As I mentioned in the Curator's Corner on Saturday, I was flabbergasted to see this brand had slipped through my curating radar. All of the packaging design for Laqa & Co., a line that features nail polish in pen form, is created by up and coming artists. And each one gets part of the profit from every item sold. As I noted in a comment at Lovely Package, we've seen makeup companies collaborate with artists for a limited-edition collection (or in the case of Shu Uemura, even start their own award for burgeoning artists), but not for permanent lines. What's even cooler about the products is that you can actually buy the art to hang on your wall. Genius!
Laqa & Co. introduced their nail polish pens a few years ago, but has recently come out with lip pencils. We'll start with those.
Bossyboots by Liam Brazier:
Fairyblood by Hazel Nicholls:
Lambchop (no artist was given for this one):
Ring of Fire by Field:
Wolfman by Mark Mawson:
But the items I'm most excited about are the nail polish pens, since the website provided big pics of the designs that appears on each (although some only showed a partial image of the them – for those I included a smaller size of the full image.) Here they are in alphabetical order.
Bells and Whistles by Pomme Chan:
Birthday Suit by Amy Ross:
BMX Bandit by FOE:
Fancypants by Cindy Rodrigiez:
I Want a Pony by Hazel Nicholls:
This is one of the ones that got cut off – as you can see, the full image is actually a nesting doll!
Nookie by James Roper:
Pimpin' by Katie Kirk:
Squid Ink by Carol Del Angel:
Those Meddling Kids by Soo Lee:
Toff by Tatiana Plakhova:
Topcoat by Martin Sati:
I loved this print because of the skulls, but adored it even more after seeing the entire image (sad subject matter aside – it's supposed to represent Bambi's mother):
WTF by Géraldine Georges:
Here's the full image:
You can read a little blurb about each of the artists at the Laqa website. There are also a few nail polish pens that aren't at the website currently – I do hope they're not discontinued!
Blurple by Nazario Graziano:
Tigerblood by Paul Price:
Ahem, I think these would make a very nice gift for a certain curator. ;) Because, you see, I clearly need ALL of them. I dare say these are the ultimate, literal embodiment of the museum's mission – to look at cosmetics design and packaging as art.
What do you think? Do you have a favorite?
(all images from laqaandco.com and b-glowing.com)