Ciaté - Oil Slick

Everyone's talking about Ciaté at the moment, but before I can get my hands on their Caviar Manicures,  which I am itching for, I am bringing you my first product by this British brand: Oil Slick.

Chanel Peridot was quite possibly THE polish of 2011. I still can't bring myself to spend £17.50 of my hard-earned cash on one nail varnish, especially when it's not one of the vampy shades that I know I will get a lot of wear out of. So after mulling it for a while I decided to find a suitable alternative in the form of a dupe.

The first one I heard about was one by Sephora, but since buying it from the UK would have implied a high postage cost, there wasn't much of a point. Many others appeared, but none caught my eye until I saw Oil Slick.

I heard Ciaté was a decent, 5F (free of formaldehyde, toluene and DBP, formaldehyde resin and camphor) and cruelty-free brand. The name seemed apt: I've always been fascinated by the colours that you can spot when looking at fuel on the floor and their shifting nature, so this nail varnish was an easy choice for me.

I can't review a Ciaté product and not mention that cute little bottle. How delicate and feminine is it? It's one of those things you just want to stare at or display it on a dresser. Its shape can be awkward for storage purposes, but it is so pretty you just forgive that oversight. It's got a black bow! I thought the bow was tied around the bottleneck, but it's actually glued onto the bottle itself, so it doesn't get in the way at all. The brush was very good and easy to handle, too: slimmer than OPI's but flat nonetheless.

Application was smooth but needed three coats for optimum opacity. It wasn't streaky despite being metallic and it's so incredibly shiny your hands take centre stage. I suppose it did help that my nails were quite long when I tried it on.

I only got a couple of days' wear out of it, but it's pretty special, so a week would have probably been too long. I would recommend applying it over a ridge filler base coat, as it's not very forgiving.

This is one of those varnishes that draws a lot of attention: I could see people following my hands as I spoke (Italian genes!) and I got comments even from those who don't usually notice. Not only can you see its duochrome effect, it is also a little reflective. So eye catching, you need to carry it with matching confidence! Sunglasses might be advisable.

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Brand: Ciaté

Name: Oil Slick

Type: Duochrome

Colour: Gold

Pantone equivalent: N/A

Make Up Alley rating: N/A

Potential dupes: Chanel Peridot and all the rest....

Buy it from Ciaté £9

I used:

1 x OPI Natural Base Coat

3 x Ciaté Oil Slick

1 x Save The Nail 45 Second Top Coat

Metadata:

Canon EOS 450D - 50 mm - f/1.8 - ISO 400/200 - indoors/outdoors - no flash - daylight