I was excited to see a new Dior polish pop up on Dior.com, which I hadn’t heard anything about. The polish is Silver Lake, a dark, shimmery charcoal. The Dior website says that it’s only available on Dior.com, and was released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Allure magazine.
I couldn’t find any stories or comments about this polish when I googled it – it seems to have been something of a surprise. I wonder if it was written about in Allure? In person Silver Lake seemed like it might be similar to a few other colors, but I think it’s more interesting. It was hard to capture in pictures, but the polish is full of tiny shimmery silver pieces with tiny almost teal green shimmer pieces mixed in. The green shimmers are very subtle and you have to look closely to see them on the nail, but they give the color an added complexity and a slight green sheen in certain lights. The formula was really nice and controllable, although I used three coats just to be sure it was fully opaque. I like that it’s pretty dark on the nail but has a shiny, silver glint at the same time. It dries very smoothly, but has a textured look because of the way the shimmer pieces lay on top of each other.
In the shade picture you can see the way the shimmer particles stand out against the dark base color.
I compared to Chanel’s Graphite and China Glaze Jitterbug from Fall 2010. All three of these polishes are charcoal shimmers. Dior Silver Lake is on my index and middle finger, Graphite is on my ring finger and Jitterbug is on my pinky. Graphite and Silver Lake are fairly different, especially in person. Graphite has a golden, pewter tone and bigger shimmer pieces than Silver Lake, so it catches the light differently and is more sparkly. Silver Lake is more refined and cooler than Graphite, with a dark icy shine and a very slight green glint in person. I thought Jitterbug would be more similar to Silver Lake, but its base is not as dark and its shimmer is more monochromatic, so it comes off as flatter and not as shadowy and interesting.
I like Silver Lake best out of all of these – it’s so dark and brooding, but still shiny. I also like the Dior brush best, so it wins on all counts. Silver Lake is up on the Dior website now, but sometimes limited edition polishes roll off the website quickly.
A final note: despite the fact that the website says it’s a Dior.com exclusive, I found through googling that it is available on the Selfridges website in the U.K. It’s listed with another polish called Swan (#011) that looks like a metallic white. I can’t find anything else on Swan but am now intensely curious, and wishing that Swan was up on Dior.com U.S., too.
When I got my Silver Lake at Selfridges last week, the woman at the counter said that Dior have special arrangements with them to have exclusives. I would imagine its for anything limited that is issued through other channels in the US.
The white is very shimmery and lovely, but I only bought Silver Lake as I was drawn to the sparkle.
Thanks for the comment! Shimmery white sounds pretty, I’m jealous of being able to check it out in person!
This was mentioned in the Nov issue of Allure on p. 52.
Thanks, that’s helpful to know. I’m surprised it hasn’t generated more online information.
I impulse bought Silver Lake when it became available, which I wouldn’t usually do for such an expensive polish with only bottle renderings to go on, but Dior hooked me with free shipping. It came today and I am SO thrilled with it! The base itself is lovely, but then the teal shimmer! It’s not super obvious, but I *can* see it on the nail. Dior polish doesn’t seem to generate as much buzz as other brands but I think this one will catch on for sure.
Thanks for the comment! That green shimmer makes it so special, right? I agree that it stands out just enough to make Silver Lake unique. I’ve been really liking Dior’s polishes, lately, too.
Wonderful! I love this metallic shimmer 🙂
Steel,Black Pearl,Graphite I love all of them! and Dior Silver Lake is my new “must have” unique polish!
xoxo