*This was originally published as a guest post on Modesty Brown back in July 2011*

Le Métier de Beaute isn’t really a brand that had registered much on my radar. Of course, I have read about it on a number of blogs, nodded sagely as Jane waxed lyrical about it (more than once!) but still for some reason I hadn’t been tempted to explore the brand further. However, this might all be about to change, as Jane obviously couldn’t cope with my ignorance any longer, and generously lent me her bottle of Hera to test out.

First things first, the bottle is tiny. Like tiny weeeeeeny. The kind of size you might expect to find in a dolls house. A bit odd really. Its only 4ml and will set you back the best part of £6.50. Erm, that’s kind of ludicrous. So you’d expect a sample sized bottle to contain polish that covers in one coat, right? Nope. This was two. Ok, so two isn’t bad, but it won’t take you long to use this up. Not long at all. Are they having a little joke with us? I mean, it’s one thing to be an aspirational and exclusive brand, but another to expect people to pay £1.62 for 1ml of nail varnish. Even Chanel (the most expensive nail varnish around, although Nails Inc are giving them a run for their money…but that’s a whole other blog post) only charges £1.38 per 1ml of polish.
Any way, all that aside, what’s the stuff actually like?

It’s very nice. However, Hera, a metallic shade, absolutely loathed being applied over a base coat. It went on ok, but dried totally bumpy and strange. So I had to remove my first application and start again, on bare and dry nails with no base coat, not even matte Nail Envy. This annoyed me as that was £1.62 down the drain straight away! But once I’d realized that this was no friend to base coat, it applied absolutely beautifully. Two easy coats, applied with a great brush that didn’t cause pooling or dragging at all. Marvellous. I was left with burnished gold nails that looked totally smooth and flawless. Usually, metallics highlight every ridge and lump and bump and I was pleased to say that Hera was an exception to the rule. I thought that Hera was going to be a gold foil, but it wasn’t. The finish is unlike any I’ve seen before and I really like it.

The ultimate test was moving house. How did it stand up to a few days of packing boxes, messing around with tape, moving and shunting things around? Well, the answer is very well. Hera looked great for a couple of days before starting to chip, but I must point out that my nails were under a lot of stress during this time (as was I – moving house is HELL). I would imagine that it would fare perfectly well using it in a normal week where the most strain you’ll be putting on your hands is doing some typing or washing up.

So, what’s my feeling? It’s a nice polish. The finish is different and it is a lovely shade. It applies perfectly and seems to go the distance. But they’d have to come up with a really original colour to get me to part with £6.50 for such a tiny bottle. OK so storage would be less of an issue than it is with my larger 15ml polishes, but I’m still not convinced.

On a side note, I always felt really sorry for Hera, having to stay at home and be all gracious and ladylike whilst her husband was off misbehaving in the form of a swan or a golden shower (look it up if you don’t believe me). At least she’s had a nice nail varnish named after her now though, hey?

*PR sample*