Happy Sunday!
Whilst going through a moving box that was innocuously labeled “Bathroom Junk” from three years ago (shhh….), I discovered this little gem – Chanel’s Violette. Released in early 2000, I’d actually venture to say about 2003 since that was when we were living in Scotland and I know that this is where I purchased this color, I had high hopes for this to be a dupe of my infamous lemming/lust/must have/WILL KUT YOU FOR of Chanel’s Brown Sugar nail polish. Released about six months after Rouge Noir – the original – in 1994, I went nuts for it. Loved it so much I scrimped my pennies to share it with friends because I’d buy them a bottle for their birthday.
Brown Sugar is a polish I can definitely wax lyrical on for…well, ever. Four years ago I saw a bottle of Brown Sugar on eBay. I stopped bidding at $40. It ended up selling for $60. To this day, that is one of my true nail polish regrets. I would, in all honesty, trade in all my bottles of nail polish just so I can have a good bottle of Brown Sugar. That is how much I loved that color.
While Violette hits the spot, it’s like eating a banana when you really want chocolate – you get the potassium you wanted, but it’s not the flavor or texture that would send you into your own happy place. There are also some very subtle differences – Brown Sugar was bit more beige-y, slightly mushroom-y and a tinge more purple. Violette is…well, more violet colored and a lot lighter. I felt Brown Sugar was truly the best neutral nail polish out there. It flattered all my friends’ skin tones.
All right, enough. I’ll stop. Here are the pics.
![Chanel Violette Shade](http://www.carinaeletoile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/chanel-violette-shade.jpg?w=450)
![Chanel Violette Sunlight](http://www.carinaeletoile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/chanel-violette-sunlight.jpg?w=450)
Formula on this was terrible! But I think this was one of the first bottles of 3 Free, but I could be wrong so don’t quote me on it. These were two thin coats with no top coat put on. It bubbled and I was immediately reminded why I had thrown this color into a box and conveniently forgot about it. My Brown Sugar never bubbled, but it took forever and a millennia to dry.