Côte d'Azur Coat

I haven't been making as many nail polish posts as I used to, mainly because I find it easier just to snap a quick picture of whatever's on my nails with my phone and put it on Instagram. But I thought it was worth dedicating an entire post to possibly the most perfect baby blue polish I've encountered. I first laid eyes on L'Oréal Color Riche Le Vernis in French Riviera (601) paired with Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air on A Vain Woman. The combination was absolutely to die for. It wasn't until many months later I decided to try L'Oréal nail polishes for myself, so I purchased French Riviera, You Are Worth It (617) and Soft Chinchilla (622) — the latter very much enabled by Emma.

French Riviera is the blue that I've been looking for. Basically, a dupe of what I think Chanel Riva looks like. I have bought and tried so many similar hued light blue polishes, from Revlon Blue Lagoon to Essence Sleepy, and been largely underwhelmed or disappointed with them all. They all applied way too flat and dull on the nail, and always much darker than how the colour appeared in the bottle. I wanted something distinctly pale and airy, even a little desaturated, but definitely not a straightforward sky blue.

French Riviera has a very delicate, almost undetectable turquoise glass fleck that I can only see under large camera magnification. While there's a kind of purplish-blue gleam reflected in the bottle, it doesn't translate when applied to the nails. It really is more of a crème than anything else. The formula is superb, though this particular shade is very sheer. Opaque coverage requires at least 4 coats. The polish however is a breeze to apply, goes on very smoothly and evenly, and has an almost gel-like finish. The brush is much larger than I expected for such a small bottle. It's very long, wide and flat, with a rounded tip, which coats each nail with minimum strokes. The only downside is that you only get 5ml per bottle, which is why this the first nail polish since my beloved Sally Hansen Insta-Dri that I've actually repurchased because I ran out. Because the shade is sheer, a single bottle only lasts several applications before it becomes gloopy and difficult to use. Still, at $6.95 a pop, and not infrequently on sale, if you purchase 2 or 3 to make up your standard 10-15ml bottle of polish, it still works out to be around the same price or cheaper than full price Essie or OPI.