Polish Review - Chanel "Peridot"

I've been hinting at this for weeks and weeks, but.... I broke down and got a little box from Chanel. And what was inside this time? The object of all of my lust and desire itself: Peridot, from the Fall 2011 limited edition shades.

A little backstory on our romance? We first met in Zagreb at the same little salon I talked about a few months ago. However, Peridot was not yet on the market, so I got to try it out without being able to buy it, and went home with Black Pearl instead, haha. I then tried to order it a few months ago, only to find it was sold out. Then I made the mistake of checking back a couple of weeks ago, annnnnd...

Pardon the box's look of already having been raided. It was, hehe. And with Peridot and my little Eye Serum sample unboxed:

Peridot came along with two samples in all: a nice little to-go size of Vitalumiere Aqua in Beige Rose 30 (my color!) and Sublimage Eye Serum.

Peridot is a beautiful trichrome, flashing between a dark, almost jungle green, a burnt gold, and (especially in the bottle) a bright blue. It's hard as hell to pick up the jungle green on a camera, and nearly impossible to get that electric blue to come through on the nail.

Mmmm. Polish porn.

Application is really nice, and only the littlest bit brushstrokey. It also lasts a very long time once it's on the nail, with just a small amount of edgewear after some pretty rough treatment. It's a stunning polish, and it looks gold at first glance most of the time, but once you notice the multichrome, you can't stop looking at it!

I like Black Pearl a lot, but Peridot, my second Chanel polish, is just stunning. It was undoubtedly worth its price, and I think it will be sought after for a long, long time.

Three Boxes in the Mail

I have a few goodie boxes to share with you today!

I'm running a little behind, so my first is my September 2011 Julep Maven "Bombshell" box. I'm kind of jealous of some of the ladies who got that gorgeous teal creme this month, but I had some pretties in here too. :)

   This box contained a nail polish -- Stefani, a really pretty gunmetal-steel grey with gold and olive shimmer, the roller-ball essential cuticle oil, the SPF 30 hand cream that Mavens received a small sample of in their introductory box, and a very nice little nail file. I'm very behind on posting, so I admit -- I have already used all of these products except for the hand cream, though I need to try that out soon. I'll have a forthcoming review of Stefani, but I'll say here -- the nail file and the cuticle oil live in my purse now, and are not likely to leave any time soon. I think this was a very costworthy little box -- I think it about breaks even with what I would like to pay for the Julep products, and all of them were very usable, so I was very happy.

   So I broke down. I admit it. I finally bought a bottle of the Vitalumiere Aqua in Beige Rose. It's just slightly darker than my usual preference for foundations, but it looked so nice when I tried it in Croatia that I had to have it. I was originally going to buy Peridot at the same time, but it was sold out, and I'm not positive that I am going to buy Graphite, so I stuck with just the foundation. It did also come with a sample of Blue de Chanel, which I'll send to a (male) friend, and little samples of Mousse Confort and Sublimage Serum. I've hardly had time for my usual beauty routines, so these have gone untested so far. But I'll confess to you, my readers, that there may now be another Chanel box on the way very shortly, because something restocked just as I needed a bout of retail therapy...

   Lastly I have my newest Maven box, for October. This was really a nice little box and it was even nicer because it was a freebie that was released to combat some of the negativity surrounding it. I won't comment on that, since it did not involve me, though I was not too happy to see that any of the other lovely Mavens had been shortchanged at all. In this box are three pretties: Age-Defying Hand Cream, which will be awesome because I have very pale skin that freckles (especially on my hands) very unattractively, and two nail polishes. The first polish is Vanessa, a very pretty snow-like glitter that reflects all different colors and is suspended in a clear base. It reminds me of fake white shiny-snow that you get in a garland. It makes me wish it were Christmastime! The second polish is Chloe, which is a pink/red/magenta microglitter/shimmer that is suspended in a black, jelly-like base. I admit that I nail-wheeled (and wore Chloe) both of these prior to the above photo, so don't judge the bottle content-level!

   That's all I have for you right now. I'll hopefully have a couple of polish reviews up sometime soon, but for now, it's back to football!

A Visit to a Chanel Makeup Studio - Zagreb, Croatia

This is a blog post that is ridiculously overdue, but I have wanted to take the time to do a really good post on it, so who cares if this all occurred a couple of months ago?

While I was exploring and shopping in Zagreb, I spotted a sign for Chanel. This is never a good thing. It was even worse because I had just seen swatches for Chanel Peridot, and wanted it very much. So, I was trying to find somewhere that I could buy Peridot, and this makeup studio was one of those places.

Unfortunately, I cannot read Croatian, and did not notice a sign that said that the studio had not opened yet, and that the day I decided to go in was the grand opening for journalists and bloggers and other professional types. Here is a link to one of the articles that has some lovely photos of the interior. Sooo... no makeup done that day, though they were exceptionally kind and let me try on the sample of Peridot, even though it wasn't released yet. OMG. It's so ridiculously beautiful!

Three days later I was back in Zagreb when they were open and available to the public. I was treated to a fabulous day-makeover by one of their artists, Kristina, who picked an amazing set of products, which I have listed below.

- Hydramax + Active Serum - A wonderful product; not heavy or greasy like any other moisturizer I have used. I want to get this very badly, along with...
- Hydramax + Active Gel Cream - This feels amazing, and my foundation lasted all day, feeling amazingly light. I adore this product; I finally bought the foundation (below) I tried; this will be the next product I buy.
- Demaquillant Yeux - Makeup remover; works wonderfully. Fairly inexpensive, too!

And the makeup:

- Beige Rose Pastel - Foundation - Gorgeous foundation; feels like you're wearing nothing. Nice application; lasts very well.
- Claire - Powder - This is another beautiful product that adds just a bit of hold for the foundation.
- Brun Cuivre - Eyeliner - A pencil eyeliner; almost looked like a pretty shadow once it was applied, but added a soft definition to the eyes.
- Twilight - Eyeshadow - Finally she added a pinkish eyeshadow that set off the grey-blue of my eyes very nicely.
- Purple - Mascara - Last but certainly not least for the eyes, a gorgeous amethyst-purple mascara.
- Espiegle - Blush - I am horrible about wearing blush; I have trouble finding colors that don't make me look like a clown. However, this one was perfect -- more of a peach than a pink.
- Rebelle - Lipstick - Very last but very not least, Kristina used a rich color of orange-coral-red that looked stunning as a pop of color. I love Rebelle and can't wait to own it.


While my makeup was being finished, I also had a beautiful manicure done, with Chanel's hand cream and Paradoxal. I've always wanted to see Paradoxal in person. It's beautiful -- but I was so surprised by how subtle the shimmer is! Definitely one on my want-list, however. :)

I can't believe how beautiful the whole look was. It had a wonderful summer day feel and look, and it lasted a very long time! My manicure lasted as well -- I was able to wear it all the way home a week later. Chanel's products wowed me, as did the talent of my makeup artist. Many thanks to her!

I did buy a product, though my debit card was in distress so I did not buy anything else (though now I wish I had). I did pick up Black Pearl, finally, the beautiful nail polish that was everywhere last year. They included two samples: the hydrating serum and a Rouge Coco lipstick in 05 - Mademoiselle.

I hope I can return next year; the studio is only open for one year!