Chanel-lo!

I think I’m about to commit an act of high fashion blasphemy here, but Chanel really isn’t my (quilted) bag.  I love all the black leather and pearls and that iconic quilting, of course, but if a giant pile of couture was to suddenly find its well-appointed way to my doorstep, I’d prefer if it was Elie Saab or Naeem Khan or Roland Mouret.  Because in this scenario I have my choice of all four!

But I do love the stark black-and-whiteness of Chanel, and Karl Lagerfeld is a stuffy, curmudgeonly delight, so when the opportunity presented itself for some Chanel-inspired nail art, I jumped all over it.  Pearls and black velvet ribbons and those little interlocking Cs factor in heavily here, as does my second attempt at that iconic Chanel quilting.  I initially tried to achieve the quilted effect by laying down striping tape in a diamond-type design over a matte base.  I was going to paint over the tape with a high gloss top coat, and when I removed the tape, the little diamonds were going to look puffy and plush and gorgeous.

That of course DID NOT HAPPEN!  I just wound up ripping every bit of the polish off my nails when I removed the tape, albeit in a somewhat attractive waffle pattern.  So lessons learned – striping tape and matte topcoat do not make for compatible bedfellows.  So in lieu of my original plan, I took a second run at the quilted look, this time simply painting the matte topcoat over top of a glossy black creme in a not-too-shaky diamond pattern.  Not perfect and not what I had intended, but it’ll do!