Last weekend I finally was able to break out my bottle of Mimosa, and there was actually some sun!  Mimosa is the highly anticipated yellow from Chanel’s Summer 2011 collection, Collection Les Fleurs d’Ete de Chanel.  I also have swatches of the fleshy nude, Beige Petale.

I couldn’t find any pictures of Beige Petale before I placed my order, so I’m posting my swatches for the benefit of other people who are still wondering what it looks like.  I was hoping for a perfect, not-too-pink beige color that might even top Deborah Lippmann’s Naked.  I think I now know why there are basically no swatch pictures of this one–it’s so sheer and bland that it really seems it’s not even there.  It’s the most disappearing nail polish I’ve ever tried.  I painted on four coats and it still seems like there’s no color.  I even found that the longer I wore this polish, the more I disliked it–there was just enough beige to make the whites of my nails look yellowed and kind of sick, but it’s so sheer that you can see right through it.  I had my doubts after trying a couple of coats right when I received the polishes, but  after I tried and really liked Essie’s Allure I thought I should give it a chance.  Allure is a whitish-beige which is much sheerer than I normally choose, but I liked the way it gave my nails a pale, clean look that was still subtle.  Beige Petale is just…not good for me.  Thumbs down.

 

 

So, on to Mimosa.  There have been a lot of complaints about the application of Mimosa, but I didn’t have any problems.  It’s a bit thicker and goopier than most Chanel polishes, and it took three coats to be opaque.  I gave it a slightly longer than normal dry time in between coats, and I thought it leveled out fine by the third coat.  In the bottle it has really pretty, golden shimmer than seems like it might think about leaning slightly greenish, but I couldn’t catch any shimmer on my nails.  I really liked this yellow, though; it’s more complex than most yellow polishes and has a warm undertone that leans ever so slightly orange rather than white.  It feels like a summery, breezy color that is just made for lazy weekends.

 

I wanted to see if a yellow glitter layered over top could come closer to the bottle color.  I had originally picked up China Glaze’s Lighthouse for this purpose, but by the time Mimosa arrived, I had also found Fingerpaints’ bright, holographic glitter yellow, Psychadelic Sunshine.  I couldn’t resist the brightness and flashy glitter of Psychadelic Sunshine when I saw it at Sally Beauty, so I tried a coat over Mimosa.  It’s interesting how much brighter the color became with just this one coat of Psychadelic Sunshine, because that polish seems very sheer when it’s painted on.  But I think I like both of these polishes better by themselves than in combination-the brighter yellow of Psychadelic Sunshine takes away Mimosa’s distinctive, balanced yellow, and the glitters in Psychadelic Sunshine are muted by the opaque yellow underneath.  These polishes, while sort of related, just don’t play that well together.

 

I’ll have fuller swatches of the Fingerpaints polishes soon.  Does anyone have any layering suggestions for Mimosa?