China Glaze Ingrid- Is “Greige” the New Taupe?

Lady Gaga’s manicure on this month’s Vanity Fair has generated a swarm of reports that she’s using a “greige” polish as evidence that the trend begun with Chanel  Particulière has not slowed down.  In addition, the UK’s Elle.com did a recent report on celebrities with greige nails.  This raises the critical question– what exactly is “griege”?   The answer is that greige is a mix of beige and gray.  I first heard the term used in Paris, to refer to the color of the bicycles for loan and the color that will be used to to paint Parisian taxis.  Some find it a light, sophisticated neutral.

According to nail blogger All Lacquered Up, Lady Gaga’s Vanity Fair cover used Deborah Lippmann’s Waking Up in Vegas, a soft grayed shell color that looks, in a way, a bit like a very light taupe. This does seem more beige-gray than brown-gray, so I can see calling it “greige”.

Yet Elle.com’s report quite clearly refers to Particulière as “greige,” but I think of that color as a “taupe.”  Reader–sometimes it is very difficult to tell where greige ends and taupe begins.  Can we kindly call this one to a vote?

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So, to the business at hand–China Glaze’s Vintage Vixen collection for Fall 2010 includes Ingrid ($3-6.00), which has been described as a “greige” crème with copper micro glitter.  My Ingrid arrived today and I absolutely could not wait to swatch this one (pardon my fingers as they are still war-torn from my recent travels).

This bottle kept changing color a bit on me–sometimes it looks like a copper-infused chocolate brown, while other times the gray seemed to predominate.  Here’s a very evenly lit shot:

Outside in sunlight, the coppery-brown color predominated:

Temptalia’s swatches of Ingrid came out very similar to my picture above– she describes Ingrid as “a softened deep, molten chocolate brown with ultra fine, light brown shimmer.”  Agreed!  But when I took the polish indoors without flash, Ingrid looks quite gray–darker and grayer than Chanel Particulière:

Incidentally, KarlaSugar’s swatch from Soaper1 came out very similarly to my indoor picture.

Bottom line– China Glaze Ingrid is a very beautiful Fall color that fits well within this season’s deep gray theme.  I’m just not entirely sure what color Ingrid really is.  I suppose I’ll call it….greige?