Saturday, September 17, 2011

Too good to be true? Chanel Graphite vs. Revlon Carbonite (swatch comparison)

Chanel Graphite has always been a lemming of mine, but I never got around to get it because of its hefty price tag. However being a sucker for discount, I finally caved and bought it from the airport duty free shop where it is sold for $2 USD cheaper (yes, I know).

Chanel Graphite - 2 coats (no base or top coat)
Am I glad I caved! Graphite is a beautiful charcoal silver polish packed with tiny silver and gold sparkles. It has a metallic shimmery finish that gives this polish a very unique look. The formula is perfect, and it dries to a smooth finish very quickly. I think I am in love!

Chanel Graphite - check out the awesome gold and silver sparkles bouncing off the lights!

So now onto the exciting part of this post: the face-off. Much has been said about Revlon Carbonite, the drugstore version of Chanel Graphite. But just how much of a dupe is Carbonite?

Revlon Carbonite vs Chanel Graphite 
From the bottles, the two polishes are almost identical. If I have to be picky, I'd say Chanel Graphite appear to have more shimmery particles in it. So how do they compare on nails?

Swatch Comparison - Revlon Carbonite vs. Chanel Graphite (both 2 coats with no base or top coat)
At a quick glance, again they appear very similar to each other. However if you look more carefully, Graphite is a tad lighter than Carbonite, and it definitely has a glossier, shinier and smoother look. The shimmery particles in Graphite are stronger, whilst Carbonite has more of a semi-matte finish.

Here you could clearly see that Graphite has a more sparkly, shimmery look than Carbonite

All in all, I would say Carbonite is a good enough dupe of Graphite. If you cannot justify splurging on the Chanel at $25 a pop, then Carbonite is definitely the way to go!

Do you own either of these polishes? Which one do you like better?

6 comments:

Kejal Shah said...

Nice comparison! Both look good!!

Anonymous said...

Those two look the same to me! =)

♥ Sarah Claire ♥ said...

Great comparison. I don't own either but your shots definitely make them look the same so I'd be saving the money and going for the cheaper option.

Rach said...

Is Carbonite available in HK yet?!

I'm eagerly awaiting Facets of Fushcia - the Revlon dupe of Lippman's Bad Romance!

CaCa said...

@Rach: I got the Carbonite via a swap :) and if we dont get FoF, the glitter from Sweet Color is a pretty close dupe to Bad Romance too!

Unknown said...

I definitely can tell the difference but I'll settle for the Carbonite if I ever can find it.