Famed shoe designer Christian Louboutin announced his entry into nail polish in July with the release of Rouge Louboutin Nail Colour, a vibrant, high-gloss red nail lacquer, which is already breaking pre-order sales records for nail polish in stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. The formal US release tool place August 6, with international locations such as Ireland, The United Kingdom, Hong Kong and the Middle East to follow thereafter.

“We have been exceeding expectations,” said Catherine Roggero, the General Manager of Christian Louboutin Beauté, who notes that nail polish was an inevitable area for Christian Louboutin to venture into. Christian Louboutin Beauté partnered with New York-based Batallure Beauty to create the line.

“The history of the red sole is that Christian was looking at a prototype of his shoe and saw his assistant painting her nails red and he went and grabbed the bottle from her. This is his way of giving back to beauty what beauty gave to him.”

The small company, which does everything in-house, spent a year-and-half working on the polish line, which will have an additional 30 colors set to be released starting August 31 in North America. Colors fall into Noir, Nudes or Pop categories, and draw color inspiration from existing shoe collections. Each bottle is made out of handmade glass and features one of several bristle shapes specially designed to produce the longest-lasting color with as little polish as possible.

But aside from elegant packaging and a high price point, this product differs from other luxury nail polish brands as many stores plan to sell Christian Louboutin Beauté on the shoe floor as a compliment to their collections with aspirational sales being an additional driving force.

“This is perfect for a woman whose daughter wants a pair… she can buy her the polish,” added Catherine.