Chanel 509 'Paradoxal' Le Vernis Nail Colour!

I think most people have at least heard of the Chanel 509 ‘Paradoxal’ nail polish, and if you haven’t then you have come to the right place at the right time, as you need this in your life. I finally got my hands on some and it is bloody lovely. It’s a grey-violet/purple hue, and looks quite shimmery in the bottle but much of that actually disappears once applied on the nail; don’t let that put you off though, as the colour holds its own perfectly without the need for all the shimmer, in my opinion.

You do need to use at least 2 normal coats, or one very generous layer (if you don’t have much time to spare) to get an opaque finish as it can appear quite sheer if you only apply a thin coat.

I would also stress that unless you have a dedicated nail dryer that dries your polish very quickly, that you will need to leave this polish to dry for a longer amount of time than usual before doing *anything* that may damage it.

I say this as about 1 and a half hours after applying mine, I still managed to accidently make a small dent in it with another of my nails. Thankfully, it’s not completely ruined as the polish seems to have disguised it well; but it is worth noting that you should take more care with this, especially if you have taken a lot of time and effort to apply it.

I got a smooth finish (other than my stupid clumsy dent) with no streaks, even though I was very quick with my application of the polish and probably did not take as much care as I usually would. I did however use base coat (Chanel ‘Beauté Des Ongles Base Lissante’ which is their ridge filling base coat) and top coat (Chanel ‘Beauté Des Ongles Laque Brilliance Extreme’ which is their extreme shine nail lacquer) in order to make it last longer.

Even after all the extra effort, I still adore this stuff and it’s totally worth sticking with it as my nails are now a beautifully dark and glossy slightly dusky purple – perfect for autumn and the impending winter months!

For those of you who just can’t justify the hefty price tag then fear not as The Swatchaholic has discovered an almost identical dupe, and guess what? It only costs a fiver. The dupe is ‘Models Own – Purple Grey’ and is available from the Models Own website, but I have a feeling this may sell out so if you want this, then get yourself over there to buy it asap.

https://www.modelsownit.com/nails/nail-polish/grey-nail-polishes.html

Apologies for my terrible photos (excluding the perfect pictures done by The Swatchaholic and Models Own) – my camera battery doesn’t seem to be working so I have photographed on my phone, and this is the end result. Hopefully better service will be resumed shortly.