Chanel Particuliere Dupes: Do They Exist? Comparison Swatches

I never bought Chanel's famed nail polish, Particuliere. I just couldn't imagine spending 16GBP on a polish, especially when Orlys, Nubars, OPI, and China Glazes go for less. But I was curious to know if there was a dupe, and to see for myself if any of the other taupe-brown-purple polishes were close enough. So I borrowed my friend's bottle of Particuliere, and made a few swatches. Mind you, these are very messy swatches, because I wanted to return Particuliere to her immediately (I'd feel bad hogging a 16GBP bottle of polish!), so I didn't really have time to be as neat as I wanted to be, and we all know haste makes a mess of nails!

First up of course, are bottle pictures.



L-R: Asos Paints by Ciate Sienna, Rimmel Steel Grey, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Chanel Particuliere, Essie Mink Muffs.

Nothing seems to be an outright dupe for Particuliere. Essie Mink Muffs does look similar, although deeper, in the bottle.

And here's how they fared in swatches. Once again, please excuse the terrible state of cuticles and my messy swatches. Like I said, they were done in a hurry because I wanted to return Particuliere ASAP. The swatches show two coats of each:



L-R (Thumb to Pinky): Essie Mink Muffs, Chanel Particuliere, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Rimmel Steel Grey, Asos Paints by Ciate Sienna

Application-wise, I had no complaints about any of the colours. They all applied like butter, although the Nails Inc, Essie, and Chanel were better than the other two. And as you can see, nothing is quite a dupe for anything else.

I know Essie Mink Muffs and Chanel Particuliere look like dupes for each other in this photo, but in reality they aren't that close. The Essie is a little darker, and a little more brown than the Chanel. I don't think most people would notice, but if you're a nail fanatic like me, if it's not an exact dupe, it isn't a dupe! :P

Here's a photo that exaggerates the differences between the two. Essie Mink Muffs is on my thumb, while Chanel Particuliere is on my pointer finger. The differences aren't as massive as they are in this photo (stupid camera), but you get the idea:



L-R: Chanel Particuliere, Essie Mink Muffs

And I remembered reading somewhere that Essie Mink Muffs is a dupe for Chanel Particuliere, if you lighten it by wearing it over white. So of course I HAD to try that. So I applied Essie Mink Muffs over GOSH Snow (a sheer white), and here are the results:



L-R: Chanel Particuliere, 1 Coat Essie Mink Muffs over 1 Coat GOSH Snow, Essie Mink Muffs

Similar, but no dice. It's a tad lighter than Particuliere. The purple in Mink Muffs really shows up when you layer it over white. It's really cool.

So, I added on another thin coat of Mink Muffs on top of GOSH Snow, and the results were better:



L-R: Chanel Particuliere, 2 Coats Essie Mink Muffs over 1 Coat GOSH Snow, Essie Mink Muffs

As you can see, it's close, but not identical. Mink Muffs is now the same depth of colour, but just a tad browner than Chanel Particuliere, while Particuliere is a hair more grey than it's Essie counterpart. I think someone might be able to franken a dupe of Particuliere using Mink Muffs, white, and something to make it more grey.

So, which of these should you choose, if you only had to go for one of them? All the colours applied well, so your choice would depend on your colour preferences, and your skin undertones. Although all these colours are pretty neutral, in general, colours with a stronger purple/grey tinge to them look better on cooler skintones, while colours with more brown tend to look better on warmer skintones. And it also depends on your preference - do you want more grey, brown or purple in your colour? If you want more brown, Essie Mink Muffs or Chanel Particuliere are good choices. If you want something that's more grey, Rimmel Steel Grey is a good choice. And if you want something that leans more purple, Nails Inc Jermyn Street and Asos by Ciate Sienna are your best bets.

Nails Inc Belgravia: NOTD

I know brown isn't the conventionl choice of nail colour, and if it's badly done it can look like poop, but colours like Nails Inc Belgravia and Essie Mink Muffs really appeal to me for some reason. Maybe it's because they're incredibly chic, yet understated enough for work in some areas, and they aren't your "usual" colours. But whatever the reason is, I like brown. Not all browns, some browns. It's hard to describe. Some browns are just "off", but some are chic.

Nails Inc Belgravia is one of the "chic" ones, that doesn't look like you stuck your fingers into a soiled baby's diaper. It's a brown that looks slightly grey in some lights, although it's always definitely brown. It also has a subtle shimmer that I quite like - I feel like it's the shimmer that gives it a dimension that keeps it from looking like poop. And as proof that it's a "chic" brown and not a poopy brown, I actually got a compliment wearing this! And as you can tell from the crappy paint work, this is also an older NOTD.



