Colour-changing makeup: What is Spectra and how does it work? – Metro.co.uk

It goes from black to silver under your phones camera light (Picture: Metro.co.uk/ Spectra)

Even if youre a total beauty obsessive, the name Lauren Bowker and her company, The Unseen, is probably not on your radar yet.

But then there was a time when nobody knew who Este Lauder was and when you hadnt heard of The Ordinary.

And 36-year-old Lauren and her revolutionary new eye product, which launches today, is the most exciting beauty news in ages its makeup that can change colour under your phones camera light.

The Unseen began out of curiosity, says Lauren, explaining how her dual-reality makeup, Spectra, came about. When I was at university [studying textiles at Manchester] I developed a compound that changed colour, from yellow to black, in response to air pollution.

I thought it would help people understand an abstract concept and that being able to visualise unseen things through colour, materials science and design is where the name and the idea came from.

After leaving Manchester, Lauren did a masters at the Royal College of Art but it was a postgraduate project at the Royal Academy of Engineering that inspired her to set up her own company.

I was working on researching how humans were going to live in the future and predicting what materials might help with that, she says. I found it really frustrating that it was just research and not an application of potential solutions so I decided to try to bring these sorts of smart materials to life.

Early projects included sculptures that changed colour according to air friction an offshoot of an aerodynamics project with a Formula One team and a collaboration with Swarovski that used 4,000 crystals on a skull cap that changed colour according to brain activity. However, it was four years ago that Lauren dipped her toe or rather her hair into beauty.

Shed been asked to come up with something that would promote science to women. The result was Fire, the worlds first colour-changing hair dye think retro Global Hypercolour T-shirts but much, much cooler.

I had really long hair at the time and was forever in the lab accidentally getting colours on me, she says. Ive also always had an interest in the occult and theres a great film called The Craft where one of the actresses changes the colour of her hair just by stroking her hands across it. It was science fiction but I knew it was achievable.

Fire debuted at London Fashion Week in 2017 and, within a week, a video showing hair changing from black to red had been viewed more than 80 million times. Laurens company, The Unseen, has since partnered with Schwarzkopf Professional and, after pandemic-related hold-ups, plans to launch Fire next year in 48 countries. In the meantime, its launching the aforementioned Spectra.

The technology comes from those road signs that glow when you shine light on them, says Lauren, but it was inspired by a gig a few years ago where it felt like every person there was viewing the world through a phone. I wanted to create something that exists physically on your face but you can only see via a digital screen.

Available in black and a barely-there silver grey, both colours transform under a phone cameras flash or a torch to reveal reflected silver. This and next years Fire launch is just the beginning.

I imagine that with Spectra, we will have extensions of that technology, whether its about shades or types of products, says Lauren. And if you are launching a colour-changing product that is safe for hair, why shouldnt it be safe for skin too?

Beyond that, theres the huge potential that working with a reflective particle has. Its a new form of colour and I think that might have implications for 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 wont happen tomorrow but I think its definitely possible.

Spectras recycled aluminium tubes are reminiscent of paint tubes but at 33 for 5ml this is very pricey paint.

In terms of cost, its on a par with cream shadows from Tom Ford but heaps more exciting. I squeeze a tiny bit of the black on to the back of my hand and use a fine brush to apply it as eye liner under my eye before using a finger to daub the lid.

The finish is a solid matte black. I do the same with the grey it feels more slippery, and genuinely looks barely there.

To test them out I stand in front of a mirror in a dark bathroom with a torch. It takes a bit of experimenting with angles but I get a glimpse of the sort of fuzzy 3D silver you see reflected from road signs.

Using a phone with a flash is more successful, with pictures showing both the grey and black as dramatic swathes of silver.

Both stay until removed with the cleanser I usually use to take off waterproof mascara. This is makeup but not as we know it.

Spectra, 33, is available from today exclusively at The Unseen Beauty

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Colour-changing makeup: What is Spectra and how does it work? - Metro.co.uk