My (Semi) Precious

I subscribe to whole bunch of fashion magazines “for research” and I am pretty sure every single one of them has mentioned Chanel’s Peridot nail color recently. Once in awhile, Chanel comes out with a nail polish color that I consider splurge-worthy, and seriously, what else does Chanel make that I could possibly afford? I finally got a bottle last week, and it is, indeed, worthy-of-splurge.

First of all, it’s worth it for me because I really like having gold nails. Glitzerland by O.P.I. is pretty much my go-to neutral and Glitz Blitz (gold glitter) Sally Hansen Salon Effects is the only style I’ve bought multiple times. Gold kind of just goes with everything, without being too boring. Also, it’s really easy to paint your nails gold yourself, because metallics are very forgiving, and gold is a light color, which are also forgiving. PLUS, both metallic and light color polishes make chips less obvious. In a word, gold nail polish is easy-peasy. I dig it.

Chanel Peridot is gold, and MORE.

It’s named after the light green gemstone, but the polish color itself looks more like a precious metal than a precious (or semi-precious, depending who you ask) stone. It’s iridescent, and depending on the light and the angle, it goes from a really strong gold to a mermaid-y green and then back again. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a color changing nail polish since…. color changing nail polish. But it’s way cooler because it changes instantly and constantly.

And, it's SHINY!

Most people who notice this color on my nails are impressed. The manicurist was thrilled with it, and today I was in American Apparel and the cashier was going on and on about my nail polish. I was happy to tell her about it and demonstrate how it appeared to change color. It wasn’t until after we left that my friend pointed out that our chatty cashier was wearing gold spandex leggings. Preaching to the choir.

In the bottle, it reminds me of those “oily stickers” we used to get when we were kids, back when sticker books were a thing, and stores sold stickers one at a time from big spools. I wonder if sticker stores were the penny candy stores of the 80s? The oily stickers were “expensive” (75 cents each, I think, at Paper Dolls) so I only had one or two, ever. I’m pretty sure at least one of them was a gift, too. That’s okay though. I would trade all the oily stickers in the world for a bottle of this nail polish.

Just like the oily stickers, Peridot is fun and of-the-moment. It’s kind of expensive for what it is, but it’s also really cool and “rare.” Other girls admire it, and you are a “lucky duck.” Honestly, it seems like the main difference between Peridot and oily stickers is, this time no one can tell me what to do with my allowance.