It's a Green! It's a Blue! It's a Gray! No, It's...Black Pearl

If you're suffering from the least little bit of black nail polish malaise, which I assure you I am, there is salvation in this little bottle. Two coats of Chanel's new spring color, Black Pearl, and you have several colors in one. It's like those old-fashioned postcards that give you one view of a landscape and then with a tilt of your hand a completely different view. That's just how this is, except your color choices range from a wonderful pearlescent-seafoam green to an indescribable shade of blue to - finally - an enigmatic grayish black.

With all this versatility of color, you'd think this would be a totally wearable shade for day and night, but I didn't find it to be so. I found it to be great for evening, but pretty heavy for day, and I say that with a lot of snow on the ground in New York, walking around pretty bundled up, so I can only imagine I will feel less like wearing it during the day once the weather warms up. I had a couple of evening events that it was perfect for, but during the day I confess I thought it actually looked a little silly. That said, it is a nice departure from the pinks and lavenders so common in springtime so I'm looking forward to trying it again then.

Now, I have no problem dropping $25 on a Chanel polish (for me it's worth the quality of everything from the lacquer, pigments and brush to the way it lasts), but I do acknowledge that others may not feel the same way. So for those people, this is an especially good color because you literally do get several colors in one. For my money Black Pearl just may be a new and wonderful twist on the black manicure, which has grown so tiresome of late. Why, Black Pearl may be the new black!