By will-buy
Even a high level total beauty obsessive, the name Lauren Bowker and her company, The Unseen, may not be in your radar – yet.
But then there was a time when nobody knew who Estée Lauder was and when you hadn't heard about The Ordinary.
And 36-year-old Lauren and her revolutionary new eye product, which launches today, is easily the most exciting beauty news in ages – it's makeup that can change colour under your phone's camera light.
'The Unseen began out of curiosity,' says Lauren, explaining how her 'dual-reality' makeup, Spectra, came into being. 'When I had been at university [studying textiles at Manchester] I developed a compound that changed colour, from yellow to black, in reaction to polluting of the environment.
'I thought it would help people understand an abstract concept and that – having the ability to visualise unseen things through colour, materials science and style – is where the name and the idea came from.'
After leaving Manchester, Lauren did a master's in the Royal College of Art however it would be a postgraduate project in the Royal Academy of Engineering that inspired her to setup her very own company.
'I was working on researching how humans would reside in the future and predicting what materials may help with this,' she says. 'I found it really frustrating that it was just research and not an application of potential solutions so I chose to try to bring these kinds of “smart” materials to life.'
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Early projects included sculptures that changed colour according to air friction – an offshoot of an aerodynamics project with a F1 team – and a collaboration with Swarovski that used 4,000 crystals on a skull cap that changed colour based on brain activity. However, it had been 4 years ago that Lauren dipped her toe – or rather her hair – into beauty.
She'd been inspired to develop something which would promote science to women. The end result was Fire, the earth's first colour-changing hair dye – think retro Global Hypercolour T-shirts but much, much cooler.
'I had really long hair at that time and was forever within the lab accidentally getting colours on me,' she says. 'I've also always had a desire for the occult and there is a great film known as the Craft where among the actresses changes the color of her hair just by stroking her hands across it. It was science fiction however i knew it had been achievable.
Fire debuted at London Fashion Week in 2023 and, inside a week, a video showing hair changing from black to red have been viewed more than 80 million times. Lauren's company, The Unseen, has since partnered with Schwarzkopf Professional and, after pandemic-related hold-ups, plans to launch Fire the coming year in 48 countries. Meanwhile, it's launching the aforementioned Spectra.
'The technology originates from those road signs that glow when you shine light on them,' says Lauren, 'but it had been inspired with a gig not too long ago where it felt like every person there was viewing the world through a phone. I wanted to produce something that exists physically in your face but you can only see using a digital screen.'
Available in black and a barely-there silver grey, both colours transform under a phone camera's flash or perhaps a torch to reveal reflected silver. This – and then year's Fire launch – is just the beginning.
'I suppose with Spectra, we'll have extensions of that technology, be it about shades or kinds of products,' says Lauren.' So if you're launching a colour-changing product which is protected for hair, why shouldn't it be safe for skin too?
'Beyond that, there is the huge potential that using a reflective particle has. It's a new form of colour and I think that might have implications based on how we create colour cosmetics in the future.
'I dream that we can get to the point where a single foundation can autocorrect to any skin tone or any environment. It won't happen tomorrow but I think it's definitely possible.'
Does Spectra really work? We tried it out to live in:
Spectra's recycled aluminium tubes are reminiscent of paint tubes but at lb33 for 5ml this is extremely pricey paint.
In relation to cost, it's on the par with cream shadows from Tom Ford – but heaps more thrilling. I squeeze a tiny bit of the black on to the back of my hand and use an excellent brush to use it as eye liner under my attention before utilizing a finger to daub the lid.
The finish is a solid matte black. I do exactly the same using the grey – it feels more slippery, and genuinely looks barely there.
To test them out . I stand it front of a mirror in a dark bathroom with a torch. It requires a little bit of experimenting with angles however i obtain a peek at the sort of fuzzy 3D silver the thing is reflected from road signs.
Using a phone with a flash is much more successful, with pictures showing both the grey and black as dramatic swathes of silver.
Both stay until removed with the cleanser It's my job to use to take off waterproof mascara. This really is makeup – but not as we know it.
