Imagine the tagline for a new paint company "Paint your walls with rock instead of plastic." If that doesn't pique your interest I don't know what would. Meet Maya Crowne and Price Latimer, the entrepreneurs who conceived of a safe, plastic free interior house paint made from natural materials with minerals for pigmentation. It's a fascinating story about two women who never dreamed they would become paint manufacturers one day trying to change the way the world paints, one can at a time.
Amy: Color is the foundation of great design. It can settle a building into its landscape. It can make an unattractive structural detail just disappear, and it can change your mood in a room instantly. Welcome to Let's Talk Color.
I'm Amy Krane, Architectural Color Consultant at Amy Krane Color. I'm a color expert and use color to transform spaces and products from the ordinary to the sublime. As a paint color specialist, realtor, and design writer, I've got my finger on the pulse of what's happening in the world of color. In each episode, I'll reveal best practices for choosing color by introducing you to Masters of Color for the Built World. So throw out those paint chips, taped to your walls, and let's get started.
Today, we're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to talk about a new product and the people who brought it to the market. When a company has a tagline, paint your walls with rock instead of plastic. It's got to pique your interest. It did mine.
Alkemis is a new premium all-natural interior paint from artist-quality crystalline pigments that promote both human wellness and environmental consciousness. Their 119 shades are mineral-based, making them non-toxic and zero VOC. The brand guarantees 20-plus years of fade-free light fast coverage, which is amazing. So let me introduce the two co-founders, Maya Crowne and Price Latimer.
Maya is the CEO. She has a professional background in finance. She considers herself a junior art collector and has also studied art.
Price is the CCO with a BFA from RISD. She recently went to Parsons for Interior Design. With a background as an artist and a curator, Price is also a designer. So welcome to both of you.
Price: Thanks for having us.
Amy: My pleasure. I hear the origin of the paint came out of a home painting project for you, Maya, during COVID.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Maya: Yeah, sure. So as you mentioned, Amy, just some quick background. My mom, when I was growing up, was a decorative painter and multidisciplinary artist. So like any teenager, I felt compelled to rebel and go into finance. But I found my way back into the art world about five years ago. I started collecting a little bit of art and spending a lot more time with materials. And I started taking classes at the New York Academy of Art.
And during the pandemic, the school closed down. So I really found my artistic practice as an active meditation. And so I was looking for a creative project to do inside of my home. And I thought maybe I'll try to repaint my apartment. So I went to a local hardware store. I was wearing my N95 mask, and I quickly started to smell that familiar paint smell fume. Obviously, I knew from art school when we were washing our brushes and handling certain types of products, we had to be really careful. And so I started to think, "Why is it that interior paint smells so bad?" And I went on Google when I got home. You know I realized that it would not be possible for me to purchase this paint and actually paint inside of my apartment because I live in 450 square feet. So I couldn't go anywhere. My neighbor certainly couldn't go anywhere. Everyone was concerned about being able to breathe at the time. And I just was like, "Why does paint smell so bad? Are we actually covering our walls with the same things that we're painting pictures with that I have to be really careful about disposing of?" And I realized 95% of paint that we use globally is acrylic latex-based, which by definition is plastic. And that was sort of shocking to me. You know I figured we've obviously been painting spaces long before the advent of plastic, and there had to be a different way.
So that was really how the idea of Alkemis started. I coincidentally met Price as well a couple months afterwards in 2020. And we really bonded over our shared love of art and aesthetics and environmentalism and spiritualism and wellness and all of it. I had no idea what Price did professionally other than just being extremely cool and interesting.
And so I mentioned to her this project that I was considering undertaking, and she was really surprised and thought it was a really great idea. And you know I had gone to her for advice just because I loved her taste. I knew it was really important for me as somebody that also considers myself a self-proclaimed aesthete, that any type of product that I would create would be not just healthy and good for the environment, but aesthetically beautiful, especially in the world of design. And I thought that maybe Price could help point me in the right direction. And I was incredibly flattered when I found out what she did professionally and that you know the timing had really been ideal for her to join me you know as my co-founder. And so I'll pause there and let her share her experience. But that's really how Alkemis started and came to be.
Amy: Amazing.
Price: So to Maya's point, Alkemis really brings together all of the things that I care about and that I'm passionate about. And it's really interesting to have had all these kind of diverse experiences in the art world and in the design world and to be able to bring all of that to the table to really shift the industry away from these deleterious practices that are harmful both to the environment as well as to human health and to hopefully really make a difference in this industry and also to really educate people about what's really going on.
