When my girlfriends descend into Chez VDM an inevitable makeup mess ensues. My perfume collection is spritzed, no scent spared, my eyeshadow stash riffled and we all end up going out wearing a lipstick that isn’t our own. But I ain’t complaining, I love it. And while thrown into this beauty stampede a few weekends ago I somehow found myself lacquering up nails on manicure duty for my three mates. The colour of the day was CHANEL Rouge Noir, a blackened red as the name suggested courtesy of my CHANEL-crazed friend, Lauren. After the ladies tottered home nails painted, with a bag of beauty leftovers and sample pots galore (I’m good like that), I had an urge to paint on this black cherry shade myself and sorted through my stocks till I found what I believed to be a pretty spot on dupe, Revlon’s Vixen*…

Now it’s worth pointing out here that I don’t have the original CHANEL polish to hand, but Vixen fits the deep, dark – red in some lights, full-on black in others – bill. I know the photo doesn’t do it much justice but it is a bit a ‘new nails‘ shade, you know the one where you find yourself almost walking into lampposts cause you keep looking down? It applies nicely, two coats does it, and I was surprised at how long it lasted on the nails – it even survived a bathroom cleaning marathon (nothing but glamour over here). I have a feeling that this with a festive red glitter nail – Essie’s Leading Lady I’m looking at you – will be my mani of choice over the preceding weeks.

Revlon polishes will take you back £6.49 from drugstores, but it’s under the tenner bar I set for this category and they’re often included in some deal or another. Come to think of it, Essie’s are under £10 – gawd I’d have enough material to keep ‘The Budget Buy’ going daily for the next year with my collection. I joke, I joke….

*PR Sample