Application was smooth as butter, as is usual for Nails Inc. It was also very nicely opaque in 2 coats. I know I've raved so much about Nails Inc in my previous posts that you're just expecting me to do the same for this one, and rave about how the application is the best, the formula is the best, and the wear time is the best...And you're almost right. Almost. Application was the best, formula was good, but wear time was disappointing. I've no idea why though, because all my previous Nails Inc polishes lasted an average of 3-4 days on me, which is usual. But this one chipped in 1-2 days. I've no idea if this was because I was particularly rough with my nails or not, but I was surprised that it chipped so easily. Otherwise, I would be raving. Still, great colour. Pity about the lasting power, though.

TheBalm Read My Lips Lipstick Swatches!

Happy New Year everyone! What was your new year's resolution? Mine was to actually use up more things in my stash, hah. Today's swatches are theBalm's line of lipsticks, cutely named Read My Lips Lipsticks, and athough they have a limited number of colours - I'm not sure if I got the entire range down, but it seems that their colours are only limited to 6 - they cover most bases for lip colours. And most of their lip colours are very pretty and wearable too. They also come in cute paper packaging that looks like newspaper print - unless of course you don't like paper packaging, since these can get wet and spoil quickly. Personally, I only like the look of paper packaging, but it's not very practical for me.

Overall, I think these lipsticks are not bad. They have nice textures, and apply relatively evenly. And they don't have any weird smell - I think they just smell of unscented lipsticks - slightly chemically, but very faint. They're also all on the sheer side, although they build up nicely. They're not as superpigmented as the Barry M Lip Paints (which I'm so swatching, by the way), but they're wearable. Overall I think these are one of their better products, although they are a tad underrated.

Here are swatches, as always:



L - R: Wanted, Scoop, Gossip, Letter to the Editor, Classified, Smut

Wanted is a very pretty pinky-plummy rose, Scoop is a warmer rose that's less dark than Wanted and has more brown, Gossip is a pale pink with silver shimmer. Letter to the Editor is a shimmery bronzey brown colour with a hint of rose, while Classified is less shimmery, and less rosey. Smut is a deep purply-plum with some pink, and silver shimmer.

Although these colours are boring, I quite like them, particularly Wanted. They're good for work (unless you don't like shimmer), and these are pretty much safe, pretty colours.

Complete Sleek Blush Swatches

Today, we will be swatching and reviewing Sleek's entire line of blushes. That isn't very hard, because there are only 5 of them. Nevertheless, there are, as usual, some hits and misses.

First off, here are the swatches:



L - R: Pixie Pink, Flamingo, Sahara, Flushed, Coral

Pixie Pink is a matte pale baby pink, this one took a bit of building up to get the color intensity seen in the swatch. It's pretty much a very neutral pink, although I'm tempted to say it leans to the cool side just a tad. I'm guessing this one will be popular with the paler girls, who might find the other colours too intense for them. I'd say this is pretty much your universal pink, although I do imagine that it could potentially look chalky on darker skins. I like this colour, but it doesn't excite me for some reason - I mean, doesn't every other brand have their universal matte light pink? It's boring, but I guess it's a basic colour you have to have in your stash.

Flamingo is probably easily my favourite of the bunch. This one had good pigmentation, and I really like the colour. It's a peachy-pinky colour with a bit of red to give it that extra oomph, setting it apart from it's fellow peachy-pinks like NARS Orgasm. This one had a bit of gold shimmer in it, but I really like the dimension that gives. And the fact that this is my favourite says a lot, because I didn't even like NARS Orgasm. Anyway, I have a hard time deciding whether this is cool or warm, so I'm just going to say it's neutral. I do imagine Flamingo could be used on everyone, and I really really like it a lot.

Sahara is a rather orangey bronzed browned colour, and I'm having trouble picturing who would wear it, because it really leans very orangey on me (maybe it's just my colouring that pulls out the orange or something). It's very heavily orange and brown, even in the pan. This one is matte. Obviously, this isn't my favourite colour-wise, but someone else might like it.

Flushed is a red-berry colour, with just a bit of brown, and it sort of reminds me of a sort-of NARS Outlaw or Exhibit A, as it is sort of in the same colour family. I also really like this one, and with careful use it could probably work on most people, the emphasis being on 'with careful use'. I'd say this colour is a neutral, although it does lean a little to the warm side.

