LeChat Perfect Match Rustic Retreat Collection for Fall 2014
Ready or not, fall colors are here! I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the LeChat Rustic Retreat Collection since learning about it at Cosmoprof in Las Vegas this past July. This collection is comprised of six lush woodland shades for fall. All six colors have cream finishes. Most are thick creams and were opaque in just two coats. Usually I apply three coats when swatching, but it wasn’t necessary for these shades except where noted below.
LeChat Wild Berry is a gorgeous purple berry shade. This might be one of my favorites from this collection. It’s a red-ish/pink-ish purple, and is a totally unique shade compared to my other purples.
LeChat Tranquility is another amazing color. This is a grey-ish blue/green shade that reminds me of a much darker version of Gelish Seafoam. With as many blues and teals that I own, I don’t have any colors in my stash that are quite similar to this.
LeChat Down to Earth is a dark, grey-ish green. Again, this is a totally unique shade compared against the colors that I own. It looks very green on the screen to me, but when compared side-by-side with my greens it actually looks more grey.
LeChat Maroonscape is a dark burgundy cream. I applied three coats of this color because it seemed just a slight bit patchy with two coats. This shade falls in between Gelish A Touch of Sass and Gelish Black Cherry Berry. This color feels very vampy to me.
LeChat Hazelwood is a creamy medium brown and is a nice, warm fall shade. It’s similar to Gelish Lust at First Sight and Gelish Want to Cuddle.
LeChat My Serenity is a rich, dark blue cream. The formula of this polish was a little thinner than the others and it required three coats for full coverage. This shade is most similar to Gelish After Dark, but is a little lighter and not quite as bold.
I was very surprised by the uniqueness of the shades in this collection, though they left me pining for some metallic or shimmer finishes. Wild Berry and Tranquility are probably my two favorites from the set, but like them all. I’m least likely to wear Down to Earth just because I don’t think it’s a great match for my skin tone.
Which are your favorites?
Down to Earth is my favorite of these. :)
Where can I find LeChat ?
I get them on Amazon or Ebay.
As always thanks for the swatches. I don’t buy anything without checking out your site first! Will you be doing any color comparisons for this collection?
I’m waiting until I’m done swatching fall collections to do color comparisons.
I love them ALL! Just getting into gels so may have to get each and every one. :)
Hi Andrea,
I’m currently wearing You Glare I Glow (Gelish) which looks exactly the same as the purple above. Do you not think?
Love your swatches as always, but these colours are less tempting to me.
No, they’re totally different shades.
It must be my screen because my nails look exactly the same. Thanks for your reply
Did you maybe mean Tahiti Hottie? That’s more of a pink-ish purple.
I have both, but no.definitely from the Glow collection. I’m going to have to look at this post on another computer, I think. Or perhaps my eyes are going funny
Love. love My Serenity. I am looking for an Auburn University Blue but i could not find this color anywhere yet and so from your swatches I went with Gelish Mali Blue Me Away(clicked on your link to it). Your site is fantastic and I have learned so much from it. Thanks!
As always, Andrea, this is great! These are really unique and lovely colors. LeChat is a great brand that has gotten too little attention, so I’m really glad that you’ve presented it this way. Can’t wait to see the color comparisons.
I love Tranquility and down to earth :)
My favorite is Tranquility. I absolutely love Gelish Seafoam, but it’s very thin (at least 3 coats needed, for me), so have been looking for similar. Your comparison of the two was very helpful.
Wild Berry has arrived and it is a beautiful color. This is the first purple I have ever bought and it looks great on my fingers & toes. i am still thinking about My Serenity.
Tranquility has arrived, and it looks very different from the picture above. :( It’s quite flat and very gray, sort of a military camouflage color. I’ll try it with white underneath to see if that brightens it up, but I’m not holding my breath.
It is very grey-ish. It looks different on the nail than it does on a swatch stick or in the bottle. Skin tone will also play a role in how it looks. My hands are pretty tan.
I hadn’t meant to be blaming you. :) I’d meant to just update my enthusiasm for the color in case it helped anyone else. Agreed that it can look very different, at least depending on the lighting.
I purchased LeChat down to earth and I was pleasantly surprised to realize it came with a matching nail polish too. However, after using the gel polish I was unimpressed! I had severe wrinkles after I applied. I thought maybe I put the polish on too thick, so my other hand I put the coats on very thin and it still happened! I have the same problem with shellac polish.
Andrea, do you think that my light is the problem or the fact that I always use acrygel when I do my nails?
I use this nail lamp USpicy CRESCENT USND-1801 18W LED Nail Polish Dryer / Lamp / Light for Curing Gelish & LED Gels(White), Upgraded with Digital Countdown Timer 30s-90s, SPA Equipment found on amazon.
Please let me know what you think.
Tara
I can’t really be sure. I haven’t tried that lamp. I’ve never had wrinkling problems with LeChat or Shellac, even over acrygel. That should have no impact. What you consider a thin coat and what I consider a thin coat could also be different things :)
I think it is likely that it is the lamp. These inexpensive, generic lamps are quite underpowered compared to the professional level lamps like the Gelish 18g, OPI GelColor, or ACG Pro 30. Although wattage is only a measure of input rather than output, there is some correlation. These professional lamps have 36-42 watts of power compared to your USpicy’s 18w, so they give a fast, thorough cure. With the generic lamps, the gel may get hard but the cure is incomplete – gel hardens at only about 50%, and you want a 90%+ cure to be safe. It is likely that your gel is curing too slowly and unevenly, and therefore wrinkling.
I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Nancy, I think it is my lamp too. At least I know what I want for Christmas.
I had to tell you that I did reapply this polish for one last ditch effort. I made sure to make the coats as thin as possible, cure under my lamp for 1 min on each coat and 1:30 for the top coat and that seemed to do the trick!!! I am so excited because I love the polish and the colors that LeChat offers.
Great, I’m glad it worked for you!
Could you tell me how different My Serenity is from Gelish’s Caution? Thanks!
My Serenity is darker, and Caution has some shimmer to it.
Could you please tell me how similar is Hazelwood to Pink Gellac’s intense taupe? Thanks a lot!