Saint d’Ici is a botanical perfumery based in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2020, I worked with the owner to redesign their packaging to align better with the sustainable aspirations of the brand.

Overview:

The perfume industry is one of excess. Saint d’Ici as a natural perfume brand wanted to move in the opposite direction whilst still retaining a luxury customer experience. The main flacon needed to be crafted to reflect the spirit of this artisinal natural perfume brand, and hence ceramics were explored. The owner of Saint d’Ici wanted to source locally and to streamline production – minimising the production steps, the number of suppliers and the variety of packaging that she needed to store.

We seperated out the functional and the aesthetic. The functional is a standard amber bottle that serves as the refill and is easy to recycle and ship. The spray pump is a screw-on and since this is the hardest part to recylce, the customer can then reuse on their next refill. The aesthetic is the handmade ceramic flacon, which is something to be treasured and kept. The ceramic flacon is produced by industrial design graduate, Nicola Smith and her ceramic studio kilnhouse. It functions for both the parfum, the parfum d’ambiance, and it has a second life as a bud vase or pen/cil holder. The diecut cardboard box fits five different product types including hand sanitiser, discovery set, parfum d’ambiance, parfum and flacon.

Keywords: #IndustrialDesign, #NaturalPerfume

Outcomes:

• Aesthetic and functional design registrations of ceramic flacon in UK & EU
• Saint d’Ici perfumes are shipped internationally: https://www.saintdici.com/
• Saint d’Ici perfumes are retailed in Cape Town at Saint VII