Even the eternally alienated Joan Didion wrote of buying two straw hats, four bottles of nail enamel and “a toaster, on sale at Sears,” at the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu.

Recently, Revlon Inc. decided to concentrate on fewer, larger brands, among them Revlon, which began with nail enamel and expanded into products like lipstick, mascara, skin creams and hair color.

All of a sudden there was nail enamel in these strange colors.