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I tried my first Chanel nail polish ever this summer and have been loving the longevity, but I keep reading that they are prone to chipping, so I am very hesitant to invest in another one.
In general, I hear it either way – it either chips in a day or wears well. I do find that I don’t hear as many comments about Chanel polish chipping in the last 3-5 years vs. 7-10 years ago.
I really love the Vitalumiere Aqua cream compact foundation. Medium coverage, feels really light on my face and doesn’t irritate my sensitive skin. I have Chanel eyeshadow quads, blush, lipsticks, nail polish etc.. but this is my favorite product.
Awesome 😀
Well, after approximately 35 years since last having anything from Chanel, I certainly do appreciate this guide! For that eventual day that I get something from this brand again. My Mom would many times give me her GWP’s or something she wasn’t crazy about. At least till she quit buying HE in the early 80’s.
You have amazing will power to resist some of those decorative powders Chanel has put out, Nancy!
Nice selection. Those nail polishes look gorgeous, especially Accessoire.
Chanel knows how to do a vampy polish!
*If you love sparkles, I think Chanel New Moon is a must-buy. It’s crazy sparkly but a very multi-dimensional, sophisticated sparkle, like you get from a diamond ring, definitely not cheap glitter. I love to pop it on top of a neutral eye.
*If you love a classic smoky eye, I highly recommend Tisse Smoky. I tried out several out different ME and HE smoky eye quads , and this was the best by far for pigmentation, blendability, and staying power on my oily lids. That black is especially awesome, it’s a pigmented satin matte, hard to find in a quad. I have very fussy lids, but I can get a great smoky eye in less than 5 minutes with this kit. And you can go from soft to medium to dramatic–it layers beautifully over primers, cream shadows, and you can also use damp.
*And if you’re a khaki olive green lover, Tisse D’Automnes is stunning, love it!
So glad you’re digging the Tisse Smoky quad!
ROUGE ALLURE Luminous Matte Lip Colour in La Raffinee. The longest wearing bullet lipsticks I’ve ever tried.
What a pretty shade!
I’ve bought one Chanel lipstick and one Chanel nail lacquer. Save your money! I thought I would be getting something wonderful since it was “Chanel”…I was wrong.
Oh no, which shades did you buy that you did not like? Like all brands, Chanel doesn’t have all hits or all misses, in my experience!
Definitely Tisse Venetien and Tisse D’Automne are my favourites. They are all fabulous quads, depending on your colour preferences.
Tisse d’Automne is great for earth tones!
The problem with Chanel is 90% of it is nice. I agree with your blush selections! La Romanesque is still on my list too!
They have some nice products!
I recommend testing their foundations for a color match, especially Vitalumière Aqua, my one holy grail product. It’s a great light foundation for very dry skin that still gives visible coverage. And they do cool undertones very well. Generally, my experience is: Foundations and perfumes are great. Lipsticks and blushes are good. Eye color is hit and miss. Their nail polish is fragile, but the colors are amazing. Eyeliners and mascara are nothing special.
The service can be off-putting at dept store counters.
Bummer to hear you haven’t gotten excellent service in store, Alice 🙁
I don’t present upscale when I shop, so guess they thought I wasn’t customer material. But the actual Chanel stores have been better. Since I moved hours away from any counter, now I just shop online anyway. 🙂
I have combination oily skin and i LOVE Vitalumiere Aqua. Just goes to show how versatile it is
My Chanel recs are any JC blush, glossimer, eyeliners both kohl and stylo yeux waterproof, illusion d’ombres regular and velvet, if you can get the rouge noir IDO and eye kohl pencil they are so amazing. So is IDO velvet Rouge George and Fleur de Pierre. I still see these sold so they are LE but I would personally suggest them. Other favorites include IDOs Fantasme, Epatant, Illusoire, New Moon, Emerveille. Inimitable and Le Volume mascara are worth trying and often samples. Any nail polish. Rouge Allure intense long- wear lip Colour in Rouge Noir and Pirate #99. Start in the category of products you love most and pick your favorite. Can’t go wrong.
I forget how great Chanel mascara is!
Thanks for this! I’ve been wanting to try Chanel.
No problem!
Particluliere nail polish!
Great pick, Ray!
I love Chanel’s blushes.. Malice, Rose Initiale and Jersey are ones that I own. Love that you recommended them , too!
Yayy! 🙂 Jersey is amazing if you are on the lighter side!
I remember back in the day when everyone swore by the chanel soleil tan de chanel and me being a teenager thinking when I had more money I would buy it. Now that the makeup world has changed so much would you still say it’s worth the money or is there a better natural bronzer for a light-medium skinned girl?
I like it, but I prefer Guerlain or Tom Ford bronzers myself. I also think Too Faced does nice bronzers for something less spendy 🙂 theBalm’s powders are underrated as well!
I would definitely recommend the perfumes( my fav is no 5); the velvet matte lipsticks( my fav is no 37 l’exuberante) and the foundations( my fav is vitalumiere aqua).
My grandma’s favorite is No. 5! I make sure to get her a bottle from time to time. What are your other favorite scents by Chanel?
Yeah.. No 5 is supposed to be a grandma type perfume.. But i love it none the less. My other favs are allure sensuelle, chance eau vive and cristalle…. In fact i love most of their fragrances
Oh, I did not mean it was grandma-esque by any means, only that that is a scent my own grandma loves 🙂
Certainly Rouge Noir #18 nail polish!
Awesome!
….AND PERFUMES OF COURSE !
Which scents do you like, Amalia?
