This sophisticated line of nail polishes is the brainchild of Jane Schub, an illustrator turned cosmetics designer. Sold in color "libraries", the individual polishes are nameless and instead grouped as collections of color inspired by various and sometimes, disturbing, things. Each bottle in the 10 piece libraries is 0.5 fluid ounces.
The following descriptions of color collections provided by STRANGEBEAUTIFUL.
Volume 1
Above: Josef Albers Color Theory, A Mid Century Modern Knoll Fabric, Oscar Wilde, the exuberant paint colors used to decorate the walls of the Federalist period, a color of an Andy Warhol painting at the Dia Museum, the color Puce which I remember mixing when oil painting as a child, a green - winged teal, the dark inky blue of a never ending deep lake at night and the fear of swimming in it, and of course the red Valentine typewriter.
Volume 2
Above: An interesting color palette of camo called Tan and Water Camo used by an elite German anti- terrorist unit. The slate blue color of a uniform in an 1846 N.Currier print “The Death of the Gallant Major Ringgold).Violette (Pansy Violet) ink from the venerable French ink company J. Herbin founded in 1670, the dull red color of a lobster shell immediately after it has been removed from boiling water.
Volume 3
Above: The veins of green mold running through Roquefort, the artist Sean Scully, the rich black olive green color of Loden cloth, aged Armagnac, the dull brown red of Red Rope files, the saturated rusty iron color of an Irish bog caused by the reaction between tannin, wood and iron, Raymond Loewy, the belly of a pigeon, and the dreadfully wonderful dirty almond color used on kitchen appliances.
Volume 4
Above: The gradation of color on the fur of a taxidermy caribou head; Oeil De Perdrix (partridge – eye); Pink color of Rose champagne; The poem Lapis Lazuli by William Butler Yeats; A very wrong color choice of a cheap foundation; Verdigris; An orange turban in a 15th Century Florentine portrait titled Matteo Olivieri; Aged Chartreuse; Borscht.
Volume 5
Above: The vampiric gradations of a healing bruise; the moody rusts of menstrual blood; sooty, phantasmal India ink; the profile of a gray blue Heron scooping fish against a background of gooey river runoff and the apocalyptic color palette of Medieval Flemish paintings.
Unlike traditional nail polishes, the Volume 5 shades coat the nail in a gossamer bath of color. Not quite transparent, the effect is fluid and semi opaque, as if the nail itself had taken on a mysterious life of its own.
Library of Camo Nail Polishes
Above: The neutralized sand- pink background of the French desert camouflage “Daguet”, a washed out color palette of Snow Shadow camouflage used to match snowy terrain for winter hunting, Tropical variant camouflage of the Russian Federation, the simple elegant palette of the 3-way desert battle dress camouflage used by the Israeli army, Belgian desert jigsaw camouflage, the beautiful watery blots of color almost “Fragonard” in feeling of the Czechoslovakian 5 color desert camouflage.
The Dickension Volume
Above: For this collection, creator Jane Schub drew inspiration from photographer Joel - Peter Witkin, Edward Gorey‘s The Loathsome Couple, the Brothers Grimm, a lump of coal, a piece of broken shale and Dickens.
Each 10 piece set costs $85 and is available to purchase online here.
About STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™:
STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™ Library of Color was inspired by the vibrant Red Valentine typewriter designed by Ettore Sottsass (shown above) and his work with the Memphis Group of designers who rejected the rules of “good taste” and functionalism and regarded design as fashion with outrageous style appearing for a season and quickly disappearing.
INSPIRATIONS
Color is understood through experience, color can be deceiving and is constantly changing, when you look at a color you don’t see that color by itself, it is interacting with its surroundings, I designed STRANGEBEAUTIFUL Library of Color to be housed together and interchangeable within the box so one can see that each color will look slightly different depending on the order of the colors.
STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™ colors are deliberately nameless “I find it thought provoking and stimulating to remember and refer to each color by its reference or inspiration.”- Jane Schub
Jane Schub the designer, is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and had a distinguished career as an illustrator before turning her hand to cosmetics. “With this carefully edited and richly perverse library of colors I have drawn inspiration ranging from the Ettore Sottsass Red Valentine typewriter to Josef Albers color theory” -. Willful and provocative, vibrant, eccentric and ornamental my intent has been to develop a new creative approach to nail color and position STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™ more as an accessory for your hand than just another nail polish.”
STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™ stunningly provocative but wearable colors blend the best elements of beauty, science, and design. Every polish has been developed and evaluated with an artist’s eye producing hues that are deeply and richly saturated throughout. The elegant, efficient packaging has been designed with the customer in mind. Six steel ball bearings ensure that each intensely pigmented saturated color of STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™ nail polish is evenly dispersed throughout and consistently creamy. A 220 strand brush guarantees an effortless, even application every time.
STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™ is a 3 FREE product completely free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, and DBP (dibutyl phthalate) .
STRANGEBEAUTIFUL™ can be found at Lucky Scent or at any of these stores.