Featured image for Uni Wants To Save The Ocean With Beautiful, Refillable Packaging

Uni Wants To Save The Ocean With Beautiful, Refillable Packaging

by Rudy Sanchez on 02/24/2022 | 2 Minute Read

The ocean is a delicate ecosystem, with some regions, like coral reefs, especially susceptible to the pollution of modern life. Skin and beauty products are especially damaging, a one-two combination of harmful chemicals in their formulations and plastic packaging.

Alexandra Keating understood from first-hand experience how important it is to do better when it comes to beauty products. As an Australian, she’d visit the Great Barrier Reef, a witness to the delicate nature of these ecosystems. Motivated to reduce the impact of beauty products on marine environments, Keating founded Uni, a refillable personal care line. Luckily for Uni, they recently launched with $4 million in seed funding from Ashton Kutcher’s sustainable-focused SOUNDWaves investment vehicle.

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Keating enlisted the services of designer Marc Atlan to create sleek and bold packaging for Uni. Colors in the packaging system—blues, greens, and bright orange—find inspiration in the ocean. Even the brand name is an obvious reference to sea urchins, and the closed-loop line includes body serum, body wash, hand wash, shampoo, and conditioner, with refills in aluminum packaging. 

The aluminum refills, which can be recycled or sent back to Uni for refilling, are inserted into a dispenser reminiscent of Apple's signature designs. Uni dispensers are a bright white with a section scooped out underneath the nozzle, lending both form and function. The technology behind dispensing appears to be straightforward. The refill bottles and dispensers mate via a threaded connection, and the pump gets fed via a tube that goes into the refill bottle.

Editorial photograph

“Uni was designed to eradicate future production of toxins and plastic waste that enter the ocean through our products,” Keating said in a press release. “That meant looking at every aspect from upcycled ingredients to a new innovative system of reuse. But for Uni to make an impact, we had to make a product that people wanted, and it was clear to me that the opportunity was in performance-based products and innovative design.”

Starter kits and refills are available now directly from weareuni.com.