I haven’t tried many Chanel products at all, so this list is very helpful 🙂
Yay!
I think I started with a nail lacquer and vitalumiere aqua foundation — and never looked back. I most look foreword to their summer collection each year, and after the summer”metamorphosis” collection ( with its beautiful gossimer butterfly wing inspired colors), I was officially hooked.
Which nail lacquer was it, Pamyla?
Their lipsticks are lovely, and I have one of their eyeshadow singles, Gris Gris. No matter how much I rotate products through my makeup bag, GG stays. Great for a quick wash of taupe that goes with anything.
And can I mention their fragrances? I saved up and got a small bottle of Bois des Iles. Warm sandalwood = heaven.
Happy to hear the fragrance was worth it 🙂
I was really enamored of the Illusions d’ombre when they first came out and bought 3 of them. One – Ebloui – dried out and shrunk in a really, REALLY short time and since then, I’ve found that cheapie ol’ L’Oreal Infallible shadows as well as those from Lise Watier and Clarins are every bit as good, if not better, and at a fraction of the price. I am totally wild about the Tisse quads I have – Rivoli, Gabrielle and d’Automne, and I do enjoy my Chanel Pirate lipstick though I don’t find it anything special in terms of wear time or colour. I think they discontinued one of my fave single eyeshadows – Taupe Grise. I never see it at the Chanel counter anymore, so I think it’s gone which surprised me as I thought it was one of their best sellers.
I think the new eyeshadow quads are really lovely. I’m glad they redid that formula!
I’d recommend what I bought for the first time, and i’d recommend buying it now: it’s the Sunkiss Ribbon Blush from the LA Sunrise collection. SO LUXE. SO PRETTY. And you’ll be SO hooked. When I saw that blush, I was like “Whoa, I sure did pick a serendipitous day to look on Chanel’s website. Sweet mother of Oprah!”
The blushes, for sure. Cream & powder. Both, for the most part, are spectacular. They blend well, they’re pigmented, they leave a beautiful finish to the skin & are very much long-wearing, even on my oily mug. Havn’t caused any breakouts for me, either. I’ve been disappointed by a few of their limited edition blushes they’ve released (powder formula), but really like them overall. If you’re put off my the prices or simply can’t afford them, comparable products I’ve found are Makeup Forever’s cream blushes (same volume of product but significantly lower price) and Milani baked blushes (really great product & *soooooo* much cheaper). I’ve found that both will give you very similar, if not identical, results once applied to the skin. But I still keep buying the higher quality, LE ones that Chanel comes out with if I fall in love with them 🙂
Their lip products are hit & miss with me. Any glosses they make with sparkle in it feel like nasty sand on my lips. I avoid them altogether after several disappointments. But I love many of their lipsticks from the Rouge Coco Shine line. They feel really nice & are *slightly* glossy with just enough pigmentation to enhance my natural lip color, but I definitely wouldn’t call them sheer. They aren’t long-wear lipsticks, by any means. And, unfortunately, they stain my lips as they wear off. A lot. I detest the way that looks – like a shriveled up, dried out gash – so I find I’m always reapplying as soon as it wear off. Yet I like them when I’m wearing a full face, go figger 🙂 A comparable product I’ve found which reminds me of Chanel’s lipsticks are Too Faced Bon Bons lipsticks (I think that’s what the ones I have are called – brushed gold tube – but my decrepit eyes can’t read the damn label on the bottom LOL). They feel incredibly similar when I’m applying them & on the lips but Too Faced’s formula is fragrance-free, as far as I can tell/smell, whereas I smell rose fragrance in Chanel’s. Too Faced’s formula is also a bit cheaper, although I haven’t bothered comparing their volumes, but with nicer packaging IMO. I love metal lip packaging. So much sturdier & much nicer looking, although label whores will no doubt prefer the Chanel logo looking back at them, I know 🙂 Makes no difference to me either way. Performance & ingredients are #1 for me.
There are many products from many brands I’ll shell money out for if the quality is there, EXCEPT nail color. Chanel’s are no exception for me. Those are the only products I continue to regret buying from them in the past, even though they were all limited edition. I no longer even glance at their polishes when at the counter. I’m paying over $30 before tax for a single bottle here, which is criminal. Their shades are anything but unique, really. I’m not a fan of their application brush (Wet n Wild & Rimmel rule *that* category; LOVE their polish brushes!). They can also be duped out the ying-yang with many other, much less expensive brands with significantly better wear time. It’s not like they’ve got an incredible ‘long-wear’ formula that’s bulletproof to justify that price tag, with shades that’d make you piddle yourself like a puppy right where you stand. I’d definitely give these a pass, especially with so many indie polish makers out there now who are making truly beautiful products for 1/3 of the price which are incredibly unique & stunningly beautiful, that have much better wear time & contain far fewer nasty chemicals *and* are better quality. I seriously LOVE Ellagee’s stuff, including their base coat & top coat. One shade in particular, Rainbow Syrup, makes their glitter polishes look almost holographic when applied over their glitter polishes. You’re *never* gonna get that from Chanel, I guarantee you.
Just figured those not familiar with Chanel & who are jonesing to try their stuff would like some alternatives if they can’t/don’t want to shell out the cash it takes to have the Chanel logo sitting on their counter, but still want to try some products that will give them very similar – if not even better – results 🙂
Forgot about the eyeshadow duos & quads, but the square shaped ones – NOT the little round ones. LOVE LOVE LOVE them! The little round ones in the quads are utter crap IMO. I expect far better quality at this price point.