Christian Louboutin Scarabee Collection

The Scarabée collection from Christian Louboutin contains three nail lacquers in duochrome shades.  From 2015, the lacquers - Scarabée I, Scarabée II, and Scarabée III - were designed to be reminiscent of the relics of ancient Egypt, featuring jewel-toned colors and gold-toned lids in heavy-weight glass bottles.

First in the collection is the gold-to-red multichrome.  In most lightings this polish is a duochrome featuring a burnished red-copper color with a strong orange shift.

no base coat, 3 coats Scarabée I, no top coat

In low lighting, this polish really shines.  The strongest multichrome shift out of the three lacquers in this collection, in the shade of midday, the yellow-gold, orange, and red of this polish are all clearly visible.  In the photo below, the only changes that were made to color were to color-correct the white background.  That is the actual multichrome color shift you can see in real life!

no base coat, 3 coats Scarabée I, no top coat

While Scarabée III is a multichrome in the bottle, it is very hard to capture the gold-to-blue shift.  Instead, the main gold color is what is seen in most lightings, with a hint of green around the edges.  (The blue is almost visible if you hold your nails at unnatural angles.)  Still a very beautiful polish featuring a true gold color.

no base coat, 3 coats Scarabée III, no top coat

The second polish in the collection, Scarabée II, features the weakest color shift of the three lacquers.  This is a teal-blue polish that shifts to darker blue around the edges.  The purple shift that is visible in the bottle is never quite visible on the nails in any lighting or at any angle.  What is nice about this teal-blue color is the bright blue-green shade that sparkles in the sunlight when under direct lighting.  The darker color seems to make the blue-green glow from within.

no base coat, 2 coats Scarabée II, no top coat

There is something about the bottle design that not only makes these lovely lacquers to have in any collection, but the longer handle makes wielding the brush easier, thus making nail polish application easier.  The quality of these polishes is good and tends to be consistent throughout the whole collection.  Scarabée II only needed 2 coats to be opaque, while Scarabée I and III needed 3 coats, but none of the polishes need a dark base color for any of the duochrome/multichrome color shift to be visible.

Unfortunately, these colors are no longer available through regular retailers like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Christian Louboutin stores.  You can still find them on eBay and other online resale avenues, so check there if you're interested!