Coral isn't really coral at all, but a browned orangey red colour. I know the swatches make Flushed and Coral look similar but they really aren't (@#%@#% camera). Coral is a good bit browner, and a good bit warmer, and a good bit more orange, Once again, this isn't really one of my favourites, because of the inordinate amount of orange in it, although it has less orange than Sahara. This is definitely warm toned.

In general Sleek blushes had a pretty decent quality - they weren't fantastic and rivalling the high end brands, but they were certainly good for drugsore quality. In general, the lighter colours tended to be weaker in pigmentation than the darker colours, and Pixie Pink in particular was a bit weaker in pigmentation than the rest of the colours. Texture-wise, these felt alright. A couple of the testers were on the hard side, but most of them felt pretty decent. The packaging of these is quite cute, especially if you like NARS. These are packed in NARs-esque packaging, complete with black rubber case and little mirror inside, and rectangular pan of blush with no brush. I probably wouldn't rush out to collect these, but I do like the look of Flamingo.

On another note, Christmas is coming! Merry Christmas everyone!

Taupe of the Day: Bourjois Ombre Stretch Brun Nylon Swatch

As you know, from my stash pics here in this post, I have more taupes than I could ever use up. In fact, I suspect that there will be enough for me, my children, and my grandchildren - future generations will always have enough taupe!

So today I wil show you a taupe from my collection, but wasn't in my stash pics (horror!) - Bourjois Ombre Stretch Eyeshadow in Brun Nylon. Now I'm not that huge a fan of Bourjois - I mean, I don't hate the brand, but it's just never been one of those that caught my eye, although I've heard people rave about their blushes. But I think this shadow isn't shabby at all - in fact, I quite like it. As usual, feel free to click on all the pics for the full-sized picture.



That's the outside packaging. Please ignore that purple residue from the huge tag Superdrug likes to put on all its products.



And that's a closeup of the baby.



Oh yes. Hey there, gorgeous.
And of course, no review is complete without a swatch!



That swatch is in shaded natural light (in other words, me pressing my arm against my basement bedroom window, hoping enough light flows in to take a picture...) so there shouldn't be too much color distortion.

Anyway, here it is. It might surprise some people, since this isn't your expected 'taupe', like Satin Taupe or ME850, but it's a good bit lighter, and a tad browner. I kind of like it this way though, it's actually pretty unique in my stash, and that's saying something :P It's not a dark taupey, purply taupe, like MAC's Satin Taupe, but it's a good medium-to-light taupey color, with a good shot of silver, beige-ish-ness (I think that's what makes it medium-to-light, instead of a dark plummy taupe), and just a hint of purple. But it's still taupe. It reminds me of a more purple, less beige and brown Stila Wheat, since it's of a similar color depth. It's a little on the frosty side, but not so frosty that it's unwearable. Because of the mix of beige and purple in the color, I'd say this color is pretty neutral, maybe leaning a tad to the cool side. I think for most people, this would work as a lid color for most people, and would probably have to be paired with a darker colour for the crease - for my NC20 self, this shows up well enough on my skin. I personally really love this color, because for me a lot of the cult taupes out there tend to be on the dark side, and it's hard finding a nice light taupe. This for me is perfect - not too dark and not too light.

Pigmentation starts off sheer at first, but color is very buildable. I think that's what the 'Ombre Stretch' selling point means - the idea is that they have these nylon micro-spheres that allow the shadows to be 'stretched' out - i.e. stretched out sheer, or packed on opaque. I don't believe nylon particles are going to make an eyeshadow fantastic, but at least they got the description right on this one - it is buildable, and very nicely buildable, even if it starts off sheer. Just the whole thing about nylon-microspheres is such a terrible way to put it across to the consumer - I'm not sure if the average consumer is going to understand the mix of nylon and eyeshadow. Bu at least there's no false advertising here - it does start off sheer, and builds nicely. The texture of Brun Nylon is also pretty smooth, which is good, and it applies well.

I wore Brun Nylon for one entire day to try out how it wore as the day went on, and I'm pleased to say this is decent. It doesn't fade, but it does crease a little by the end of the day, but I wasn't wearing any primer or base (I don't have major eyeshadow issues so I've never found it necessary), so I think with a little primer this will be much better.

If you don't mind frosty eyeshadows, or the fact that you have to build up the pigment, and if you've been wanting a light taupe, not a deep, dark, taupe, this is worth a shot. It's harder to find a light taupe than a dark taupe, and good ones are hard to come by, so if you feel that alot of the taupey colors out there are too dark for you, this is worth a try. Brun Nylon isn't a flashy colour, and it isn't going to start any periods of obssessing on MUA, nor is it going to garner a whole host of cult followers, but it's a good workhorse basic.