The Unseen Beauty launches pioneering colour-changing hair product
Colour Alchemy is a new hair product that changes colour in response to temperature and light
Material science company The Unseen Beauty has just launched a colour-changing hair product. Colour Alchemy is available in five iridescent shades that morph into molten colours according to temperature and sunlight.
The product is suitable for even very dark hair, and the colour range for each is kaleidoscopic, with shades such as Borealis, which transforms from clover green to flame orange to imperial violet, and Phoenix, which transitions from burnt orange to pollen yellow to ultraviolet.
Colour Alchemy comes a year after the launch of The Unseen’s 'dual reality’ eyeshadow, which appears one way in photographs and another way in real life. This addition of hair 'make-up' to the company’s catalogue furthers its mission to innovate the way that the beauty industry utilises colour.
'I started The Unseen to create products that open new possibilities in beauty and transform how you see the world,’ says founder Lauren Bowker. 'I wanted to develop true innovations – exploring colour, playing with light and revealing a side of beauty or yourself that you’ve never seen before. We wanted to create a colour that was alive, that moved with you as you move through your world. Why does colour have to be static?’
For Bowker, Colour Alchemy is ‘the world’s first hair colour that is truly alive’, because it responds instantly to its surrounding environment, transforming along with you as you move through the world. The product was inspired by the phenomenon of structural colour that appears in beetles, peacocks, and butterflies. Simply put, their pearlescent appearance is a result of the way their coats reflect a certain wavelength of light.
Colour Alchemy mimics that phenomenon through a formula composed of thousands of micro prisms, which expand and shrink in relation to temperature, allowing them to reflect different wavelengths of light in a manner that has never before been seen in a hair product.
Following the debut of Colour Alchemy, Bowker promises there are more pioneering launches coming up.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
'We have a wealth of innovations to come and we are focused on dropping products that truly transform their sector. We will do this in time, when they are ready. We won’t conform to the boundaries of a usual beauty business model; instead, we see ourselves as a collaborative community creating a movement in beauty – bringing together people who like us have an insatiable curiosity to explore the world.’
INFORMATION
Mary Cleary is a writer based in London and New York. Previously beauty & grooming editor at Wallpaper*, she is now a contributing editor, alongside writing for various publications on all aspects of culture.
-
Christmas gift ideas for design lovers
Wallpaper* global design director Hugo Macdonald compiles his festive wish list – from Poltrona Frau's luxurious dog leads to Carl Aubock's wicker magazine wall rack
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
‘I want to push it forward’: Dries Van Noten’s new creative director is Julian Klausner
A member of the Dries Van Noten design team since 2018, Belgian designer Julian Klausner has been promoted to creative director after the namesake founder’s exit from his eponymous label earlier this year
By Jack Moss Published
-
Inside Dior’s ‘Gold House’ in Bangkok, a spectacular celebration of Thai art and craft
Daven Wu takes a trip to Bangkok to discover ‘Gold House’, a gilded new concept store from Dior which is rooted in both Parisian savoir-faire and artisanal Thai craft, featuring a café, gardens and showstopping gilded facade
By Daven Wu Published