I came across WASH WITH JOE Coffeemint Invigorating Bodywash by chance: I was browsing in a C.O. Bigelow store during an out-of-town trip, and a shelf of WASH WITH JOE bottles caught my eye and pulled me across the room, as if by magnetic force. When I covertly sniffed one of the bottles, I was instantly hooked on its fragrance and needed to purchase it immediately. Then I went for a cup of coffee across the street.
I later learned that WASH WITH JOE is the creation of graphic designer/beauty entrepreneur/coffee-drinker Jane Schub, who is the mind (and the eye) behind the Strange/Beautiful nail polishes that I’ve been admiring at Bergdorf Goodman for the past few months. Schub’s design background has provided her with ample sources of inspiration for those polish colors and this new body wash. JOE’s label was influenced by the work of industrial designer Raymond Loewy (who created some of the best-known corporate logos of the twentieth century), the Campbell’s Soup can as interpreted by Andy Warhol, and the movie Good Night and Good Luck (filmed in black-and-white, and set in the 1950s). It’s the visual equivalent of a double espresso: bold, direct, and sophisticated…