Amy: I mean, you really just bit off a most enormous endeavor. It is remarkable, really, to think about two people from disparate walks of life who became friends, who were friends, new friends, let's say, who said, "Hey, there's something wrong with this. Do you want to fix it? Do you want to change it?" It's very courageous. It really is. I want to talk about the name for a sec. Alkemis. So you can correct me if I'm wrong. I read that it is the Swedish word for alchemy. Alchemy being the transformation of matter. This is the precursor. The science, as it were, that came before science, before modern chemistry. Why give it a Swedish name? I get alchemy. I get what you're saying there, but why give it a Swedish name?
Maya: Well, I mean, to be totally transparent, it had a bit to do with trademark law and a bit to do with also just the spelling of alchemy in the Swedish Scandinavian way is slightly more abridged and a little bit more unique, but it still has the same sound. So we thought it was really beautiful and modern and cool, and we're big fans of Scandinavian design in general, so....
Amy: So what was the learning curve like to launch it? I mean, there was a hell of a lot to learn, I would imagine. Manufacturing, paint science and sourcing materials, storage... I mean, even before you get to how do we distribute it and who's going to market it with us? What was the learning curve like to make it?
Maya: It was steep, you know of course. Although you know when you start to get into the true nature of paints, there are baselines where things are kind of broken out. And so really, the first step was we spoke to a ton of experts. We were not clear on what direction we really wanted to go in
early on. We did about three and a half, four years of R&D, but it started with a lot of exploration, particularly around natural pigments, sort of what we're doing within the fashion industry and seeing if there was opportunity to leverage organic natural pigments like turmeric or sweet pea flower or things of that nature that the textile industry is leveraging. And we spoke to experts in that space, and they kind of introduced us to more people and more people. Eventually, we hired a group of chemists to do a feasibility study for us. And that really gave us sort of a roadmap. And what was interesting, chemists are an interesting breed in the way that they view things. But what was clear was they were concerned about the lightfastness of organic pigments in being able to withstand various forms of daylight over time. And so that became a concern. You know even if a paint is absolutely healthy, if it fades over time, that could be problematic. And so that's really when we started to get interested in mineral technology. And if you look at really a lot of ancient paint-making practices, it's not hard to see some of these old traditional ancient formulas that were eventually overlayed with modern technology. Mineral paints and different types of stone-based paints are not very commonly used in the United States, but there are other parts of the world in which they use these sort of technologies. We have an incredible silent advisor that was the head of research and development for one of the largest paint companies here in the United States who really helped us figure out who to talk to.
And from there, that's really how we were able to start developing a formula and manufacturing capacity. You know once you have the raw steps, it's much easier to figure out how you are you going to make it.
Amy: Right. Right. What about sourcing your mineral ingredients? I did not research this, but I would imagine that they come from all over the world.
Do you think geopolitics will affect your ability down the road in terms of always being able to get your minerals?
Maya: Right now, actually, all of our raw materials are sourced within a 350 mile radius in order to keep our carbon footprint low. So.
Amy: Wow.
Maya: That is a very interesting question, though, that does keep me up at night. I mean, right now, you know where they are sourced from is not an area that is in conflict. In conflict from a geopolitical perspective, but it is certainly something that we are keeping a close eye on. I mean, we saw with the pandemic that shipping materials in general became problematic. And we know that we're in a very chaotic time right now.
So fingers crossed that nothing happens.
Amy: Yeah. Well said.
Price: And we are vertically integrated as well. So yeah. Under our cradle to cradle certification, you know everything from our manufacturing and production standards and perspectives are all assessed to make sure that we are up to speed with the most environmentally stringent standards in the world.
Amy: Great. So modern latex paint, which is really acrylic paint, is water-based using acrylic polymers, polyvinyl acetate, and pigments. And what I didn't know is that these paints, which you know even the low VOC ones, you certainly smell it when you paint. A couple of days later, it's lightened up. And then soon-ish after that, you don't smell your paint anymore, which is why I was very surprised to hear that conventional paint can off-gas for up to 10 years. That was really disappointing. I also read that the biggest contributor of microplastics in the ocean is paint. And that is just devastating that somehow paint is allowed to be dumped in our waterways. Paint uses over 90 million metric tons of petroleum a year, which obviously complicates our goal to get off of fossil fuels. So can you talk a little bit more, not getting into proprietary info, about what's in it, and how is it different? What are the attributes of it being like that?
