Intentionally ugly nail polish taunts beauty ideals

US – Seeking to challenge conventional beauty ideals, jewellery brand J Hannah is launching a drab olive-brown nail varnish. The shade, known as Compost, has been named the world’s ‘ugliest colour’ by market researchers.

By presenting this colour as a covetable nail polish, J Hannah takes an anti-aspirational stance to beauty and personal appearance. This non-traditional nail varnish and its associated messaging in turn encourages customers to rethink the ideals around colour trends they’ve previously bought into. ‘Compost is a statement in the nuanced line between the revolting and the luxurious, between the hideous and the refined,’ says the brand. ‘A reminder to not flatten beauty's complexity into a single note.’

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