Anselm Reyle for Dior Eyeshadow Palette

Contemporary German artist Anselm Reyle, who lives and works in Berlin, collaborated with Dior at to create a collection of five limited-edition Reyle-inspired shades of Dior Vernis and this limited-edition Anselm Reyle for Dior Eyeshadow Palette ($110).

The eye shadow and nail lacquers are part of a larger, limited-edition Anselm Reyle collaboration with Dior, which launched accessories last month at a Dior pop-up store, a component of Art Basel in Miami Beach a few weeks ago. The collection is exclusive to Saks Fifth Avenue. There is an Anselm Reyle for Dior window installation at the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York until next Wednesday, January 11.

Through a trade with a friend, I received the palette last week. While it offers smoky colors, it's characteristic of Anselm Reyle's work. Note: the pink reflected in the mirror with its lattice pattern is my T-shirt.

"For me, Reyle said, "it’s interesting to see how it [camouflage] has been adapted by the pop world from its military background and how it then looses the original meaning. It remains a kind of empty phrase. Usually the camouflage hides something, but here it’s the opposite - it is very visible because of the signal neon colors.” Indeed, the colors of the accessories in the collection are bright, dissonant neon colors.

Of course, he also told the New York Times, “As an artist, I have a fascination with dubious taste, so collaborating with Dior, a symbol of ‘good’ taste was exciting.” His bags, jewelry, and shoes could be described as the Un-Dior. I wonder why Dior chose to go with the camouflage patterns, rather than the stripes for which Reyle is equally well known. Perhaps my imprecise stripes pay homage to his stripes.

I swatched the shades in the eye palette relatively heavily using a sponge-tipped applicator, and my photos were taken in full sun. I stroked the applicator diagonally across all the shades in the palette for the swatch at the top of my arm. In the second swatch down, I applied the taupe-silver grey alone (the shade intrigued me), and in the bottom swatch, I applied the lavender alone.

There are many combinations we an create using the silver, taupe-grey, charcoal, lavender tones in the mix. The shades are actually much more wearable than I surmised in my first glance at the palette. Perhaps they are a little out of step with the current crop of spring makeup colors, but there's always fall!

The Anselm Reyle for Dior Eyeshadow Palette and Dior Vernis will be available at Saks Fifth Avenue and Dior.com this month. The collection launch date was set for tomorrow, January 9.

To see how Dior makeup artist Ricky Wilson drew inspiration from Reyle’s famous stripe painting series with a riotous amalgam of lip colors that go from fuchsia, to siren red and aubergine for a swirled, striped effect on artist and Facebook sensation Rina Dweck, click on this link at Saks Point of View. Rina Dweck, painter, makeup artist, and Facebook sensation, who is in the midst of Project Face, a self-imposed initiative to express herself in 365 self-portraits in the time span of one year, combines mixed media, extreme makeup artistry techniques, and performance art into her portraits. You can learn a bit more about Dior's collaboration with her at this additional Saks Point of View link.

Photos courtesy of Dior, the New York Times, and by Best Things in Beauty