The project's aim is to create a refillable loose cosmetic powder container. The container’s main aims are to be more environmentally friendly, less messy and easier to use than conventional loose cosmetic powder containers. The target user is a makeup enthusiast or an eco-conscious makeup artist who enjoys having high-quality, long-lasting tools and likes to keep their environment neat and tidy.
The global beauty industry creates over 120 billion units of packaging waste annually. My proposal for a new type of refillable cosmetic container can potentially reduce plastic waste by up to 70%, compared to single-use cosmetic containers.
Cosmetic powder containers store loose powder makeup products such as powder foundation, eye shadow, blush, highlight and setting and finishing powder. The project focuses on loose setting and finishing powder containers as that is the most popular makeup product that comes in loose powder form.
From research carried out through testing existing cosmetic containers, interviewing makeup users and professional makeup artists, and conducting a questionnaire with over 150 respondents, the following insights were gathered:
Existing cosmetic containers can be messy, difficult to control how much powder is dispensed, hard to store and lack portability.
The packaging in existing cosmetic containers can be excessive, as some loose powder products have so much packing that it weighs over ten times as much as the product inside.
So to improve upon existing cosmetic containers, this project aims to solve these issues.
The refillable pods may be manufactured by or alongside different makeup brands and products, so the user can choose what makeup products they would like to use in their refillable container. After use, the refillable powder pods can be recycled.
To use the container for the first time, the user needs to open the lid, insert the powder pod into the top, click it into place, close the lid and turn the base to easily control how much powder is dispersed onto the mesh layer. The slow-dispensing mechanism and mesh layer prevents the user from needing to awkwardly tip powder from the container into the lid, which is commonplace in existing containers and can be a messy and wasteful process. The user dips their application tool, which may be something like a makeup brush or a powder puff, onto the mesh layer and then applies the powder onto their face. The mesh layer prevents the user from picking up too much powder, so less powder is wasted, and the user can achieve a more flawless, less “cakey and overly-powdered” look. If the user wants to travel with the container and doesn’t want to carry around an additional application tool, there is a small powder puff in the lid, perfect for on-the-go application.
Once the user has finished powdering their face, they can twist the base of the cosmetic container to lower the powder away from the top to prevent it from spilling over, and to prevent this further, they can close the lid.
Although the container may seem very small, it can hold 35g of powder, which is typical for cosmetic containers.
The outer case is transparent so the user can see the powder pot refill inside. The packaging on the refill will say the name of the powder product inside, the brand and any other additional information.
The sides of the powder refill will be made from elastic latex, so it won’t wrinkle and trap powder in the creases when the refill is nearing emptiness. To prevent the elastic of the packaging from pushing the powder up into the mesh, the base of the refill will easily click onto the powder dispensing mechanism on the refillable container.
The base twists anti-clockwise to raise the powder to the top of the container. This is in line with other twist-up makeup products, such as lipstick bullets and contour sticks, so the average makeup user will already know which way to twist the base to use the powder.
The twistable section of the container is shaped in an anti-clockwise spiral to visually emphasise that twisting to the right is down and turning left is up.
The powderpuff lid has a handle made from fabric, so the user can slip a few fingers behind to apply powder easily. This handle can also be attached to a carabiner or hook for extra portability.
