Rechargeable Personal Care Applicator

Distinctions

Discipline : Product

Categories : Home & Everyday / Consumer Goods Product : Grand Winner

Every day, a body care product is applied and then its packaging is thrown away. This repeated action is part of a system where more than 120 billion cosmetic packages are produced every year, mostly ending up in landfills. KIIMA was designed to address this issue by reconfiguring not the product, but the very system of consumption. Instead of adding new packaging, KIIMA separates the container from the content. The applicator becomes a durable object, while only the content is replaced through a refillable system applied to body care products (deodorant and lip balm). This principle transforms a linear produce-consume-dispose model into a retention system, where the main object is kept for several years. The design is based on a central constraint: to reduce material complexity while ensuring reliable mechanics over time. Each applicator is made from mono-material food-grade polypropylene, chosen for its resistance to repeated mechanical cycles, chemical stability, contact safety, and recyclability. This choice avoids multi-material assemblies, facilitating end-of-life circularity while ensuring the durability of the twist mechanism. The user experience was designed around ease of use and continuity of action. The side opening allows for intuitive and secure handling. Inside, a clip structures the refill, ensuring stability during application and guiding replacement at the end of the cycle. This system allows for almost complete product consumption by reintegrating the residue usually lost in conventional packaging directly onto the new refill. Thus, the design transforms a point of structural waste into continuity of use. Unlike traditional formats where packaging dictates the end of use, KIIMA reverses the logic: it is the consumable material that evolves, not the container. This architecture reduces losses related to inaccessible areas and standardizes a logic of reuse integrated from conception. On a usage scale, with approximately 80,000 active users consuming 6 to 8 deodorants and 2 to 4 balms per year, the system prevents between 8 and 12 disposable containers per person annually. This represents between 640,000 and 960,000 packages avoided since launch. These results are set in a context where only 9% of the world's plastic is recycled, highlighting the importance of structural rather than compensatory solutions. The project was entirely developed in-house by the KIIMA industrial design team, combining mechanical design, product engineering, and systemic thinking. Several iterations were necessary to balance ergonomics, robustness, and material simplicity. Innovations are protected by patents in North America, Europe, and Australia, covering the mechanism and architecture of the refill system.

The project in images