Maya: Yeah. Well, I think you hit on the first aspect of that, which is the majority of conventional paints, 95% of them, are essentially plastic-based and derived from acrylic and latex. Our paint is fundamentally different in that it is mineral-based. The majority of the formula is actually derived from the minerals that make up the crust of the earth. And so they're constantly replenishing. And as a function of that, you know we also use 10 natural pigments, which are not rare and have been used since the dawn of time. Examples of that are hematite, which is a beautiful red iron oxide and geothite, which makes a variety of colors. And so often conventional paints are using synthetic pigments in addition to these milky plastic bases and binders. And so we always like to level set with people. You know I think you referenced this tagline, but would you rather paint with plastic or rock?
Of course, it was important that you know from a performance perspective, if we're going out there and saying, you know we have this product that is better for you and better for the environment, that it not only meets conventional paint standards, but ideally exceeds them. And so there are a lot of nuances about Alkemis as a mineral-based formula that are very intuitive if you just think about it. One is rock doesn't burn. You know you could light a rock on fire and it's never going to burn.
Price: As a function of that, our paint is Class A certified fire resistant. So for commercial buildings or commercial designers, architects, is that something that's generally very important and certainly something that they care about.
Maya: You know another thing you had alluded to is smell. I mean, one of the things that I think that customers inherently notice and you know we just did an installation for a beautiful design gallery here in New York. We work with a couple of them. It is the New York home of Jean Royer, the furniture designer from Paris. And it's called Maison Royer. And literally, the team painted the gallery like two weeks ago. And the creative director was telling me that everyone was stressed out and didn't want to be in the studio while they were painting because they were going to get a headache and they were going to get sick and they weren't going to be able to work and blah, blah, blah. Blah blah And the team's painting and nobody even noticed. And they were like, "What's going on?" you know and literally, they had their opening cocktail yesterday, and nobody would have ever guessed in a million years that the place had been painted just two days prior. Yeah. So you know these materials, you know they don't smell. They don't off gas because they're made of rock. Another really huge factor is the fact that they are inherently porous and vapor permeable.
So they naturally are high in alkaline and it makes mold and fungus and algae virtually impossible to grow because water doesn't condense on top like it would a plastic. You know we're essentially wrapping our walls with saran wrap. It actually absorbs into the porous layer of paint and then it dries out just as a rock would. And so you know those are just some of the high-level benefits. I mean, certainly another one is that these pigments never fade because they're made out of rock. And so we can guarantee double the lifetime performance of conventional paints if not longer. But you know just from a guarantee perspective, we say 20 years. And you know that has to do. Again, when I say all this stuff out loud to people, you know it is not terribly surprising because when you think about a rock, you're like, "Oh, yeah."
Amy: You know my favorite finish for almost every room in the house in other paint brands is matte. I don't really like shine. I mean, you know use a bit on trim and things like that, but I'm really into that very flat, suede-like texture. But a benefit of the technology, let's say, that went into making modern acrylic paints, matte paints, is that they are sold as washable or wipeable. So you get a smudge, you know you moved your furniture, you scuffed it, your kid put a hand on it, whatever. So yours is not plastic, and it is not like a film over the sheetrock, right? I would think it embeds to the wall in a different way. What can you say then about its wipeability and washability?
Price: So we're actually best-in-class as far as abrasion and scrub resistance goes. So class one across the board. So it's comparable to any of those, you know, the wipeability of any of these conventional paint brands, but without all of the toxins. And so, again, inherently, if you think about, it dries hard as a rock, it actually chemically bonds and fuses to the underlying substrate. So that bond is incredibly strong, incredibly durable. I'm living with the paint here in this office. And, you know, inevitably, somebody, you know, like you said, runs a suitcase along it, or any number of things. And it's so easy to clean. The main thing is to just be really mindful about what you clean it with. It's just like really gentle soap and water, sometimes just water, and a gentle sponge. Or try my art gallery hack that I learned many years ago, which is cheap vodka, which takes almost everything off.
Amy: No kidding?
