Magazines and makeup brands often collaborate outside of publication pages on products, so it's no surprise that Allure and Butter London are creating nail polishes together. The Arm Candy lacquers will be limited edition, too. But since this concept is not exactly a new one in the beauty world, you can be totally "Yay!" about this partnership or you can be all sorts of "Meh" about it. Me? I'm falling more into the "Yay!" category and I'll tell you why.
The best perk of being a beauty writer or editor is that you get to test and play with all sorts of free product samples before anyone else does. The free part is awesome, but as a beauty writer, you literally have your hands in everything, so you have a wider cross-section of stuff to experience and you know what's good and what's bad due to volume and to trying it all.
Allure's team is certainly exposed to tons and tons of product, so they really know what to look for and what they like, and it's the staff's job to be informed, so their input is even more valuable on a collab like this. You're essentially getting a beauty editor-approved polish and that's an intangible.
That said, here's everything we know about Allure x Butter London, the latter of which does make lovely lacquers, courtesy of WWD.
1. The Name Game
The collab is called Arm Candy. There will be a bunch of sets and colors sold separately. Allure's name will be featured in the packaging. While Allure has done one-off collabs in the past, Wells told WWD, "What we wanted with this collaboration was really to have a partnership, not just put our name on something for a moment and have it disappear."
2. The Name Game, Part 2
WWD reveals that there will be six solo shades and they are as follows: Nude Stilettos (sheer pink); Statement Piece (orange-red); I'm on the List (metallic rose gold); It's Vintage (opaque rust); Disco Nap (charcoal with glitter, which speaks my language!); and Lust or Must? (charcoal brown that is opaque). The sets feature these cleverly named shades: So Major!, (shimmery green); The Sweet Spot (dusty pink); Violet’s Revenge (blue purple); and Front Row (opaque wine).
3. When And Where?
The usual suspects, such as Sephora, Ulta, and Norstrom, will sell the polishes, so you will have no problem stocking up. They hit counters and online August 1 and will be available through next March. Here's an interesting fact: WWD noted that Allure x Butter could actually hit $2 million in sales, according to the people whose job it is to speculate on these kinds of things. Beauty insiders already expect this team up to be a hit.
There is one hitch concerning this collab. Allure is a magazine that covers the beauty world and its products and it does so while competing with a lot of other magazines that cover the beauty world and its products. Will Allure's competitors, like Vogue or Cosmo, cover these Butter London-branded polishes? That could be a conflict of interest and why would other mags support their competition's endeavors? Unless, of course, they wanted to be ladylike and cool about it.
We'll see!
Images: Getty (4)
