Richard Burbridge

“There’s really no logic,” says Peter Philips, Chanel’s creative director for makeup, explaining how he dreams up nail colors that regularly achieve mythic status before they even hit store counters. “I observe and listen to women, and then I follow my heart and my guts. It’s not a factory. I’m not a chicken that lays an egg. I just try to seduce women into discovering something they want. Because if they don’t like it, they won’t wear it.” Philips is obviously on to something, because Chanel’s nail polish sales have grown in the United States by 84 percent in the four years since he joined the brand.

His biggest success to date has been Particulière, an unusual greige hue that graced the fingertips of fashionable women the world over when it made its debut in 2010. “That color was a bit of an accident, actually,” Philips says. “It was a failed tryout for a purple taupe shade I had requested, but when I applied a swipe to my nail, I was blown away.”

Accidents aside, the chicest shades often spring from unlikely sources. Riva, a pale blue hue, came from an old cigarette lighter Philips found in a drawer. “It had changed color over time.” June, a new milky peach polish, was inspired by the handle of a plastic grocery bag Philips saved for two years, waiting for the right moment to use it.

Holiday, the vibrant citrus shade shown here (applied fastidiously by Chanel’s new nail guru Gina Viviano), had a similarly humble origin: an orange peel. “Obviously, I didn’t invent orange,” Philips says. “But I wanted to create a popping, intense orange — it couldn’t be pearly or opalescent. It wasn’t so easy.” After all, Philips is a perfectionist. And a purist. “Ornate or crazy manicures are impressive, but at the end of the day, I love the simplicity of a perfectly lacquered nail. It’s the ultimate accessory.”