Ok, I admit, I was looking for a way to place a Johnny Depp pic in a post!! Joking aside, today I'm talking about Black Pearl and my story with it is some kind of curse that many nail-addicts fall under, the curse of the IT Polish. A It polish is THE polish everyone is talking about and wants to lay their hands on at a given point. Most IT items stem from a luxury brand such as Chanel (they are quite the specialists of It Polishes), and since polish is cheaper than their clothes and easier to spot than an eye-shadow, IT polishes are often a success. Said success pertains to the colour more than anything else because let's face it, Chanel's formula is usually craptastic, runny and sheer, and not what you'd expect after paying 20 euros. But well, I, like so many others, fell for the Siren's Call of Black Pearl last winter, even if I waited to have a discount and didn't fork the 20 euros in the end. So here it is, two to three coats depending on how I managed it, no top-coat.
Don't mistake me, I don't regret buying it, I wore it a lot last winter and will wear it again, I adore greys and this one is really the exact colour of a black pearl, it's beautiful. But I'm clearly disappointed in terms of formula: not only is this polish hard to apply, it leaves brushstrokes (as you can see in the last pic), is slow to dry and has a very average wear (I usually apply Seche Vite to speed up drying time, but even with that, I often had smudges and marks, and it would chip after two days at most). But most importantly, there's one thing to know about IT polishes: they are always copied, and quite often, with a better formula and a much, much cheaper price. You already saw my Paradoxal dupe, Barry M's Dusky Mauve (and I tested Paradoxal next to it, they are absolute twins), let me introduce you to a dupe of Black Pearl that I found without searching, Ombre from LM Cosmetic.
LM Cosmetic is a French brand that only sells online and only ships to France, Belgium & Luxembourg, but it's high quality, their colours are varied, and all that for 4,2 euros for 11ml. Check out below to see if you can find which finger sports BP and which has Ombre...
So, it's BP on pointer and ring, and Ombre on middle, and the only difference is the absence of brushstrokes with Ombre... lesson learned, this is the one and only Chanel you'll see in those pages!! And if you live in Europe and like the look of Chanel's next IT Polish, Peridot, run to Sephora and grab yourself a bottle of Diving in Malaysia ;)
