Better Beauty Box
Better Beauty Box
Design, branding, digital, and print
Create makeup that's
for you, by you.
The Beauty category is over saturated with brands that lack real natural ingredients and customization. Better Beauty Box answers consumers desire for more natural ingredients and the DIY content that has been popularized in the beauty community over the last couple of years. Our product was designed to uniquely give young adult and working professional users the DIY makeup kit experience while remaining all natural and vegan.
Problem
The Beauty category is over saturated with brands that lack real natural ingredients and customization.
Idea
Design a product that provides the creative play of a children’s makeup kit while throwing out the chemicals and plastic.
Goal
Develop a product and brand that makes beauty more creative, more customizable, and a lot more fun.
Role
Product design and photography in partnership with designer Colley Smith.
Lead brand designer, digital designer, and graphic designer.
Key Insight
The only DIY and creative makeup kits sold were marketed to kids and tweens, and other more natural beauty brands like glossier and milk did not provide any customization makeup options.
Category
Product design/brand design/digital design
Student Project.
Brief
My design partner, Colly Smith, and I were challenged with creating a natural DIY beauty kit that was both sustainable and reached a more mature audience. The brand would highlight creativity, fun, and experimentation while strictly using raw, natural pigments and oils. We would come up with the formulas, a branded manual, a beauty kit, and a web platform to complete our pitch for the Better Beauty Box brand.
Designing for DIY and Easy Storage
We first began with sending surveys to both DIY communities online and natural beauty bloggers to understand their needs and lifestyle. We also researched current beauty lines that were in either the DIY or "All natural" categories, conducted material research, and looked into the history of make up kits and DIY culture. After looking through the feedback and research collected, we recognized the opportunities in this market our new brand could reach.
Sketches & Prototypes
Keeping in mind our users need for easy storage, vegan and natural ingredients, and customization makeup we began testing recipes, sketching packaging ideas, and creating prototypes to test with users. Our initial sketches were inspired by Japanese kabuki kits, bento boxes, and jewelry boxes, sticking with only sustainable materials such as wood, cork, and e-flute. Initially we wanted to create a dramatic display to showcase the pigments.
User Feedback
From user feedback we found our early models that used mostly wood were an odd shape and quit bulky, making them heavy, less sustainable to ship, and unable to fit within our user’s makeup drawers or bathroom shelf space. We also tested the formulas and mixing techniques with users to see if our method for creating pigments was easy and understandable. We initially only included a spatula for mixing and scooping pigments, but through user testing found it necessary to also include silicone tip brush for easier mixing. At this point we also established that we needed a physical branded manual with all formula and mixing instructions to include in the kit. We decided to produce a physical manual rather than online content to give users the chance to write down their own customized formulas and make it easier for our users to follow along with formula instructions.
User testing is what pushed us away from the models seen above and towards our next iteration.
Compact Design
We came to the solution of a lighter, more modern, and easier to ship box after getting feedback that our past solution was too much like furniture. With this sketch model we made further design modifications so that all tools in our kits could easily be removed, as the cork was too tight fitting in this model. We also removed the band holding the boxes together, trading it in for a light cardboard shipping box to make storage and shipping easier in our final model.
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Final Design
Our beauty box is designed with portability and storage in mind. For those who often use their bathroom or desk to apply makeup, we have designed our kit to be easily stored away through its modular layers. Each box contains various tools to help you with your creations.
The first, houses your pigments and powders. In the larger bottles, we have natural powders including charcoal, beet root, cacao, arrowroot, and bentonite clay. These are used as the base in all of our recipes. Then, we have our pigments which are natural mineral variants. Everything is cosmetic grade. The second box houses all the tools you will need in stacked layers that are easy to remove and lay out to set up your work space.
An eco friendly product
6 of the tins come empty so that you can store your creations and take them to go. You can label your creations with removable stickers then wash and reuse the tin for another shade. Our box can be used every day, once a week, once a month, or every few months. The kits can be repacked and stored easily when not in use.
Our product is made entirely with cork, fluting, and recycled chipboard with little to no glue, making this product easy, affordable to manufacture and designed with sustainability in mind.
Manual
This book features recipes, ingredient info, and formulation techniques, which allows for our users to play, and create their own recipes. Click below for the full PDF version.
Designing Digital
We designed web and Instagram platforms for our brand to encourage the beauty community to engage with our brand and share their unique beauty formulas and looks. You can share your unique formulas, looks, or any questions about the better beauty box on our blog @betterbeautybox.com.
Our website is the best spot to get started on activating your DIY powers, and it even allows you to order refills of pigments or even add new ones to your box. We will also have an Instagram feed sharing our recipe ideas, quick videos, and looks from fans.
