NEW | Christian Louboutin Beauty Collection Unveiled In Manchester

WORLD famous Parisian shoe designer, Christian Louboutin, is spoiling Manchester.

I wanted to celebrate woman and her desires

Waltz stiletto-clad into Selfridges Exchange Square and you can find his luxurious shoe boutique - the largest Louboutin boutique to be found outside of London - and bask in the wide assortment of his signature red-soled killer heels.

Now, as the Louboutin line heads into frontiers new with its expanding beauty range, the designer has unveiled a brand new beauty counter in Selfridges, with Manchester again the only city in the North to feature the entire collection.

The Christian Louboutin Beauty counter is easy to spot in the downstairs beauty department. As to be expected, it’s opulently designed with marble floors and fine gold detailing, and, if you consider the vanity stations and gold hand-mirrors, it’s also suitably French boudoir-themed.

Much like the Louboutin shoes, the beauty collection – currently featuring nail polishes, lipsticks and a freshly launched fragrance range – is supposed to be noticed (and certainly not packed away in a makeup bag), with each elegantly and intricately designed, based on Louboutin’s own romantic and whimsical imaginings, from award ceremonies to Babylonian architecture.

Louboutin Beauty at Selfridges

Packaging plays a strong role in this beauty collection, and is reflected by the high price-points (from £36 - £214). This is certainly not throwaway beauty and not for penny-pinchers. Much like the shoe that launched the designer into stratospheric success, the beauty line is glamourous, super-luxe and unapologetically OTT.

And the famous stiletto shoe is not far from thought throughout the entire beauty range. After all, Louboutin credits a colleague’s red nails as inspiration for his famous signature sole. Returning the homage, the nail polishes are designed with a sharp dagger-point handle like a slender stiletto heel. Priced at £36 per bottle, there are 36 shades to play with; from gun-metals to nudes and the classic red, naturally. We’re reminded that Adele, after dazzling at the 2012 Grammys, wore her nails painted with the signature Louboutin red accent on the inside to match her sparkly Loubs. Chic.

The lipsticks which launched in 2015 come in 38 shades in three finishes: satin, matte and a ‘sheer voile’, including nude lip liners designed to suit every skin tone. The lipsticks cost £60, making them one of the most expensive lipsticks in the world. Yet with their gold, amulet-like design, they look good enough to be worn as costume jewellery.

Louboutin lipsticks come in 38 shades and cost £60 

The fragrances are the newest arrivals and by the sounds of things are something Louboutin is very excited by:

Louboutin says: “I wanted to celebrate woman and her desires. I wanted these fragrances to enhance an aspect of her personality, or perhaps reveal something about her that no one knew before, maybe not even her, tell a secret, a story. In a way creating these fragrances is like being a film director, some directors want to control the acting process, others want to reveal the power of character and personality. This is what I try to evoke with shoes and now with the alchemy of fragrance. I want to give women the means to express themselves and to delight in their femininity.”

And feminine they are. The fragrances, three scents ‘Bikini Questa Sera’, ‘Tornade Blonde’, ‘Trouble In Heaven’ are a feast for the eyes as well as the nose (our favourite is the Bikini – the sweeter of the three fragrances). Designed with the help of Thomas Heatherwick (whose work includes the London 2012 Olympic cauldron), the bottles are beautifully sculptured out of glass, to resemble an academy award. They cost a staggering £215 each. Ouch.

Find Christian Louboutin Beauty on the ground floor beauty department at Selfridges, Exchange Square Manchester.