Can’t afford Louboutin shoes? let these $50 polish soothe your soul

Now, why in the WORLD would you pay $50 for a nail polish? well, probably the same reason why you would pay $200+ for a pair of shoes. Quality and design, that is. While there is a significant difference in quality between a $10 shoe and a $90 shoe, or $3 polish and a $20 polish, after a certain price point…..let’s face it, it’s really just the brand and the design. In that case, I will be examining these polish from every aspect instead of just the polish itself.

First of all, you can’t deny that it’s got style. The boxes are made of sturdy cardboard with the spike cap of the polish poking out on top. I like how the metallic accent (the words and inside bottom of the box) match the cap. Rose gold cap for The Nudes, the neutral colors; Silver for The Pops, the bright and bold colors; And darker steel for The Noirs, the darker more evening colors. There are a ton of reviews out for the Rouge Louboutin, the red polish in black bottle, so I didn’t bother getting it. 

The spike cap is about as long as a pen, and you can see the size comparison to a normal polish in the image above. When I first opened it to apply the color, I almost dropped the cap since I didn’t expect it to be so heavy, especially around bottom of the cap. And just as expected of Louboutin, who put red accent on the bottom of the shoes, there is the same red accent color inside the cap. Signature move indeed.

After a couple seconds of initial adjustment, the heavy cap wasn’t inconvinient when applying the polish. While I was a little disappointed that the spike for The Nudes is a cloudy rose gold instead of a shiny gold, the color/design of the spike and the design/weight of the bottle definitely looks and feels luxurious. It looks like it costs $50, har. While the tip of the spike is not sharp enough for you to prick your finger, the size and weight makes it quite easy to grab and use as a self-defense weapon. Also, the spikes for the nudes, pop and noir are shorter than the black spike of the Rouge. One last thing before we move on to individual colors. I like the fact that these nail polishes does not have a strong scent. It still have the scent of nail polish but not to the point where my nose hurt after finishing one hand and can still smell it on the nail like some other polishes.
They are also gluten-free and free of toluene, formaldehyde, and DBP.

As for the colors, I picked one from each line, and one of each finish to get an idea of the range. The pops are all cream finish as far as I can tell, the Nudes have some sheer finish as well as cream, and the Noir have some shimmer as well as cream. I picked Sweet Charity from the nudes, a sheer vanilla; Lova from the pops, a cream violet; and Farida from the noirs, a shimmery brown.

As you can probably tell from the image, I’m not very good at this applying nail polish business. I’m sloppy, I hate waiting, and I’m too lazy to apply multiple coat. The colors you see above are ONE coat, with no prep of any kind (no cuticle thingamajig or bottom/top coat). It wears as well as any good quality polish, but it’s also pretty easy to take off and none of the 3 colors stained my nails. Now, my camera gets easily confused and the lighting didn’t help, so the color for the individual beauty shot of the polish is a bit off.

Farida, the brown with shimmer is rather understated. It’s not very shimmery (albeit I’m a bit biased after wearing Butter London Airy Fair) and more of a sheen. So if you love sparkly shimmer, well, the Loub shimmers might be a bit too understated for your taste.

Lova is a nice cream violet. Sometimes it looks purple and sometimes it look a bit more blueish depending on the lighting. The reason why I usually avoid cream is that I can never get it to look even with one coat, but I don’t like the thick feeling of 2-3 coats and hate waiting for them to dry. Maybe it’s because I didn’t go high end enough, because this gives me even opaque color with a nice creamy finish in one coat. I have not tried any polish $20+ so I don’t know if this is normal for high end, but it’s certain better than the OPI, Julep etc that I’ve tried.

Sweet Charity is a sheer vanilla that gives your nail a shiny tint with one coat, but you can definitely see the milky sheer vanilla color coming through with 2 coat. There is no streaking, even if you are a streak-master like me when it comes to polishes. It also wears very well, perhaps because it’s sheer, so the minor chips are less noticeable.

Conclusion: I like the fact I only need 1 coat to get an opaque and even color for the all of them, especially cream. I also like how the sheers just give a tint with 1 coat but can give you actual color with 2 coat. As for whether or not it’s worth buying, there are 3 possible reasons. If you love everything Louboutin and just collect them, the design for these are beautiful. If you are in love with and NEED a specific color and can’t find a dupe, the quality is good so you wouldn’t be disappointed. If you know you will use it frequently instead of just staring at it, then $50 for a year of daily use still work out to be cheaper than $5 for once a year use, especially since you just need 1 or at MOST 2 while some polish requires 2-3 coat each time. If none of those 3 reasons are you, then it’s probably not worth it because quality-wise I’m pretty sure you can find just as good polishes, in probably more plain bottles, for half the price or less.