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Dear Chanel, I Love You! Spring 2011 Le Vernis Shades Have Arrived

December 17, 2010

Chanel spring is starting to trickle in stores and the best news is that in the U.S. they have brought back the American-style formulas of the blush (no longer baked) and eyeshadow quad (back to square). I’m ecstatic! With the past few collections I was worried that in 2011 I would fall out of love with Chanel. There is so much to cover and I haven’t had time to play with everything yet so I’m going to split up my reviews. The first review will cover the new Le Vernis shades: Pearl Drop 511, Black Pearl 513, Pêche Nacrée 515.

The colors of white-gold, murky greyed-green and soft peachy-pink are an interesting combination for nails, but I love them. I love how Chanel matched the new Eyeshadow Quad, Regard Perlé (review coming soon). You might think the colors have been done before – but Chanel has a way of combining colors and pigments that no other brand can match. The result is a sophisticated and fresh palette that is appropriate for now and also serves as the perfect transition to spring.

Nails matched to the quad:

The finish of these spring nail colors is a pearl-frost. You can see brush strokes on Pearl Drop and Black Pearl if applied with a shakey hand, but the streaks aren’t too bad. All of them are a bit sheerer than your typical Chanel nail polish (in my opinion). I find the cream-non-shimmers to be full coverage while these are not full-coverage-with-1-coat. The Spring Shades definitely need 2-3 coats. Fortunately, they aren’t as sheer as Riva is. The nice thing about the texture is it allows you to build your color as you like.

Pearl Drop 511 is a white base with gold shimmer. It’s almost a duo-chrome color. This color is lovely, but not exactly my favorite. It’s simply too contrasted with my skintone. The yellowish undertones in my skin also don’t really help with this color. I wanted to compare it to Hard Candy’s Sugar Daddy, but it appears I had gifted that shade away. So, I pulled a few other Chanel whites for your reference. Blanc Petal is a pure white frost, Intermezzo has that opal-pinkish sheen, Pearl Drop is clearly a white-gold frost.

L to R: Chanel Blanc Petale, Intermezzo 501, Pearl Drop 511


Black Pearl 513 is the most highly anticipated shade of spring (for me). I have been dying of curiosity to see how it compares to other greenish murky shades. I am happy to report that Black Pearl appears to be truly unique. It’s one of those shades that is true-to-the-bottle in the sense that what you see in the bottle is what you get on the nails. So many dark greenish teals look gorgeous in the bottle, but go on nearly black on the nails. Chanel Black Pearl has a beautiful sheen to it with a mixture of teal, grey, silver, dark green. It’s hard for me to describe but it’s a stunner! Compared to the colors below, it’s lighter in color and exactly as gorgeous as I had hoped.

L to R comparisons: OPI Cuckoo For This Color, Laura Mercier Caviar Dreams, Chanel Black Pearl 513, Lancome Pop Petrol (reviews/swatches on other colors are linked)

Pêche Nacrée 515 was a pleasant surprise. I expected it to be an unflattering frosty shade of peach but it has just the right amount of pearliness which makes it a lovely soft peachy-pinky-pearly color. It is on the sheerer side, so it definitely requires 3 full coats. This is the most spring-like color out of all 3 shades.

L to R comparisons: OPI Love Me Tender, Chanel Pêche Nacrée 515, Dior Angelic Rose 152

FYI: The spring collection is up on Chanel.com and I found the items in-store at Nordstrom in Southern California. I’ve also heard reports that it’s been spotted at Bloomingdales in NY. So ladies, call your counters – it should be arriving any day now if it hasn’t already!

More reviews to come soon, here’s a sneak peek . . . please do not republish or hotlink my photos, all content is copyrighted!

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