Price: Yeah, it works, it works amazingly. You'll try it once, you'll try it next time and text me back and be like, "Oh my God, this is amazing." But yeah, as far as being comparable to those other brands where washability is a real selling factor, we're giving you that without all of these environmental toxins and chemicals that are deleterious to human health. Yes. Yeah. That's just some of the high-level benefits of how we're different, what we're made of, and why it's better for you and for the environment. We get this question all the time, well, do you offer semi gloss? Do you offer satin? Do you offer eggshell? So we really like to just reset and reframe people's perspective because once you start thinking about it, well, the reason why there are multiple sheens in conventional paints is the higher the sheen, the more plastic, the more resin. All of these particular ingredients that we are trying to avoid. So we offer the one matte velvet sheen, which is simultaneously matte and velvet, but it also has this really high luminosity due to the clear crystal quartz binder and the natural pigments. So Maya mentioned a little bit earlier, conventional paint is made with like a milky plastic binder injected with chemical colorants. So our binder is clear crystal quartz. So these all-natural pigments are actually embedded in a clear glass-like binder. So they're able to shine through with this unparalleled luminosity. And we get this comment all the time. Like, just in High Point, over the past weekend, everybody was like, I just can't get over how the paint changes and shifts with the light throughout the day. So this is really great, just beautiful and peoples are surprised about the way that it plays off the light.
Amy: That's really interesting. I really have to wrap my head around this because it almost sounds contradictory, but I get that it isn't. On one hand, matte, you know matte means not reflective, right? And yet you're talking about luminosity and reflectivity. So somehow, it's both. And I can't wait to see that. You know in terms of someone pulling a suitcase, inadvertently kicking the baseboard in their house the trim does get more scuffs. And so we've learned to accept and expect the higher shine in the trim because functionally, they put it there to help with that.
But aesthetically, that's what we've grown to accept as the way to paint. So it's interesting. It will be very interesting to and I hope that any consumers out there who want to try your paint, who buy your paint and fall in love with the paint and the color, also accept this new way of thinking about what to do with your trim. Because it seems from what you've said, you've solved the durability question because it's washable and it's hard as rock. But people have to accept the fact that there is no glossiness in their trim. So that should be very interesting.
Price: Yeah. And just to clarify, so we don't recommend it for large swaths of wood, wood paneling, doors, cabinetry. I mean, people do it all the time. But it's really the way that it adheres to wood, because of the way that wood fluctuates with humidity, expands and contracts, is just a little bit different than the way that our paint adheres to drywall, concrete, plaster, stucco, and brick. So anyway, well, we have a bunch of ideas about additional products to roll out down the road. So we do hope to release a trim/ cabinetry/ door-specific paint down the road.
But for now, it's fine for low traffic trim.
Amy: Right. Got it.
Maya: Just to clarify, which is really part of the unique benefit of Alkemis paint, you know if you look at research about mineral paints historically, that's always been one of their biggest setbacks is that they're not intended for pre-existing acrylic latex. They've been more intended for stone bases. And so that is something that is unique and proprietary to Alkemis, that it can go over pre-existing acrylic latex paint flawlessly, and you still get a lot of the same benefits that you would get from going over new construction.
Amy: Got it.
Price: The self-priming aspect is incredibly advantageous just from a time and money saving perspective. So for instance, we had a client in Brooklyn who had a bachelor pad that was painted, you know, floor to ceiling, black. And he wanted to sell it. And of course, the realtor was like, "Look, you need to paint this all white." He had a number of painting contractors come in, give him quotes, and they said, "Look, you're going to have to paint at least two coats of primer and a couple and likely a couple coats of white after that." We came in, we did two coats of Alkemis paint, no primer, and it went seamlessly from black to white, and looks fantastic. So the amount of time and money that you're saving, not only on materials, but on labor as well, is really significant.
Amy: Got it. Okay. Yeah. That's fantastic. So how is it sold? It's just online, right? You're not in any retail spaces and perhaps don't ever plan to be? You can tell me, but also answering that..... Sampling paint is so important when you are picking your colors. Many companies, not all of them, have the ability for me to send clients large paper samples. And I tell them to use that to narrow down. And then even after you've done that, if you want to be positive you love the color, get yourself a quart and put on two coats and check it out. So how are you selling it? And how are you helping consumers know that they like the color?
