While there are still brands like Aesop that put a lot of effort into the presentation of their products and shops, most contemporary drug stores and retailers specializing in personal care products have lost that old apothecary charm, giving into the conveniences of fluorescent lighting, cheap metal shelving, and plastic containers instead. But who’s to say that a space can’t recall those classic aesthetics while also feeling decidedly modern?

In the heart of Hong Kong, cosmetics pharmacy HARMAY takes the feel of an apothecary in a whole new direction. The company initially hired AIM Architecture to complete its flagship store in Shanghai in 2017, and this new brick and mortar location expands upon the first one’s streamlined metallic look.

HARMAY is primarily an e-commerce business, and it wanted its retail locations to feel like spaces that exist somewhere between the real world and cyberspace.

“Picture this: a bustling, winding, narrow Hong Kong street, packed with shops, restaurants, and food stalls,” says AIM Architecture. “Shutter gates open and close each storefront; inside, the shelves teem with packages and products. You almost don’t notice it. But still, a second glance — a perforated steel facade, LED lighting, an organized, almost austere unexpected interior, inviting you in from the outside… culturally, we are at an intersection. Consumers want convenience but crave experience. Online shopping will never lose its allure, but there’s a real challenge for brands to experiment with the dynamics of modern consumption.”

AIM took inspiration from old-school chemists for HARMAY’s Hong Kong apothecary, translating it into a mixture of old and new surfaces, with ancient bricks meeting concrete and mirrored steel all throughout. The point isn’t to come here looking for one specific product, getting in and out quickly. You can do that a lot more easily online. Instead, the architects want the space to encourage discovery, with customers opening drawers and examining bottles as if they might contain hidden treasures.

They call the new space “an elegant counterpoint” to the click-and-receive dynamic of online shopping, “designed for the curious and engaged consumer, and the casual passerby who walks in expecting one thing and finding the unexpected.”

“Walking up towards the second floor, space is left untouched, as found. It is rough and even raw to the senses, immersing you in the tactile experience of traditional shopping. Here, stainless steel mirrored cabinets are suspended from the ceiling, [while] reflective surfaces hide their existence. With their rubber insides and the found space, they engage in a powerful dialogue creating an intimacy with the products, placing them straight into the hands of our shoppers.”

“Hong Kong is notoriously cramped, but despite its smallness, the two floors are spatially connected through the omnipresent rough brick walls, concrete ceilings, and continuous floor, creating an unanticipated and spacious illusion. The stainless steel powder room echoes this. With its glass wall, guests might second guess its function, but then a well-placed curtain creates playful privacy, leaving just feet exposed.”

Ultimately, the space feels like a secret subterranean laboratory thanks to the textural stone and exposed brick, labyrinthine layout, and of course, all those mirrors. The illusion only breaks when you emerge into a room on the upper floor with a wide window overlooking the street, finding yourself at the same level as the branches of trees outside.

The post Minimalist Concrete Cosmetics Store Feels Like a Secret Laboratory first appeared on Dornob.

From Freelance to Fame

A native of Ukraine, Haggerty had always had a penchant for makeup, with her artistic talents always improving and her work gaining increasingly more notoriety. At the end of 2014, she moved to Los Angeles to play in the big leagues. As a freelancer, she landed impressive gigs on projects for Disney Style and COVERGIRL. In her free time in between jobs, she started trying out lip art ideas on herself.
Her Instagram posts garnered likes faster than she could post new art, and before long she had around 720,000 followers. With her work being recognized all over the world, Haggerty found herself in the middle of a bonafide makeup career. As Smashbox Cosmetics’ “lip editor in chief,” she not only consults on all their lip products and launches, but she also keeps pushing the envelope by creating one-of-a-kind pieces, many of which incorporates jewels, gems, and other tiny trinkets.

Mouthing Off

Haggerty’s creativity seems endless. Just last year, she created a $26,500 piece that the Guinness Book of World Records calls “The World’s Most Valuable Lip Art,” consisting of Smashbox’s own “Be Legendary” liquid lip formula and a whopping 6.5 carats-worth of gem designer Zoë Chicco’s diamonds.

Of this masterwork, Lori Taylor, Smashbox’s Global Pro Lead Artist, said: “Vlada’s artistry helped us take [Be Legendary] to the next level. The product[s] needed to be showcased in a way that not only reflects how they look on the lips, but also speaks to how they make the wearer feel once they are applied.”

Copycat Conundrum

Although it’s often said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, things don’t exactly work out that way when it comes to business. For instance, one of the most defining characteristics of Haggerty’s art is the “the drip,” a dramatic technique she taught herself that perfectly accentuates the textures and colors of the products she uses.
Not so surprisingly, “the drip” was inevitably poached — in this case by none other than cosmetic queen Kylie Jenner. The logo of Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics line was so close to Haggerty’s signature style that social media went into a frenzy. That outrage was further fueled by a later holiday collection campaign of Jenner’s, which also seemed to steal directly from Haggerty.

