Chanel Summer 2011 Collection: Barely There to Blinding Color

Chanel’s Summer 2011 Collection has been much anticipated, predominantly because of the bright-as-the-sun Mimosa color. But let’s talk about these in order, shall we?

I was hoping Beige Petale would be a slightly beiged version of Coconut and to my delight, it was. This color is a testament to how tastes change over the years (or at least mine). Two years ago, I wouldn’t have bought this at the dollar store. But I’ve developed this affinity for the almost-there jelly-like colors and Chanel seems to do them well. What could have been an application nightmare was actually a very smooth process. The self leveling was very good and I didn’t run into the problem of opacity uneveness which more often than not leads to four coats. Shown is a simple two coats.

Now Mimosa is not Chanel’s first yellow. There was the Asian exclusive, Shine, which I unfortunately don’t have so I can’t talk about. But L.A. Sunrise from the Robertson Boulevard collection is an extremely similar. L.A. Sunrise is a hair lighter with a subdued shimmer instead of the very obvious shimmer in Mimosa. Here is the bottle comparison and here is a nail comparison (L.A. Sunrise on left and Mimosa on right). While not a dupe, the closeness of colors might not warrant a Mimosa purchase if you are not a big fan of yellows and already own L.A. Sunrise.

Mimosa was not at all what I expected. From the photos I had seen, I anticipated a highly pigmented jelly with lots of shimmer. If you thought likewise, let me assure you, a jelly it is not. In fact, this was one of the more difficult applications I’ve had with Chanel. Now, bright yellows are notoriously difficult, applying in streaky layers. But Mimosa dried very quickly and allowed very little time for precision application. If applied at the speed of any other polish, the final stroke ended up dragging and leaving you with a bumpy mess. I actually swatched this once and re-did the entire application with three coats because I was unhappy with the application. I’m not quite sure I’m a fan.

Morning Glory is a salmon pink with gold shimmer. It was a tad streaky on the first coat, but started settling down by the second. Shown is three.