Chanel says its Rouge Double Intensité provides glorious, long-lasting color paired with a high-shine gloss that lasts all day. The glossy top coat imparts brilliant shine and superb hydration, while the innovative fluid texture of the base color coat applies smoothly, comfortably, with perfect adherence to lips - and no transferring or feathering. What I can't figure out is the "color" part of the description! The new, limited-edition Rouge Double Intensité for Spring 2011 ($34) in Cristal Rose left me wondering, "Where's the color?"Perhaps I got carried away. I was so smitten with the Nakkar Lèvres Scintillantes Glossimer for spring, I selected Cristal Rose to accompany my new Chanel goodies. I should have passed on this one. It has no color - beyond a supremely pale peach tint. Seriously pale! Now I'm wondering if someone had thrown another Rouge Double Intensité tester on the display. I would not have purchased a colorless lip color.
It's mine, so I decided
to show it to you. My swatch photo (very true to the shade) was taken indoors in sunlight. I applied the peach base coat first and topped it with the clear gloss. As you can see, there's only a hint of color, but there's plenty of shine. For me, this isn't the full package. I want more than shiny lips; I want some color for my pale face.If you want the cachet of Chanel, but don't like wearing lip color, this may be the lip duo for you. Otherwise, I would recommend you skip this one and select one of the previously introduced shades of Rouge Double Intensité - one with some color.
What do you think? Is this worth $34?
Chanel's Spring 2011 collection is available at Chanel's Web site and department store counters. I purchased mine at Saks.
Photo at top courtesy of Chanel