Chanel's Paradoxal nail varnish: the new Rouge Noir.

I have about thirty bottles of nail varnish in my fridge*. Nearly all of them Chanel. I'm a total sucker for its nail varnishes. I love the colours. I love the bottles. I love feeling a bit posh for having it.

But of all its shades, the one I still go back to, again and again, is Rouge Noir. That gorgeous black/red colour perfect for girls such as I who just don't do, and never did do, bright red. (Tis the shade Uma Thurman wore in Pulp Fiction. When it launched in early 1994, it sold out almost immediately, and then there were waiting lists of up to a year; it's still Chanel's best seller in terms of units sold.)

Each time I get a new shade I think "this might be the new Rouge Noir" but it never is. I've done the blues, and the greys and the pinks. I've done the glitters at Christmas (always a bugger to get off) and they're all lovely. But they're not Rouge Noir. The thing about Rouge Noir is that it's perfect. It doesn't look too dressed up, whilst still always looking groomed and fabulous.

This Friday, Chanel launch its latest shade: Paradoxal. I'm guessing, so named cos it's hard to label. In certain lights it looks violet, or metallic purple, then grey, then brown. I love it. (Yes I have some, I've been wearing it for a few weeks now.)

Okay so it probably won't trump Rouge Noir, but nothing else has come this close in sixteen years.

*they last longer that way.

Chanel's latest nail polish launches this Friday 13th August. And yes it's important.