THE UNSEEN has always been about blurring our known realities, science, innovation, and alchemy, since its inception as a material science and design studio in 2014. The future-facing founder, Lauren Bowker, brought together scientists, creatives, and designers to disrupt beauty as we know it. THE UNSEEN has pioneered cosmetics that bring to life hidden worlds and warp our perspective on the known – Bowker previously created Fire, a concept hair dye that changes colour according to temperature – and which saw THE UNSEEN go viral – and the colour-shifting Hathor collection for eyes, cheeks, lips, and skin.

Now, THE UNSEEN is debuting its first official direct-to-consumer beauty brand with another world first – a physical eye colour that transforms in the digital world by reacting to lights like that of a phone camera flash. SPECTRA Eye Colour transforms under bright reflective silver like that from a phone camera’s flash. Imagine if your eyeshadow could react in real time, an intelligent pigment that morphs into nebulous beauty looks, transforming in the metaverse that the world’s wider technologies continue to prod and poke at.

It feels creamy and light to the touch, but it’s highly pigmented – plus, it’s cruelty free and vegan, packaged up in a recyclable aluminium tube that’s sealed inside another beauty industry first, a biodegradable vacuum pouch. Swipe it across your eyes then point and shoot to see the pigments react fantastically.

Bowker shares that SPECTRA was born during the still, reflective period of lockdown, responding to a world that was rapidly blurring the boundaries between digital and physical realities to survive and evolve. “I have always explored realities  that exist beyond the senses,” she says. “During lockdown, like many of us, I questioned my own human reality whilst observing the digital physical boundaries upon us.” 

“Particle physics suggests that  human reality is made up of both light and particles,” she continues. “The behaviour of these particles inspired SPECTRA – a colour that uses light to cross the multiverse. What if in one reality, a colour is totally invisible, and in another, it’s the most visible colour in the universe?”

SPECTRA is available in two colours, the 4.10 Δ, a highly pigmented black, and the 8.08 Δ, a barely there silver grey. As the hyperreal campaign images show, the colour and aesthetic possibilities are thrillingly amorphous. Consider the future of beauty –and your face – a technicolour dual reality.

SPECTRA is exclusively available at theunseenbeauty.co.uk from today (October 21) in limited drops, priced at £33.