World, meet Nicole. This new line of cutting edge polish colours not only looks good, but gives back to the community too. Nicole is also the name of OPI Products’ president George Schaeffer’s 12-year- old daughter, who happens to be the line’s “chairman of the board.” After a breathlessly short six- month planning period, OPI Products launched the new line at Gilda’s Club last July in New York City. Nicole polish will be on sale by the end of October. And with a variety of charity tie-ins and an aggressive marketing campaign, Nicole’s Colours. With a Conscience program is expected to bring in at least $400,000 for its designated recipients.

OPI recommends a salon retail price of $10 through salons. Designed for a younger market, Nicole colors appear to go after the Hard Candy and Urban Decay crowd; names like Pink.Dot.Com and Steel Wool are hip and unconventional. According to Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, vice president of OPI, the goal is to bring this market into the salons. “Shopping is no fun anymore; there’s too much out there,” she says. “In the salon you have such a captive audience; you can help and guide the client.” Each bottle comes in a drawstring pouch, which contains a silver token. The buyer inserts the token into the salon’s collection box. These tokens are sent to OPI and tallied for a final contribution at the end of the year. To start, OPI has donated $50,000 to Rock the Vote, Starbright Foundation, American Oceans Campaign, and Gilda’s Club.

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