Maya: So, Amy, you're preaching our language over here because we offer a fan deck. We offer the 8 by 11 sample swatches for all of our colors, and we offer quarts. So we just recommend, as opposed to having to go to the store and get all overwhelmed. The best purchasing experience really is we also offer and we haven't put it on the website yet, but we will be. You know for a cost, we offer custom color consultation. You can speak with Price or one of our color experts. But generally speaking, you know purchase a fan deck, pick out the colors you like, buy the 8 by 11 swatches, and then we always recommend, particularly with rooms that get a lot of light, purchasing the court and testing it in situ to ensure that you like the way that it looks. We've had some funny conversations with people in Los Angeles. As an example, we just did this whole house where they were looking for this white, and you know their client had insisted on using Alkemis because they didn't want any plastic paint inside of their home. The designer had not heard of us before because we are a new company. And so she was like, "you know these whites, like they're really dynamic. You know LA has June gloom and lots of sunlight sometimes and blah, blah, blah. Blah blah. So I'm trying to figure out the right tone of the white."
And she must have tested every single one. Because as you know, a large part about how we experience color is really light refraction, right? And so the clear crystal quartz binder, as Price mentioned, allows for this dynamic component to the paint that's very, very subtle.
Amy: Great. I mean, I spend a lot of time explaining to people that color is reflected light. It literally is reflected light.
So the light changes during the day, your color will change. That's it. And you know people love the color on the side of the house, but not the front of the house. It's like, "Listen, cloudy days, sunny day, rainy day, summer, fall, winter. You're in the north, you're in the south." This is the nature of light, and we have to accept it, but also embrace it. I mean, it is dynamic. It's mutable. And that's what makes it alive, right? How are you marketing it? I mean, what are the different ways that you are getting your name out there? You've mentioned a couple of times different jobs people have used it on, different designers who have used it. How are people hearing about you?
Price: Yeah. So our marketing strategy is really twofold and I think, you know, kind of bifurcated into two separate segments, which are to the trades, so B2B, and then direct to consumer. So, you know, for the first year, we really spent a lot of time developing relationships.
I mean, Maya and I really hitting the pavement, going door-to-door, taking meetings with architects, designers, contractors, developers, and getting the message out there because there is so much of an educational component. And it's incredible how many esteemed designers, esteemed architects, you name it across the board, when we go in and we say, you know, all the paint we've been using is plastic. And they're like, hmm, I never thought about that. So to witness these aha moments in person is really incredible. And, you know, as soon as we can talk to people and they can hear what we're about, the, the response and the enthusiasm is, is, you know, has been overwhelmingly positive. So, you know, we have that, that part of the business that we're focusing on. And, and so part of that business, we like to say we sit within the Venn diagram of modern, clean, and aspirational, because we believe these are the things that we want in our homes, and we believe this is what other consumers want too.
So it's a bit of a trickle-down marketing effect. So when somebody sees one of their favorite designers, or, you know, one of their favorite design galleries, or, you know, so on and so forth, using our paint or hearing about it in the press, then that gets the message out to consumers. And then separately, we're also doing direct marketing to DIYers, to moms, to all of our other demographics, just in a pretty straightforward digital marketing and traditional marketing way. And I mean, we also have a really incredible PR team.
Amy: Great. That's great. Let's talk color, finally. So you have 119 colors. They're organized into four elemental collections, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. I know when you create a curated collection of colors, you have to be pretty ruthless when you make your final selection to keep the overall number down. Start by talking about what the vision was for the palette.
Was there an overaching idea for the whole palette? And then perhaps you can talk a little bit more on a granular level. But you know what was your vision for the colors?
Price: Yeah. I think originally, we had about the number in our head of about 75 to 100. But then when we went to actually develop the palette, so of course, I started with a much broader palette and developed all of these colors and went through different iterations and different versions of what qualifies as the entire palette and sent that to trusted people, designers, artists, architects, and got their feedback. I said, "Hey, do you think we need some more whites? Do we need more neutrals? Do we have enough blues? Do we have enough dark colors?" And so ultimately, just over time, and just really just old-school, like graphic design, taking the paint samples, laying everything out on an enormous table, and arranging them. Arranging them, like that one, that one works next to this one. That one doesn't quite work." And really figuring out that order and that flow and that relationship between all of the different colors. But I would say we started probably with about 200, maybe 250 colors. And then, you know, like anything, like we're going to do with this podcast and edit out our flubs and errors, and you being a color expert, the magic is in the editing, right? I think that's what creates this finished product that's really special. Having that critical eye to go in and say, you know what, this works, this doesn't work.
