.

~ Colour …… As stated earlier, this was given to me as a gift so I had no choice as to the colour. The Rouge Noir is as the name suggests a very, very deep, warm red so not too bright and garish colour for me as I'm not bold and brash when it comes to nail colours!

~ Removal …… Not too bad! Given the thickness and colour of the varnish I thought it would be an absolute pain to remove, given that cheaper, thinner varnishes I have used haven't come off that easily.
Saying that, I do use quite a strong remover that many people wouldn't choose to use for fear of damaging their nails.
As for staining, so far I haven't seen any evidence of this although I've only been using it for a couple of weeks and haven't needed to reapply many times.

~ Does it last?

In short, Yes!!
That is, on my toe nails. I'm sorry that even for the purposes of a review, I couldn't bring myself to apply the varnish to my finger nails due to the colour and I know that my finger nails get a lot more of a 'battering' than my toe nails.
However, even after a couple of days and nights out in flip-flops, peep-toe sandals etc it lasted a considerable length of time which is great for me as I don't go in for pampering nights etc.
The colour lasted on my toe nails for a whole week without any signs of wear and tear. Fabulous!!
I only removed and reapplied the varnish as I was going to a wedding and felt that a fresh couple of coats of it would be appropriate!

♣♣♣ Range of Colours Available ♣♣♣
There are a wide range of colours available some of which I have listed below:
~ rouge noir
~ silver
_ gold shimmer
_ miami peach
~ lilac sky
~ fire

I was hoping to find a huge range of colours available for my next purchase on Chanel's website but I couldn't find the samples of colours. The website is quite slow to load and has a lot of what I class as 'airy-fairy' music and intros.
Hence the fact that I visited Fenwicks last week to take a good look at the ranges available.

♦♦♦ Overall ♦♦♦

On the whole I have to admit that I was very pleased with the quality of this varnish. As a consumer, I find that often, what you pay doesn't always reflect the quality, however with this varnish, you certainly get long lasting polish.
As stated earlier, this was given to me as a gift but due to the effectiveness of the varnish (granted only on my toe nails) I would certainly consider forking out for a more suitable colour for my finger nails.
For those of you who are looking for a little treat either for yourself or someone else this brand is a must-have, with the exception of the slightly awkward applicator handle but that makes it look that little 'different'!