Dior "Les Rouges Or", 2011 Christmas collection Swatches and Review

Ah Christmas collections...

I hope you love red nail polish...

I do, although I so rarely wear red, something about my anticonformistic nail habits. But, I'll say it again, each and every time I paint my nails red, to my surprise : instant love!

I have yet to see luxury brands release shimmery greens and glitters for the Holiday. Lancome does release glitters every once in a while and Chanel did too (ages ago...) but they weren't Chistmas marketed and never complex glitters. *inserts major "I dare you!" here*

But reds, they can do reds. And this year I must confess that I was litterally longing to possess Dior "Les Rouges Or".

Yesterday I felt like the luckiest girl, not only did I get the Rouge Or collection in the mail but the package also included the most splendid Press Book ever. I really want to share it with you but I'm sure that's not what you're longing to see while reading this post, so here's an overview of this gorgeous press release / notebook :

click me, I'm big!

And now, on to the review!

Or Divin is a light gold, leaning yellow shimmer. It's on the verge of being metallic but not quite. I'm not really fond of gold polish, I do love gold glitters and flecks but always in a different base color. Monochromatic gold polish is just too much for me but if it's not for you, you'll love Or Divin. It applied easily, requiring only two coats and dried to a  brushstroke free satin finish. I expected it to be more sheer, allowing multiple layering possibilities but I think it might be too opaque for that. I tried adding a jelly on top of it, OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston and it looked wonderful, I'll try and post that very soon.

Exquis is my absolute favorite of the collection. Taupe doesn't really scream Christmas but I don't care, they could have released it any time of the year and I would have cherished it just as much. Now, this might seem a lot to say but I officially declare Exquis my favorite taupe of all time, and please believe me that's a lot to say... First formula wise it was perfect, applied like butter, in two easy coats and once on the nail boom! It litteraly came to life, a strong gold shimmer, including some very sparse bigger copper, pink and green particles, dusty, greyed out edges, truly setting it apart from all the other taupes I own. I've read that it was a dupe to China Glaze Ingrid, it's close, close enough colorwise if you're looking for a more affordable substitute but Ingrid is warmer and seriously lacks shimmer and dustiness to be called a perfect dupe.

Apparat is a lavish burgundy shimmer. The gold shimmer is really strong in the bottle and less pronounced on the nail. I was kind of disappointed at first but looking back at the pictures now, I can only admit that it's a gorgeous color. Now the best part : ONE coat here. One coat of saturated dark red, pink, gold and green shimmer particles resulting in a sensous vampy shade.

Merveille is everything a red with gold shimmer should be. I expected to love Apparat much more than Merveille but to my surprise I was completely amazed by it. Extremely glowy and bright tomatoe red leaning a coral due to the gold shimmer with a perfect formula. There's something about red polish and men. Not all men, of course but a wide majority at least. Merveille instantly cought the eye of my husband, he liked it in the bottle but loved how blazing it looked on the nails. Once again you're looking at just one coat of polish.

Overall :

A great collection for the Holiday, rich womanly polishes you wouldn't want to pass on  and two shades I truly fell in love with Exquis and Merveille.

Availability : Les Rouges Or are already available at selected boutiques and online on Dior.com

Dior nail polish retails around $22 / 21€ / £16

*these products were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company*