Soon, the issue was the hottest topic on most fashion and cosmetics websites. Haggerty herself revealed: “I was just so shocked, especially after I started seeing [the images] in all the magazines.” She declined to elaborate on the details that followed, saying only that “everything [had] been worked out.” Today, she sees the situation as a learning experience that reminds her how imperative it is to always legally protect one’s work.

The post Vlada Haggerty Gives A Lot of Lip – And The World Absolutely Loves It first appeared on Dornob.

Truly Personalized Skin Care

This groundbreaking concept, tentatively called Identité, would provide you with the all cosmetics you needed based on your diet, schedule, and upcoming travel destinations. AI would analyze the data you supplied via an accompanying smartphone app, picking out and shipping extremely personalized selections of beauty and skin care products to your door on a weekly basis.

The AI analysis is two-tiered. First, it creates a profile based on each user’s personal and business lifestyle, skin type, and environment. Next, it refines that profile based on user-supplied information regarding upcoming events.

Each weekly drop-off would consist entirely of eco-friendly, single-use products like strength-appropriate BB (blemish balm) cream and sunscreen. On top of that, these products would be chalk-full of omega-3 enhancements and anti-pollution antigens. By using only single-use modules, the company can put fewer preservatives in their products without worry.

How It Works

Seymourpowell has given the public three different scenarios to illustrate the Identité business model, the first of which involves a client set to vacation in Tulum, Mexico. Identité analyzes the hot, humid atmosphere and the typical activities of a beachfront getaway and, without human intervention, ships the customer sea salt hair gel, bronzer, aloe vera after-sun lotion, and, just for fun, some temporary tattoos.

When that person returns and schedules a business meeting in New York, Identité automatically shifts gears. It automatically ships them a long-lasting lipstick based on the client’s skin and hair tones, along with double-cleansing, charcoal-infused purification pads to clean away a day’s worth of urban grunge.

If a client is going to spend a weekend hiking or doing double-time at the gym, the Identité AI would probably prioritize supplements to boost energy and stamina.

Looking Forward

Although Identité is still an abstract concept, it’s based on actual research conducted through extensive interviews with beauty market experts and influencers around the world. These conversations revealed that consumers are relying on digital culture more than ever to research and purchase beauty products and health supplements. Besides websites, social media platforms like Reddit and Instagram seem to be popular sources for advice and information sharing.

In a recent interview, Seymourpowell director Mariel Brown explained that “There’s currently a lot of disruption within the beauty category and as a result, many nuanced and contradictory behaviors to unpack. Widespread connectivity is having a profound impact on people’s attitudes toward personal identity. We became curious as to how new technologies might combine with these new behaviors.”

Identité also concentrates on using more natural products and more unobjectionable packaging. Currently, the planned packaging is made of injection-molded, fully biodegradable fiber.

The post Seymourpowell’s New AI-Based Delivery Service Lets You Customize Your Skin Care Practices first appeared on Dornob.

What is red, green, orange, brown, gray and invisible all over? Liu Bolin is beyond a master of disguise, his carefully constructed camouflage clothing renders him completely unseen even in urban contexts. He’s best known for his “invisible men” photographs masterfully making use of body paints to render him (and others) nearly impossible to spot in their surroundings.

This artist has good reason to go invisible: the Chinese government has gone so far as to shut down his art studio in the past, making these photographs a form of protest as well as public artworks about displacement and hiding in plain site.

Some of his pieces carry an overtly political message, featuring him in front of famous landmarks, national flags or in the grips of military personnel or party officers. Others are more subtle in their meaning and open to interpretation.

From pants, shirts and boots to jackets, hats and faces, every inch of him and/or his subjects is painted in camouflage patterns. Whether standing in front of a shop, truck, wall, pile of rocks or combination of elements, they always disappear.

Still not convinced? How long did it take you to spot the man in the photograph above? No, this is not a trick – but it might take a few seconds to a minute for you to find him, camouflaged from head to toe and hiding very much in plain sight.

About Liu Bolin

“Better known as The Invisible Man in media circles. He discusses the social concerns of his home country through his artistic practice, most prominently through his ‘camouflage’ installations. Traversing mediums such as performance, photography, Liu Bolin dissects the tense relationship between the individual and society by ‘disappearing’ into environments which are sites of contention and criticism.”

“His ‘Hiding in the City’ series has been displayed in numerous museums and institutions across the globe. His artistic commitment began in the 1990s as China was recovering from the devastating effects of the Cultural Revolution, with its economic development on the upswing and the stabilization of its political situation. Liu’s photographs and sculptures have been exhibited in many museums and institutions worldwide. He has collaborated with prominent artists including Kenny Scharf, JR, Jon Bon Jovi, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Fernando Botero, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Annie Leibovitz.”

The post Photos of Invisible Men: How to Camouflage in 21 Contexts first appeared on Dornob.