Day 1: Chanel Rouge Tres Noir (Very Vamp)

It’s kind of appropriate to start this project with the first polish I fell totally, head-over-heels in love with. I bought this in the fall of 1995 – my third year of college. I skipped my physics class one afternoon and drove up to Charlotte to buy it. This was a big step for me; up until then I’d been all about the pinks and reds and (horrors) French acrylics.

I had a chunky silver ring that I wore back then, and I remember staring at my hands all the time when I wore this polish. They looked so elegant. Chanel made me love my nails.

So I’m not so sure I’ll be able to do an objective review on this one.

I love it. Everything about it.

Indoors -fluorescent

Shade

Sun

Sun

Very Vamp was one of two alternative formulations of the original Vamp. This one is a browner version, with that Chanel secret shimmer. In the photos, I’m wearing three coats with Seche Vite topcoat. In most lighting, it looks like the shade photo. But once the sun hits it, it lights up like it’s on fire.

I know a lot of people complain about Chanel’s formula, but I’ve never had a problem with it. At $25 a bottle, it is expensive for nail polish, but … it’s Chanel. They sell eyeshadow for $57; this isn’t a brand you turn to for reasonably priced.  

Essie Wacky Wicked is supposed to be a dupe for Very Vamp. It’s also discontinued, but a little bit easier to find, and for much less money. But Wacky Wicked didn’t fill the hole in my heart when I ran out of Very Vamp.

Embarrassing nail muggle story. For the longest time, I had no idea that there were so many different versions of Vamp. I thought I had THE Vamp, the one and only original. By the time I’d used the entire bottle, the original Vamp was the only one that was still being sold in the U.S. I bought a bottle and was so disappointed – it looked nothing like it was supposed to! What was this nonsense? Where was my Vamp? Had Chanel pulled an OPI and changed the formula but not the name?

I pulled the old, empty bottle out (yes, I saved it. Doesn’t everyone save empty nail polish bottles?), and for the first time read the name on the back of the bottle. Rouge Tres Noir. Very Vamp. Damn.

I eventually found another bottle on eBay, but I was Very Vamp-less for a long, long time. It was a dark period in my life. I prefer not to think about it.