Dior Vernis #707 Gris Montaigne – Swatches, Review & Comparisons

The late great Christian Dior, never made a secret of his love for the colour grey; not only did he create the most sublime suits in a variety of grey tones and fabrics, but it is the signature colour of his flagship store in Paris, on the Rue Montaigne, of course.

A while back when I first previewed Dior’s Spring 2011 Collection (here & here), I could only admire the pictures - now I have my very own piece of Dior grey: Dior Vernis #707 Gris Montaigne.

This is an elegant grey creme polish, highly saturated in colour with a rich depth to it. Luxurious looking and silky smooth, it is a wonderful smoky hue with no blue undertones in it whatsoever, making it one of the truest grey lacquers I have come across. I find that Dior polishes not only apply exceptionally well but have amazing chip-free staying power. Depending on the light, Gris Montaigne can look either like a soft dove grey, or darken to more of a concrete grey. What’s interesting is that in pictures of a higher resolution, you can just barely make out the vaguest hint of shimmer when it’s applied on the nail, but it’s not visible when looking at the bottle.

Dior polishes now all come with their new tapered paddle-shaped brush (much like the Sally Hansen Salon Line) and I for one absolutely love it. I find it picks up the right amount from the bottle, you can spread the colour quickly & easily and the tapered tip is great for getting into narrower areas. The dry time was surprisingly fast and the shine….whoa! Super glossy indeed! All pictures are with Sèche Natural base coat, 2 coats of polish and Sèche Vite top coat.

Of course being the grey fan that I am, I searched my stash for similar shades, and the two I came up with to compare are Yves Saint Laurent’s La Laque Vernis #39 Stormy Grey, as well as Gosh Cosmetics #594 Miss Grey (reviewed here).

From the three, Stormy Grey is most definitely the palest with teal undertones and very subtle silver shimmer to give it movement. Miss Grey comes very close to the Dior in depth of colour, but at close range you can see that it still pulls bluer than Gris Montaigne, which seems to have almost yellowish undertones. The YSL was the thinnest in formula and could have used another coat for full opacity, but I left it at 2 coats to be equitable to the others. The brush wand is also longer which can be a seem a bit difficult to wield, but the application is lovely, with a high shine and I always found YSL polishes incredibly long lasting and chip-resistant.

Gosh’s Miss Grey is the truest creme of the three: no shimmer in it whatsoever, but whereas you’d figure that would make it flat & dull, it still seems to display an incredibly rich depth with a mirror-like shine. This one also dried very quickly, had the thickest formula of them all and was fully opaque with 2 coats (it can almost be a 1-coater, if you’re in a rush, as it’s highly pigmented). Middle & pinkie fingers: Gris Montaigne, Index finger: Miss Grey, Ring finger: Stormy Grey.

Final thoughts: If you love grey shades, then I highly suggest you pick up Gris Montaigne, before it’s gone, as it is truly complimentary on every skin tone and the quality of the polish is superb. Gosh’s Miss Grey is similar enough to Gris Montaigne, both in texture and in colour, but without the Dior high end price tag, to make it worth tracking down. The YSL was a limited edition shade of a few seasons ago, and I only threw it in for comparison purposes. What do you think of Gris Montaigne? Will you be splurging on this beauty? Let me know!

The following picture was added to show you how gradient light affects this shade…believe it or not, all fingers are Gris Montaigne!