For the latest feature in our Beauty Guru series, Geoffrey Rodriguez lets us in on the latest collaborations in the cosmetics world.

The world of design has long intermingled with fashion and beauty, but lately the cosmetics industry has seen some interesting and unexpected design collaborations. From prestige fragrances to lingerie as well as a few things in between, the following companies have taken great strides to demonstrate the power and influence of beauty with some very useful products.

Kenzo
Recently unveiled at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of Ron Arad’s design retrospective, Kenzo’s new Unidentified Fragrance Object, or U.F.O., has taken fragrance to a new level of design. Kenzo has always created unique bottles for its fragrances, but for U.F.O. the company commissioned Arad to design a bottle that would exceed traditional standards of packaging aesthetics. The result is an exquisitely tactile, hand-polished bottle made entirely of the metal alloy Zamac and is the perfect vehicle for Aurelien Guichard’s latest fragrance. The famed “nose” drew upon boyhood memories of his sculptor mother and the unique scent of marble powder on a woman’s skin. Guichard combined four raw ingredients: the floral notes of orange blossom and Bulgarian rose add femininity, Frankinsence intensifies the mineral character and vanilla evokes sensuality. The combination makes for an amazing fragrance that breaks through the traditional olfactory pyramid of top, heart and base notes.

OPI
OPI is known for its vast selection of desirable and durable shades of nail varnish as well as signature treatments, but the company has started to branch out with collaborations beyond the nail salon. A recent and slightly unexpected project with Dell Computers includes a collection of 26 exclusive and delightful OPI nail shades for the Dell Mini, Inspiron and Studio Laptops. The company has also launched Nicole by OPI, a lower priced line that is available at several national retailers. It has just launched the very cleverly designed Nics Sticks nail varnish in a fantastic and ultra-convenient portable pen that’s available in more than 30 shades. Great looking nails have certainly never been more convenient.

Sliminizer
The Color Match System by Sliminizer is the first line of shape-wear to utilize the same color-based system developed to create shades of foundation in the cosmetics industry. Sliminizer creator and founder Kate Liegey—who has designed intimate apparel for Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Nicole Miller—saw that there was a huge void in the rapidly growing shape-wear market. With black, white and nude as the only available shades, Liegey decided to craft a more suitable, personalized range. Sliminizer offers a variety of essential shape-wear styles in ten natural, complimentary skin-tone shades that are suitable for all ethnicities and at incredibly affordable prices.

—Geoffrey Rodriguez

Editor’s Note: Geoffrey Rodriguez is a celebrity make-up artist and is not paid to endorse any of the aforementioned products. All products mentioned are done so objectively and are thoroughly tried and or used by Rodriguez.