Chanel in #657 Azuré Comparisons

Direct sunlight
Left to right: Illamasqua in Strike, Chanel in #657 Azuré, China Glaze in Deviantly Daring, Chanel in #657 Azuré

I've done some comparisons of Chanel in #657 Azuré for those of you who are curious. On my nails, I compared Illamasqua in Strike and China Glaze in Deviantly Daring. I also took pictures of additional similar swatch sticks: Barielle in Decadence, Wet n Wild in Caribbean Frost, Orly in Bailamos, Finger Paints in Turquoise Tile, and Rimmel in #340 Marine Blue. The only other duochrome in these comparisons is Deviantly Daring. At the bottom of the post I have links to comparisons with Dior in Samba, Essie in Trophy Wife, and Sephora by OPI in Mermaid to Order.

My fingers are wearing Chanel in #657 Azuré on index and ring finger, China Glaze in Deviantly Daring on middle finger, and Illamasqua in Strike on pinky. Deviantly Daring is the closest of the polishes I own. It has a shimmer finish rather than a metallic finish and it is darker with less duochrome - Azuré shows sky blue, indigo and at times at the very edges, violet, whereas Deviantly Daring really only shows indigo and less strongly and frequently. However, this is a fairly good alternative if you don't mind it not being a dupe. Illamasqua in Strike looks close at times, but since it is not a duochrome at other times it looks very different. It's a turquoise (rather than teal like Azuré and Deviantly Daring) metallic with gold shimmer. This is 3 coats of each polish, and I didn't have application problems with any of them. 

Indirect natural light

Direct sunlight

Below are pictures underwater to help show off the duochrome. Deviantly Daring and, in particular, Azuré shift better than the camera is often able to capture. You can really see how much stronger Azuré's shift is in the photos.

Direct sunlight

Indirect natural light

Here are some more shots out of water to capture different lighting situations.

Dim artificial light - indoors

Artificial light - indoors

Indirect natural light

Below are the other polishes I compared. None of them are duochromes except for Deviantly Daring. To the left, you can see all of them are greener than Azuré and they have different finishes. Rimmel in #340 Marine Blue is more blue and a shimmer finish. None of these apart from Deviantly Daring are really comparable to Azuré, but  hopefully they help place it in some context.

Top to bottom: direct sunlight, indirect natural light

I have also heard people wondering about Dior in Samba (darker, more green, shimmer finish, no duochrome) and Essie in Trophy Wife (darker, shimmer finish, no duochrome). The RAEviewer has a swatch wheel comparing them here. There has also been speculation regarding Sephora by OPI in Mermaid to Order, which is a dupe of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Lagoon (slightly darker, more green, metallic shimmer finish, no duochrome) and you can find a post comparing them on PurseForum.

I hope this was helpful to those of you interested in Azuré! Which is your favorite?