For my digital artefact I have created a skincare brand called ‘The Glow Code’. As i stated in my pitch, it has two main focuses. 1. The environment and 2. natural ingredients.

The reasons I have centered my brand around these issues is because I know that through personal experience and also from speaking to others, that finding skincare products that aren’t packaged in plastic and that are chemical free is really hard to find. 

I knew these issues were important, however i wanted to find out which issues were most important to the people in my target market, so I carried out an instagram poll which received the following results:

(these were the average answers for the following questions) 

1. How important is zero waste? 10/10 

2. How important is it to use natural ingredients on your skin?   8.5/10 

3. How important is affordability $ when it comes to buying skincare products? 5/10

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From here I knew what i needed to focus on in terms of ingredients and packaging, so about two weeks later I put another post up asking what peoples favourite skincare products were. These are the answers that I received:

I decided to create a facial toner and a body scrub which follows along the lines of all of the above responses.

By using sites like Pinterest, Instragam and blogs, I was able to come up with what ingredients and packaging I wanted to use for my prototypes. 

After conducting primary and secondary research, I came up with the following three prototypes for my skincare brand.

Prototype one: 

‘The Peach Passion Scrub’

A fruity blend of passion fruit, peach and coconut. 

For this scrub I used raw sugar, coconut oil and a mix of grounded passion fruit and peach lose leaf tea. 

I bought all of these ingredients from the organic health food store that I work at. All ingredients were bought in bulk, eliminating packaging and they are all organic, locally made and ethical. 

Prototype two:

‘The Citrus Got Real Scrub’

A sweet blend of home grown lemon, lime and mint. 

For this scrub I used a mix of white sugar, coconut oil, lemon, lime and mint. The sugar and coconut oil is from the same store, bought in bulk without packaging and is fully organic, locally made and ethical. The lemon, lime and mint is all hand picked from my garden at home, which is the most ideal way to source anything.

The packing for both of these scrubs are jars that I have washed and reused from my kitchen at home and the labels are hand made.

Prototype three:

‘The Habitual Toning Spray’

A hydrating facial mist that should become habit morning and night. 

The ingredients for this one is apple cider vinegar and witch hazel with a tiny bit of water. 

Unfortunately I couldn’t find witch hazel in bulk so I had to purchase in plastic from the chemist, however it is still a natural ingredient. The apple cider vinegar was bought in bulk from the organic store as well. 

The spray bottle I used for this product is glass however it includes a plastic nose and lid. I was thinking of using old Kombucha bottle which would have been more sustainable but I wanted this toner to be in spray form so I chose function over sustainability.

I used my retro label maker to create these labels as I wanted to give them a homemade look.

Once my prototypes were done I tested them on myself and also gave them to my friend to test. I gave her a small sample of each scrub and 3 different toners, each of which having different ratios of witch hazel and apple cider vinegar. After testing them over a couple of days, Heres what she said….

I also found the same results so I decided that when I enter the ‘making’ phase I will make the scrubs with more oil and I will add some loose leaf tea to garnish them. As for the toners, I will fill the rest of the bottles I have with the ratio that we both liked. 

For labelling, I designed a circular logo using a leaf that my friend designed for me. I then went to office works and bought A4 sticker paper and clear contact paper. Preferably I would like to use some sort of recycled paper or something biodegradable but due to reasons of time, money and needing them to be waterproof for the shower, I went with this option for now. This will again, be something I look into in the future.

I am happy with how my prototypes turned out and I will go into the ‘making’ stage taking on board the feedback I received.

Feature image by Vida Glow

Words by Erin Waugh