So we just whittled it down, whittled it down. And you know after internal feedback and external feedback with trusted sources, we really felt that we nailed this. And of course, we plan to release additional color collections over time. And a lot of what we're doing is custom curated palettes with different entities, whether that's interior designers, whether that's design galleries, whether that's Design Miami, where we're really proud to be the official paint sponsor. So that's another option that we offer, and it's really fun for us to do custom color development as well.
Amy: Price you were the main person developing the color line. Did you go to your chemists or your manufacturers or your people making the paintand did say, "you know here's a favorite sweater. Make this?" Or did you send them Swipe? You know, remember swipe? We used to tear magazines out back in the day, or digital swipe or whatever. I mean, how did you advise them where you wanted each color to be?
Price: Yeah. I mean, I think it's a combination of all of these things and you know starting off with color references, whether that was Pantone colors, or existing colors in nature.... I mean, I went to RISD for graphic design. I mean, I did very old-school color studies where you're taking an original, an initial shade, and you're adding..... Let's see what happens when we add one drop of white, two drops of white, three drops of white, four drops of white. Let's do the same when we add one drop of black, two drops of black. And really just formulating and pushing all of those colors in the different directions. And so it was really a combination of all of those different things to get kind of the initial base colors and then tweak them and push them in whatever direction and then edit them down. In addition to that, you know similarly, like when we work with artists, we're able to leverage color standards. Whether. We used a sweater. in fact, or something to that degree, or if we're actually mixing color using a different medium and sending that to our manufacturers who are then able to shoot that and determine whether or not that can fit into our mineral-based formulas is part of how we went about creating colors. And of course, there are parameters, too, because we're using 10 natural pigments. And you know there are certain colors that I wanted to create but you just can't get. And I mean, don't get me wrong, there are plenty, there are a plethora of countless colors that we're able to achieve. But, you know, fluorescent, anything that's really synthetic, that's very chemically composed are difficult to achieve.
And then it's interesting with mineral pigments, they don't behave the same way as a lot of other pigments. So you can look at, say, like a really bright red that we have, like our Cocolico. And then you can look at a really bright blue that we have, say our Lazarite. And you're like, OK, well, intuitively, I would think if I mix those two together, I'm going to get like a really bright royal purple.
Amy: Mud. Yeah, you get mud.
Maya: Amy knows. That's not what happens.
Price: Mud. Exactly. You know, you get mud. So you know, just playing around, there are limitations, but that's the beauty of any creative project, right, is parameters? And you work within those parameters. And so, yeah, again, there's no real concessions there, but just being mindful of what the capabilities are of these actual natural pigment. There are limitations. Yeah. There are limitations.
Amy: Got it. Okay. I went through the through the palette, and I'm going to tell you how I would describe it. So I would say it's very fashion-forward in terms of interiors. You've got some really modern, like what's happening right now colors in terms of ochre yellow, olive greens, and some browns, which is like really 2023, 2024 kind of colors. There's a beautiful selection of off-whites, which is really important because, let's face it, a lot of people buy it. You've got a lot of warm gray colors like taupes, mushrooms, things like that. A fair number of deep colors, a tiny handful of highly chromatic, saturated colors, which have limited use, but someone will need them for something. Here's what I don't think you have.
You don't have any near neutrals or complex neutrals like blue grays, green grays, and blue-green grays. Is that a conscious decision or a limitation of your pigments?
Price: I would say a little bit of both. And I would say that there are some of those colors waiting in the wings to ultimately be released at a later date. But I'd say a lot of times these mineral pigments tend to veer on the side of being a little warmer if that makes sense, just naturally. So, to your point, I think that's why things tilt a little bit towards one direction towards the warmer side of things. And so, you know, for the cool pigments, those are more limited using 10 natural pigments. Like, there are a smaller number of cool pigments, if that makes sense.
Amy: Sure. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. What kind of colors up to now are selling the most? And is it different in different parts of the country?
Price: Oh, great question. You want to take that one?
Maya: I noticed that when we first launched these deep reds, like we have a color called Hair of the Dog. It's more of like a brownish red that's really beautiful, really elegant, very sexy, was very popular. I was sort of surprised by that. I mean, we did a really beautiful installation with it. It has kind of like a masculine sort of undertone as well. And so that, I think, that was really popular last year, whereas I'm sort of noticing and I don't know why, but we have a really beautiful mauve-y pink. We have some of the most beautiful pink colors that I've ever seen. And we have one color called Baroque Floor Show that a lot of people love. It's not too girly or too feminine. It's really an elegant pink, but it would work well inside of a child's room, and it would work really well inside of any room, you know quite frankly. And so I think that it has a lot of utility.
