You know all those articles about Generation Rent - ie, us lot who veer between being terrified about the fact we're never going to be able to get on the property ladder and convincing ourselves that it's absolutely, totally fine that we're never going to own our own home? Well, it seems the beauty world's been paying attention. And someone's come up with a way to capitalise on our financial and storage misery: a service that means we can rent our own nail polish rather than ever owning, and storing a bottle again.
The theory seems sound - you pay £14.99 per month and beauty company Coloristiq will send you three bottles of nail polish to use and send back within 30 days, much like LoveFilm subscriptions from The Pre-Netflix Days. (Remember them?) The idea being that you get to use three polishes from premium brands such as Essie and OPI (which retail for around £9 each) without committing to colours, and ending up with a zillion half used nail polish bottles that you don’t have enough storage for in the tiny flat you're going to have to rent for the rest of your life. As Julita, the founder and CEO of Coloristiq says, 'Renting nail polish provides everyone with an opportunity to experiment with various shades each month, without the issues related to storing and quality deterioration.'
As the website itself puts it: 'Are you tired of endless bottles of nail polish? Do you have loads of nail polish colours which you used only once? Does your nail polish go thick after a few applications? Then why buy only a few nail polishes when you can choose and rent from hundreds?'
It seems that, like with most things, the US have been slightly ahead of the nail polish rent-game: 'We felt quite impressed by the existing nail polish rental business in the US and thought that we should have this service available in the UK too,' says Julita. Now, in some ways it's a premise that makes sense. Our attention span for anything runs pretty short these days - and that includes our nail colour and any kind of looks-insanely-brilliant-on-day-one-but-then-gets-boring nail art. The Coloristiq model is built around the fact you can use each bottle three times in a month, meaning you'd be able to re-paint your nails every 3.3 days (yes, we did the maths for you). And there's loads of safety sanitizing built in by the people at Coloristiq meaning you won't end up catching some fungus from someone unsavoury whose used the bottle before.
READ MORE: Lazy Girl Beauty: Nail Art You Can Do In Front Of The TV
Julita's ambitions for Coloristiq are high, and she envisages adding further salon and designer brands to the offering: 'I really see this concept among the likes of Airbnb, Zipcar or Rent the Runway one day.' But given you've still probably got a DVD of Casino that got delivered circa 2011 hanging around your bedroom and 4 packages to return to ASOS under your desk, we'd suggest you think carefully before signing up to a service that requires you to send back polishes in a protective wrap. And when you think about it £14.99 a month could buy you a lot of essential food-stuffs - not to mention three bottles of Barry M with change for one of Pret's new Mac n Cheese boxes for a Friday lunch-time treat.
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
Why I'm Glad The Freckle Pencil Will Make People Embrace Their Freckles
Here's A Few Reasons Why It's Worth Being Totally Fine About Not Being On The Property Ladder
Here Are The Best Fake Tans To Ease Your Sad Skin Into Autumn
Follow Charlie on Twitter @Charliebyrne406
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.