Chanel Le Vernis in 575 Starlet… a preview of summer!

Chanel released a capsule collection for Spring/Summer 2013 called the Avant Premiere de Chanel. The collection is comprised of four new and limited edition nail polishes, with complementing Rouge Coco and Rouge Coco Shine lipsticks. From the collection, I picked up a nail polish (surprise, surprise) called Starlet.

Starlet is a watermelon-coral shade with beautiful gold pearl that has become almost a signature for Chanel’s polishes. The gold pearl is subtle but brings depth and uniqueness to a colour that is pretty commonly seen around this time of year. Even though it is a relatively bright colour, I still think it is office-appropriate enough to wear during the daytime.

The formula is not the best I’ve seen from Chanel (that honour goes to Rose Cache). It is slightly more viscous and not as liquidy and light as most of my other Chanel polishes that glide on effortlessly. This one takes a bit more work to get it evened out and smooth. Wear time on average for my Chanel polishes is about a week.

Do you need this? Probably not. You can likely find very similar colours in drugstore or other non-luxury brands. When I brought Starlet home, I noticed that it looked super familiar, so I brought out my stash of polishes and found that under my bedroom lights, it looks like almost a dupe of Paul & Joe Marrakesh polish from Summer 2010. When I did a swatch of it side by side though (see comparison shots below), it looks very different so now I feel better about my $30 indulgence. Marrakesh is much more orange and the gold pearl is much more pronounced than the subtle gold pearl in Starlet. Marrakesh is borderline shimmer/metallic, I would have to say, especially under sunlight.

Starlet on left, Marrakesh on right

I also did a comparison with Rose Cache and Distraction below as well. You can see that Distraction is a cooler pink with iridescent shimmer, whereas Starlet is warmer and leaning towards almost a rose under certain lights.

From left to right: Starlet, P & J Marrakesh, Distraction, Rose Cache