Netflix For Your Nails: New Polish Club Lets You Rent Luxe Lacquers

We seriously can't count the number of times we've looked at our nail polish stashes and thought to ourselves, "Hmm, that seems a bit excessive." The problem is every time we say that this lacquer will be the absolute last addition to our vast collection, those cunning geniuses at our fave brands come out with the next amazing shade we just have to have. We paint our nails on the reg, but there's no way even we could use all of the polishes we're currently coveting.

Enter: Lacquerous. Like Netflix and Rent The Runway before it, this subscription polish club revolves around the concept that renting is just the same, if not better, than owning something high-end. Here's how it works: Members pay a flat rate of $18 a month and are sent three designer nail polish shades to paint and play with for 30 days. After the month is up, members pack up the polishes and send them back with the prepaid postage label, then three new polishes are delivered a few days later.

The site currently has nine brands — Tom Ford, Deborah Lippmann, NARS, Butter London, OPI, Chanel, MAC, Dior, and Dolce & Gabbana — with over 70 shades to choose from. Members create a "Lust List" of polishes they want to try, and the site will send new polishes from that list as the inventory is available. New shades and brands will continue to be added, so members are encouraged to constantly update their lists to make sure they get the polishes they really want to sample. Members can even suggest brands and shades they want added to the inventory, and the site promises they will work hard to add them in.

We love this idea — access to designer-ready digits without having to shell out $30 for a single polish? Genius. We've rarely, if ever, used an entire bottle of polish in our lives — usually we get halfway down and they start getting all tacky and hard to use, so we just chuck them. This gives you the opportunity to try the latest shades, without the commitment or the hefty price tag. And, for those of you germaphobes worried about shared polish being unsanitary, remember that the polishes you use at the nail salon are just that: communal, meaning lots of other people have used them. Not to mention the fact that nail polish manufacturers have to make sure that their lacquers are safe despite how many people are using them, meaning that polish is not a cesspool of icky bacteria, thank you very much.

The one (minor) downside? The site asks that members only use each lacquer three times per rental period — and go as far to monitor the amount of polish in each bottle to make sure people are adhering to the guidelines. Seems a little Big Brother to us, but then, we understand how some shady types might try and exploit the rental concept, so the site does need to protect itself somehow.

Lacquerous just launched today and already has a waiting list of over 2,500 people — and only a few hundred of those peeps are going to get access to the site today. Unless of course, you happen to be a loyal R29 reader, in which case, the site has offered us a promo code that allows you to jump to the top of that wait list. Simply sign up, pop in the code R29NAILS at registration and in two-to-three weeks, you'll have a shipment of three designer polishes waiting at your doorstep. It's like Christmas come early.