So Close, Yet so far - Chanel Quartz, Sephora by OPI Already Famous, Afterthougths Racer Brown

After seeing various posts of Chanel's last fall 2011 nail colors, I like everyone else, could not wait to go and buy Peridot (which I did). But the quiet and demure Quartz was the one that really caught my eye. It reminded me of my favorite nail polish that I wore almost everyday my freshman year of high school. I bought it from a mall boutique Afterthoughts (I think they were bought out by the company that owns Icing. Don't quote me on this, I have no idea really). I was obsessed with brown. Brown eyeshadow, brown lipstick, brown accessories...what was I thinking?

So I immediately jumped at buying Racer Brown. A beautiful taupey brown with a subtle silver frost.  And it was love at first swatch. It looked so nice against my skin tone. And I constantly had compliments whenever I wore it. The head cheerleader even became my friend after I manicured her nasty talons with it. She in turn introduced me to my Senior crush who became my Senior boyfriend for a magical two months (ha!).   What more can you ask for from a lightly frosted brown nail polish?

Afterthoughts - Racer Brown, no topcoat

Sadly, my love affair with Racer Brown slowly faded when I discovered that glitter polish looked best over purple, blue and black. I tried my best to dupe Chanel's Ciel de Nuit (so THAT'S where it all started) layering my 99 cent glitter polish over any navy blue polish I could find.

It is now old and the formula lacks what it once was. Its now stringy and streaky and smells funny. I even tried to salvage it by thinning it and I have yet to be successful. I still cannot part with it. I almost did this past April during Zoya's Earth Day Exchange. Almost.

So when I saw the posts of Quartz, I thought I had found my long awaited Racer Brown doppelganger.




Afterthoughts - Racer Brown, Chanel - Quartz, Sephora by OPI - Already Famous

I was mistaken, pleasantly mistaken, but mistaken nonetheless. Racer Brown leans more red while Quartz leans more gray. I compared Quartz to Sephora by OPI - Already Famous. While it's not a dupe at all, it might satisfy your lemming of Quartz and save you $15. In the above picture, the label around the Chanel bottle distorts the color. If you enlarge the picture and compare the two bottles from above the label, you will see the colors look like a very close match.

As you can see from this above picture, Already Famous is much more gold and obviously more shimmery than Quartz. I have to say that the swatch on the pinky is not at all what the color looks like. On the pinky it looks out right gold, it is not. Swatch on middle finger is more true to its color.



Left - Chanel Quartz, Right - Sephora by OPI Already Famous

That is also true for Quartz, the swatch on the pointer finger is more true to color than the ring finger. So if you look at the pointer finger and the middle finger, you will have a better idea just how close they are.

And of course you have Racer Brown on the Thumb which sticks out, well, like a sore thumb. HA!

But I absolutely love Quartz. It's a lovely shade that seems to love my skin tone. And the formula was great. Completely opaque in two coats! But I will predict, come fall, we will see a lot more options for dupes on this one.

And for those of you wondering, no I haven't swatched Peridot yet. It's so pretty in the bottle that I'm afraid to use it all up. :-)