Chanel Le Vernis #625 Secret, #629 Atmosphere and #631 Orage from États Poétiques Fall 2014 Collection, Review, Swatch & Comparison

It has been two days of bad weather in Stuttgart, cold, rainy without any rays of sun. I thought, there can't be a better day than today to present you the Fall 2014 nail polishes of Chanel.

I like the pink undertones of Secret, since I don't like very warm beige nudes. Still I think Secret would look better on darker or lighter skin tones than mine since on me it almost blends with my skin, giving me mannequin hands. It is a matter of taste but I don't usually like camouflaging my nails so I'd rather go for a little more contrast on those.

Below you can see my efforts in finding a close Chanel nail polish to #625 Secret. Although Secret looks like being very dupable, none of Le Vernis in my stash was too similar. The closest I have found is #507 Tendresse, which is a tad more pink. The regular nudes from Chanel, such as #87 Flamme Rose, #567 Beige Petal, #167 Ballerina or #15 Beige Naturel are all lighter. Chanel Le Vernis #498 Jade Rose is a tad darker and warmer. #569 Emprise is even more darker and warmer. Chanel #565 Beige is much more warmer, more beige.

After seeing the color of the clouds before the storm and thunder yesterday night, I can see why Chanel named their new deep blue nail polish Orage (means storm in French). The hidden silver and multi colored shimmer of Orage prevents it from looking flat on the nails. It especially looks pretty under direct sunlight. Since it is not a black but a deep blue, it doesn't appear harsh once worn. Chanel releases a vamp nail polish each Fall and this year's Orage is a pretty one, not that unique but nice and wearable. Consistency of Orage was also a little thin but it covered the nails nicely in two coats (as worn below).

I love vampy nails and Chanel does them like no one else. I appreciate the subtle difference between these and believe that they all look different enough to justify owning. Once compared to #631 Orage, Chanel Inframetal looked very close in the bottle but turned out to be warmer once applied. Chanel #357 Nuit de Russie has more of a blue shimmer and black base. Chanel #601 Mysterious is warmer and pulls more khaki. Chanek Cosmic's shimmer is more apparent and base coat is darker. Chanel Steel is the closest to Orage with a tad more shimmer. Chanel Western Light pulls redder. Chanel #563 Vertigo, one of my favorite vamps from Chanel is a tad warmer.

I saved the best for the last. To me the most unique nail polish of this collection is #629 Atmosphere. It is a nude pearl duo-chrome, the color shifts between beige and light pink. I like the fact that it is not frosty, which would make it more old-fashioned. Atmosphere is a modern day take on pearly effect feminine nail polishes of 80s. The consistency is a little thin on that one too, I needed three coats and still it was not possible to cover my nail line. If you don't mind a bit of nail line showing through, the effect is really pretty. Below you can see three coats of Atmosphere with direct sun light, which shows the pretty shimmer and it is not too frosty. The second photo shows it in the shadow, so you can see the pearl effect better.

When I first saw the promo pictures of Chanel Atmosphere, I thought of Chanel #96 Metal Argent, an old discontinued nail polish which also has a pearl duo-chrome effect. It turns out they are really close but Metal Argent's base color is a tad darker and cooler. A recent release from A-England called Hurt No Living Thing also has a very similar concept to Atmosphere but it is sheerer on its own. Chanel #593 Rose Moire is darker, pinkier and more frosty. Chanel Le Vernis Facettes #81 Vice-Versa and #84 Ange-Demon are more saturated and have a gorgeous matte frost finish. These two are from my all time favorite Le Vernis Facettes series. I wished that Atmosphere would be a dupe for at least one, but no luck there. By the way I was thinking about writing a post about four Facettes nail polishes, would you be interested?

Some have said that Dior's #187 Perle from this year's Spring Collection would be close to Chanel Atmosphere but I don't see any similarities between these two. Perle has a matte frost effect and is very sheer once worn on its own. 

Another close nail polish which is available at the moment is Giorgio Armani's #702 Kaleidoscope (reviewed here). The base color is very similar to Atmosphere but Kaleidoscope has blue and green duo chrome effect which is a bit harsher. I find Atmosphere more wearable but Kaleidoscope has a stronger duo-chrome effect, thus it is edgier and more unique.

Since Atmosphere was a little sheer on its own, I decided to experiment by layering it on the other nail polishes from États Poétiques collection. I started by layering it over Secret. You can see that this way it is more opaque but as a result the pearl effect is a little tuned down. You can see this in the second photo, once a strong light falls on it, pearl effect becomes more apparent. Although I like Secret and Atmosphere duo, I still think a darker shade brings Atmosphere's unique character better into light. Below you can see one coat of Atmosphere on two coats of Secret.

After that I tried one coat of Atmosphere over two coats of Orage. This one looks really nice and unique but it also needs a perfect application not to look streaky and to make all three layers exactly the same. I really don't like the dark shade showing through the edges.

Final thoughts: If you follow me, you already know that I am a die hard Chanel nail polish fan. I have to say though, I am not feeling this collection. Secret is not such a great nude on my skin tone (almost a nail camouflage for me), Orage is pretty but not a love at first sight. I enjoyed Atmosphere for the last 4 days, in fact I am typing these lines wearing it, but I didn't caught myself staring at my nails once. I am hoping other pieces I picked up from the collection will be more exciting.

Secret and Orage are permanent, Atmosphere is listed as limited. These are now available in the states and will be available worldwide in August. Special thanks to Chic Science for sending them my way. Check her gorgeous photos and swatches of Atmosphere here.

Which one is your favourite?