Chanel Peridot Swatches and Review

So I was all ready yesterday to swatch the Zoya Sunshine collection and declare my love for Zoya (and I still will soon).  But that was all before I ran into Scrangie's post about Chanel Peridot.  I had seen promo pics for it and figured "eh, it's not going to be as awesome they make it look."  But whoa, Scrangie's pics proved otherwise.  So I contemplated for awhile about whether I REALLY wanted to spend $25 on a single nail polish, but within the hour I had it ordered on Nordstrom.com with the in-store pickup option.  My other half ("Chief" we will call him) works down by the mall and he was awesome enough to offer to pick it up for me on his way home (awww).

So now I have it!  And it's amazing!  Let me show you...
 

 Chanel - Peridot

First off, I happen to have a puzzle ring with a peridot on it, so I wanted to see how the polish compares with the real thing.  If only the stone had the same color range that the polish does...  Still beautiful together!

(I sell puzzle rings at the Arizona Renaissance Festival, and if you have a faire near you my company may sell them there!  Norman Greene does amazing custom work which you can see at www.renaissancerings.com. Yes, they really do disassemble!)

Now to show you the amazing duochrome!  While it's not a very strong color change, it is a very beautiful one.  With light at a direct angle, it looks very gold (almost amber in places), but as the angle gets higher (with straight on being 0 degrees), the color shifts into leaf green, teal, and blue at the most extreme angle.

Coincidentally, peridot is Chief's birthstone, and he never liked it cause he thought it looked "booger green."  Well, if this is booger green, then I'm head over heels in love with snot.  Like Scrangie stated, when I first put it on I didn't like it, but as it dried, it started to "even out" and the streaks disappeared and the duochrome strengthened.  It DOES look nearly opaque in one coat, but I found that the more coats I did, the deeper it looked.  For these pictures I did three THIN coats.  The key that I found was to do nice thin coats with as few strokes as possible to minimize the streaks.  Don't take too much care on the first couple coats, but make sure to do a nice, thin, quick final coat.

Another note...  I can see why Scrangie was fascinated with it while typing - these are the moments where you see the blue/teal at the extreme angles, and it is quite mesmerizing  :o)

Do you like Chanel Peridot as much as I do?  Do you think it's worth the $25 retail price, or will you pass this one up?