Pigments & Organics: Innovation in nail color

The indie beauty brand founder believes color innovation, shimmer, and wellness are not mutually exclusive and her collections of treatments, gel effect lacquers, and polishes are thoughtfully formulated for the modern marketplace.

Pigments​

A new report from Grand View research projects that the global pearlescent pigment market will reach $547.8m by 2022. The portion of that which will come from the cosmetics industry suggests the shimmer trend will continue.

DIY beauty enthusiasts have been mixing mineral eye shadows into clear polish for years to get interesting effects. In fact, it’s a go-to customization trick, as Cosmetics Design noted in this January article on nail care startup Rungh​.

While the resulting colors can be captivating, “loose mineral product in nail polish isn’t a sustainable formula,” ​Suzanne Roberta, founder of Adesse New York, tells Cosmetics Design.

The company’s nail color products are made with mineral pigments but using a more complex formula.

To get Adesse New York’s signature effect, the company uses exceptionally tiny mineral pigment particles and micas that are ground smaller than the pigments nail color is usually formulated with.

The “deep layers of organic pigments, light reflecting mica and minerals”​ in the Liquid Chrome collection, for instance, make for a very nuanced sort of interference color phenomenon.

The tiny pigment particles reflect light more dramatically than the conventionally larger particles of chromium oxide greens, titanium dioxide, carmine, ultramarine, bismuth oxychloride, aluminum powder used in nail color formulations.

Organics​

To meet growing consumer demand for a clean beauty nail care and nail color collections, Roberta drew on her product development experience in both the color cosmetics and skin care categories.

From the skin care side of things she chose to use organic extracts, like argan oil and shea oil in Adesse New York nail care. “Beyond that the formulas had to be cruelty free, vegan, 5 free, and toxic free,” ​Roberta tells Cosmetics Design.

“Nails are very porous,” ​she says. “What you put on them soaks into the body.”​

Destination beauty​

The fashionable identity of a brand or product portfolio underpins the product benefits and brand story. Plus, it gives consumers, if you will, a sense of place. 

Coty’s salon brand nail polish OPI launched a collection of colors last month with a New Orleans theme. The nail lacquers and gel colors are named for streets, events, and cultural happenings in that city.

And the New York City themed boutique fragrance brand Bond No.9, launched in 2003, creates perfumes that “[represent] a specific downtown, midtown, or uptown locale, or a city-wide sensibility,”​ according to the company site.

Next month, Bond No. 9 is launching a fragrance that’s as much about a specific Manhattan neighborhood as it is a lifestyle or special occasion scent​. Madison Avenue will be marketed at the world’s first shopping scent.

Adesse New York is putting its colors and collections on the map in New York City, too. With namesake colors like Gershwin, Broadhurst, and Ethyl Barrymore; landmark colors like Belvedere Castle, Grand Central, and Waldorf Astoria; as well as addresses and neighborhoods of note like 175 Fifth Avenue and SoHo Chic.

Roberta tells Cosmetics Design that the brand’s global expansion will see new collections, celebrating other cities, places, and themes. Though, New York will remain the hub of it all.