Chanel Mimosa Nail Polish Review + Swatches

Love it or loathe it, what's definitely decided is that yellow's the feel-good hit of the summer. Chanel has decreed it to be so with Mimosa, €21, landing on counter from May 20th, and where Karl and his merry (and not remotely raggle taggle) bunch lead, the rest follow.

The brand sent me one ahead of the launch along with the rest of the collection - look for a swatch-heavy post on that shortly! I don't always fall for Chanel's colours but when I do, I tend to fall hard, and you know what - I really do like this. Named for the drink as opposed to the bloom, Mimosa is a middle-of-the-warm-spectrum yellow with subtle golden shimmery sparkle, which is a nod to the Champagne that's in its boozy namesake, I presume.

I've seen this depicted in other pics online as quite a shocking shade, but the above is a fairly colour-accurate shot - Mimosa is a bright primrose with a good bit of white and that sparkle, as opposed to a true primary yellow. Closeup, you can see the shimmer in the mix - this is a really pretty colour and not as one-dimensional as the Essence yellow you all scoffed at recently.

This stuff requires patience: it's very definitely a four coater. The first couple go on very streakily and after the third you really feel you're getting somewhere with the finish. But like all Chanel's shades, the gloop is thin, which I like, because it means you can work quickly and each coat dries sharpish as well. Streakiness aside, the formulation's fine and there are no dragging issues or clagginess; it just takes a while to build.

And like all my swatches of late, I was working against the clock. Yes, we're getting more light in the evening but I live in a north-facing flat, so time is of the essence in the evenings if I want to get a decent snap of a product in action. Yeah, just call me the David Attenborough of beauty blogging, mm'kay?

And that also explains the crap paint job. Four coats while you watch the sun dip behind the city's roofscape and you can't widen your camera's aperture anymore without physically breaking it do not lend one to neatness. So you'll have to deal with my rough-and-ready skillz and zero tidy up. This here is four coats of Mimosa and the pic is taken with natural light.

Under flash, you can see my horrid neglected red hands and all the sparkle in the lacquer. This will really come into its own in sunshine and really, you can't get a bigger hint than that that this is 100% a summer product. Bit of tan, on yer holliers, cocktail in hand and Mimosa on yer talons - perfect.

But y'know, it can sometimes be really hard to see how different shades will actually work in real life as opposed to in random swatches on disembodied fingers on the Internet. So here's how the colour works with what I was wearing yesterday - a crochet-trimmed top and a red jacket. Looks good, if you ax me.  Taps into this season's trend for colour blocking except a) relatively cheaply (polish is cheaper than shoes) and b) with little commitment  - after all, if you decide you don't like how your lacquer looks with your outfit du jour, well, it's fairly easy to change it, eh?

So, that's Chanel Mimosa. Lets recap:

• THE GOOD: great shade, good shimmer which is a really nice point of difference and those double Cs, darling
• THE BAD: €21's hefty, lets not be kidding, the formulation is streaky and this will be copied for far less outlay left, right and centre in about two seconds flat.

On balance though, I'd plump for Chanel. You'll be first - and hey, there's always cachet in that. And it's pretty. And in my experience, pretty tends to trump all other concerns. So, what do you lot think? Mellowing to yellow?