This week I’ve been listening to a lot about Charles Dickens on Radio Four and the more I hear about him the less I like the man. He could write a great story but his behaviour towards his wife (he kicked her out after 26 years of happy married life and banned her from seeing their children) and his moan-y mid life crisis has put me right off reading him.
I accept that his 200th birthday requires noting, but rather than reading, I will be celebrating by painting my nails with Strangebeautiful’s Dickensian collection of gothic coloured nail polishes. Oh these are a beautiful set of colours, at first it looks like the collection comprises 10 shades of black, but on closer inspection, the differences appear; coal-y black, nightshade-violet and shadow grey. There are ten colours presumably so you can paint each nail a different hue, should you wish.
When I researched the Strangebeautiful company, it did me no good whatsoever. A bit like a Dickens victim, I found myself drawn into a world of colour and lustful wanting I could hardly control and which will only end in tears and ruin. It seems that there are a number of different sets of ten, officially titled Colour Volumes, from the Library of Colour, all as lovely as the Dickensian one. The Colour Volume 4 set shades are inspired by taxidermy! Did they see us coming? Here’s what the designer Jane Schub was inspired by for Colour Volume 3,
“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 Redrope 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.’
It’s not what you normally see on the back of a bottle of Boots No7 is it?
The Dickensian collection is available from Liberty in the UK, I think it’s around £50, but the full range of Colour Volumes are available from Lucky Scent a US website that does ship (although it’s pricey). Check out the Strangebeautiful website for more stockists.
UPDATE! Jane has just been in touch, to say that this weekend, the Saatchi gallery will be launching a celebration of Jane’s Strangebeautiful brand, at Scoop International fashion show, 12th -14th February, in Gallery 10. See you there!
OMG! They are beautiful! Shame my nails aren’t!
Z xx