Angela Spindler's Bare Cosmetics: A Fusion of Botany and Beauty

Depot Creative's Award-Winning Design Reflects Nature's Inner Workings

The Bare Cosmetics range was designed to add emotional equity and preciousness, communicate the source of origin, and deliver a premium positioning. The design solution reflects nature's inner workings in a very transparent and vivid way. This is captured through material usage, the frosted glass bottle, the leaf-shaped dropper, and the brilliant radiographic images.

The bottle is sandblasted clear glass with an injection-molded plastic applicator. The neck label is self-adhesive, printed in CMYK, plus two spot colors, hot foil stamped with an all-over satin varnish. The carton uses Heaven 42 for its high-white property, providing a pure background for the luminous images. Their depth and detail were achieved using stochastic screening. Hot foil stamping and a subtle satin all-over varnish provide the final touches.

The unique leaf-shaped dropper has a series of fine ridges at the bottom to ensure that when the dropper is removed, the serum will not rush into the hand but instead drop into the palm in a slow and controlled fashion. To enhance the unpacking experience, the carton employs clever internal mechanics allowing the bottle to rise when the box is opened.

The project was a fusion of classic skincare and traditional botanics. The design team explored and researched a number of material attributes and finishing techniques to develop a new category language for the dropper and create an ownable asset in the bottle. Inside, a slim bookmark-style card with box graphics, detailing the key botanicals and a quote from the radiograph artist.

The production of any project is a challenge and this project was no exception. The most challenging was managing the off-shore bottle production to ensure that the quality and consistency was met. This involved providing more detailed drawings, more prototypes, and more conversations!

The design was started in October 2014 and was completed in December 2015. The project task was to create a range of bespoke botanical facial serums, focusing on adding emotional equity and preciousness, communicating the source of origin, and delivering a premium positioning. The design solution is said to reflect nature's inner workings in a very transparent and vivid way. The agency captured this through their material usage, the frosted glass bottle, the leaf-shaped dropper, and the very luminous radiographic images.