Bious: Special Solutions for E-commerce

Bious packaging video:

Sustainability Results:

Box:

Everything is recyclable
Cardboard: 70-85% recycled
Inner (grey colour) 100% recycled PCW, CO2-neutral (tree replanting program)
Outer sticker 100% recycled
No plastic lamination is used
Having one box instead of two saves a lot of materials

Bottle:

Instruction how to disassemble different parts for correct waste sorting

Mailer (for especially for long shipping trips):

Envelope with padded pocket made from 100% recycled paper

Financial benefits:

By having one box instead of two (usually same category products are packed into a beautiful cardboard box which is placed into larger corrugated box for shipment).

Partners:

Project: Bious Special Solutions for E-commerce
Client: Bious Labs
Design solution: Critical

Briefly

Bious Labs takes the science of skincare seriously. That is because their founders are real scientists with PhD degrees in chemistry and technology. They created their own brand with a vision to drive the worldwide research and innovation in natural skincare products and cosmeceuticals. Since ingredients are natural the same strategy needed to be applied to packaging as well. The box and the envelope has been carefully designed to make everything recyclable and maximise the use of recycled materials. These products are designed to arrive at the consumer’s home, so they must withstand the shipping journey. But we didn’t go the simplest way – by creating a standard package for a retail shelf and putting it in a standard corrugated cardboard box. We developed cost-effective, sustainable, luxury packaging which educates customers on how to sort it for recycling. Bious packaging combines luxury exclusivity with sustainable minimalism.

Context / Problem

During the pandemic Bious Labs decided to launch premium skincare products especially for e-commerce channels. Thus it became obvious that regular solutions when we have cosmetic containers packed into nice-looking expensive fragile retail cardboard boxes wrapped into plastic bubble wrap for protection and then packed into corrugated boxes for shipment doesn’t satisfy us or our future clients. It’s expensive, not sustainable and provides a tragic customer experience.

Opportunity

Our packaging development goal was to achieve a win-win-win (cheap, sustainable and customer-friendly) situation and still let the design agency communicate that this premium product is luxury with no doubt.

Solutions

We have created a unique corrugated cardboard box that serves for shipping, but when opened, it has a unique layer of material inside. So instead of two packs, we have one, it’s even stronger and more unique than using two. Inside (grey colour), we find Guarro Casas, a Greenluxe material that is 100% made from PCW (waste paper already used by consumers). It is also CO2-neutral, which is achieved through the company’s own tree replanting program.

We haven’t forgotten the details – inner product holder is made from Mondi’s corrugated cardboard is 70-85% recycled, we don’t use plastic laminate for the extra protective layer, and the outer sticker UPM Raflatac Redata, which closes the package and at the same time communicates product information, is also made from recycled material. Everything is made from paper so there would be no need to rip everything into different parts and sorting will be really easy. Also, all materials have certificates of sustainable forestry.

For especially for long shipping trips we put this box into mailer which is made from 100% recycled paper.

Customer Education

A sustainable solution can be almost worthless if we let our customer throw everything in the general waste bin. For this reason, on the box itself we have placed a simple instruction that not only tells you that you need to sort the main packaging with paper waste but also teaches how to disassemble the cosmetic bottle and divide its parts correctly into glass and plastic waste containers.