Shiseido Develops New Cosmetics Container with Free-Standing Spatula Holder, Achieving High Usability and Good Design

Shiseido Company, Limited ("Shiseido") has developed a cosmetics container with a free-standing spatula holder by applying a new structural design that achieves a high level of usability as a container, such as an easy-to-hold body and an easy-to-open lid, as well as design features specific to cosmetics packaging.
Generally, in designing of cosmetics containers, it is important to realize the design features that embody the brand's worldview and sense of luxury and also meet consumers' psychological satisfaction. At the same time, the container must not only fulfill its basic function of storing the contents reliably, but also provide advanced features such as the easy-to-hold body and easy-to-open lid. As one of the features, a cosmetics spatula can give a sense of value-added quality and cleanliness to a product, however, in many cases, the container has no place to store it after use. In addition, there are many restrictions including container size and lid shape, etc. on creating a container that allows the spatula to be stored cleanly and independently, leaving many technical challenges to tackle in order to design a container with a free-standing spatula holder that balances design and usability at a high level (Figure 1, left and right). In this project, by applying a newly developed "built-in rotation control mechanism" to the existing lid, we succeeded in developing a container with good design and the advanced feature of a free-standing spatula holder, which can seal and store the contents in the same way as the existing containers, without the tip of the spatula coming into contact with the inner surface of the lid (Figure 1, middle). The new container will be used for BENEFIQUE LUXE Rebloom Night Cream, which is to be released on September 21, 2022.
The research was conducted based on the Functionality/Japan Quality approach of our R＆D philosophy "DYNAMIC HARMONY", aiming to achieve a high level of functionality and design that satisfies consumers' emotional values. We will continue to provide every user with the best cosmetic experience from various perspectives.