And again, because of the natural tone of the natural pigments, it really has an elegance. Like I would say that about all of our colors. We have a really beautiful bright blue. We have two really beautiful bright blues, but Lazarite is like this royal blue that is made out of ultramarine that is just like the most gorgeous blue you've ever seen. We actually have an ad on Instagram right now with it.
And I tend to find that that is one of the colors that men and women mutually just love and are very drawn to. And then, of course, you know I mean, to your point, you know the colors that we sell a lot of are whites and our neutrals. Especially with the finish of Alkemis paint, even though they are white and neutral, they add that beautiful warmth and light reflective quality of being like inside of a stone building or like a plaster.
And so it really adds this elegance, even if it is a very common color like a white. It really adds an elegance to a space that's unique. I mean, to the point that I was making yesterday when I was at this toast for Maison Royer, the majority of the space was painted in a white, and they just loved it. They just thought it was so incredibly elegant the way that it reflected light. So Price, I don't know if there's anything that you've noticed as well, but that's sort of my high-level feedback on what's popular.
Price:Yeah. I mean, I think and it's interesting to kind of find out which whites people are gravitating towards. I would definitely say the trend right now is towards warmer whites as opposed to cooler whites, which, you know, there have been periods of time where everybody was going for either very neutral white or a much starker white. So you know we like this move towards something a little warmer. Our color Blanche Niege is one of our bestsellers, hands down. And yeah, I think as far as different places across the country, that's a great question. I don't think that we're really able to see any particular regional trends.
Amy: Did you want to evoke the look of a color, the emotion you might get from being in a room in that color? What was your approach to naming names?
Price: Yeah. I think all of the above. Some of them are literary references, geographical references, musical references, art references, you know, alchemical references. And I think, yeah, we really wanted to find a name that embodied the vibe of each color. And certainly, like Baroque floor show is a type of rose, for instance. It's a variety of rose. So it's a dusty rose color. So there is a correlation there. And yeah, I think a lot of the other ones, we tried to have fun with it first and foremost. And you know it's one of those things where you're like, I've got a perfect name for color. And then you go and you Google, and you're like, well, shit, somebody else already took that four times over. So it is a very interesting exercise in creativity, because you do have to push the boundaries, because a lot of color names have already been used.
So it forced us to put on our thinking caps and really explore outside of, outside of the English language. I mean, there are a lot of, there are a lot of color names that are words in different languages. I mean, across the board from Japanese to Norwegian to Spanish to French and Welsh, Irish, all sorts of things.
Amy: Wow. That is fun. Any interest in joining the hullabaloo this time of year to do a Color of the Year? Or are you going to not be part of that shenanigans?
Maya: We're not intending to be part of the shenanigans, not because we consider ourselves above it or anything like that, but simply because we just have a lot of work to do. Yeah. But we are doing a really fun activation with Design Miami. I'm not sure when this will air, but Design Miami is obviously the first week of December, along with Art Basel, the design fair that travels with it around the world. We did a custom palette for Design Miami in line with our curatorial theme. And for one of the colors we're going to open up to the World Wide Web and the massive audience to actually name the color. So that will be a really fun activation that we're looking forward to seeing how people respond to that. Because to your point, naming colors is really, really fun. And it was certainly a pleasure to be able to do. And then describing them is a whole other thing, which is really fun to do, so. Yeah. A different way of engagement this year instead of doing a color of the year. But we understand you know the color of the year can be a really exciting marketing initiative and, again, engagement technique to get people excited about these new color releases, which again, everyone's excited. Everyone's excited about new colors.
Amy: Absolutely. It touches something in all of us.
Price: Anyway, we like to say that we're a functional wellness brand that brings nature and design together to create healthier, more intentional interior spaces. And our mission statement is that together we can raise the vibration of our home planet by starting with our most intimate space, our four walls. So really being the change that we want to see in the world.
Amy: That's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you both. This has been really fun. Enlightening. And I'm going to pick some special room in my house.
I don't know which one, and I'm going to try the paint.
Maya: Oh, we'd be so honored.
Price: Thanks, Amy. It's been such a pleasure and honor.
Comments