Dior Summer Mix Collection Swatches and Comparisons

In the ever popular department of better late than never, today I've got the polishes from the Dior Summer Mix collection from 2012. These four lacquers were released last year but have only been in my stash for a few months, which is why I'm only swatching them now. There are four shades: Acapulco (yellow), Calypso (orange red), Cosmo (warm pink), and Lagoon (blue). Dior describes these as "sorbet-like color", also known as jelly finish.









It's no secret that yellow is my least favorite color of nail polish and sheer is my least favorite finish when I do wear yellow, so I was biased against Acapulco before I even got it out of the box. That said, I didn't entirely hate it. As yellows tend to be, it was a bit streaky, but by the time I had three coats on, it had pretty much self-leveled. My fear with sheer yellows is that they'll make my nails look stained, but this has enough opacity that it wasn't an issue; in fact, I think my tips look whiter under this than they really are. It's plenty shiny without topcoat, too.



These Diors might still be sitting in my swatching queue if not for the fact that I was intrigued to see how they compared to similar shades from the L'Oreal Miss Candy collection. Left to right below, three coats each: Dior Acapulco, L'Oreal Bananarama Love, Dior Acapulco, L'Oreal Bananarama Love.



The L'Oreal is more sheer and a touch more lemony (as opposed to the Dior's every so slightly orange-leaning egg yolk-y tone).

Calypso is an orange red; this swatch is three coats, no topcoat.



Cosmo is a warm pink; again, the swatch is three coats, no topcoat. I think this is the most universally flattering color of the group.



Since they're both warm and reddish, I thought it made sense to put Calypso and Cosmo in the same comparison. I didn't find any close matches with the L'Oreal gellies but it's interesting to see them together anyway. As with the yellows, the L'Oreal colors are more sheer than the Dior. Left to right below (all 3 coats): Dior Cosmo, L'Oreal Jolly Lolly, Dior Calypso, L'Oreal Mango Momma.



Lagoon, the blue one, is the most opaque of the bunch. I used two coats for the swatch compared to three for the other color in the collection (still no topcoat here).



I didn't compare Lagoon to the L'Oreal jelly blue on the nail, as I could see from looking at the bottles that they weren't even close. Sometimes appearance in the bottle can be deceiving, but here it's clear that the Dior is closer to turquoise and the L'Oreal is more of a royal blue.



Versatility is one of the selling points for jelly polishes, so I did a couple of experiments with these Diors. Here they are at one coat over a white creme base (the sadly discontinued Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White, for the record):



To the above, I added the same unnamed Mardi Gras multi glitter I used in the L'Oreal Miss Candy post, then another coat of the Dior shades, and ended up with a party on my nails:



The different colors higlighted different parts of the glitter polish (and the blue, being more opaque, submerged it more than the others).



I give Dior credit for doing something a little different than the subtle shimmers I'm used to seeing from them. These are fun colors for summer, for sure. I don't think they're four times as fun as the L'Oreal jellies, which is about what the price difference is between the two lines (around $23 for the Dior and $6 for the L'Oreal before any sales, which are a lot more common on L'Oreal than Dior).