The relationship between beauty brands and bloggers is getting even cozier.
Barielle has collaborated with Michelle Mismas, an accountant from Cleveland, on a fall nail polish collection named for her blog, All Lacquered Up.
Working with Barielle creative director Elle Gerstein, Mismas helped translate colors from the runway into lacquers that would resonate with her polish enthusiast fan base—a slate blue Reem Acra dress was the inspiration for the grayish blue Slate of Affairs, for example. For Ji Baek’s fall collection, the Rescue Beauty Lounge founder teamed up with the bloggers behind Scrangie on a purple with green shimmer, Polish Addict on a grayish dark green and All Lacquered Up on a deep purple.
“They really wanted something they can’t have,” says Baek. “It shows you what is missing in the market.” Lest the bloggers get carried away, Gerstein cautions that their power only goes so far. “The celebrity thing is much bigger,” she stresses.
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Perfume U
Sarah Horowitz-Thran is out to prove you don’t have to be an olfactory cryptologist to understand perfumery.
At her new 1,500-square-foot Southern California headquarters, the perfumer has carved out 300 square feet for a six- to eight-person classroom and a wooden blending bar with 100 oils housed in glass apothecary bottles. The school schedule is still being fleshed out, but classes will include Perfume through the Ages and Empowerment through Perfume.
At the blending bar, clients will be able to have a scent tailored to their tastes, and receive tutelage on notes and ingredients. Prices will start at $36 and top out at $200. The blending bar experience is reminiscent of Horowitz-Thran’s introduction to perfume 20 years ago at the store Essence on Boston’s Newbury Street.
“Essence owner Mark Enos said, ‘You’re unique, your fragrance should be,’” recalls Horowitz-Thran, “and I was hooked.” Someday, she hopes to hook others by spreading her blending bar and classroom concept to stores, hotels and other venues where would be scent converts gather.