A skincare line that cares

Ellie Bianca is a social enterprise skincare company located in Calgary, Canada. The company is founded on three pillars: “Kind to Your Skin, Kind to the Earth, Kind to Women”.

The primary ingredient of Ellie Bianca’s products—certified organic shea oils and butters—is indeed skin nourishing, but it’s the ethical sourcing and production of the ingredients (sourced directly from women-run co-operatives across Africa) that meets her goals of kindness to the earth and women.

The company has been in a growth phase with an aim to increase distribution and sell in larger stores outside the province. But to do this, Ellie Bianca’s brand story needed to be clearer in the retail environment. Working with an existing logo and label design, we needed to build on the brand to create a package that could quickly convey the benefits of the product and the social impact of the company—while visually grabbing the attention of potential buyers.

We did this by tightening up her written story, which we applied to a beautiful high-impact design. In a cosmetics and skincare market that is largely understated and minimalistic, we went bold, luxurious and beautiful! And yet, we steered clear of the high-gloss look and featured a softly textured paper with a contrasting gold foil.

The inside of the box features an invitation to learn more about the Ellie Bianca story and carries the design of the outside of the box through to the inside.

Evelyne, the founder, was very clear on her desire to lighten her environmental footprint in this process. While working on the package design, we sourced paper from responsibly managed forests.

The results have been overwhelmingly positive, with increased sales and stores requesting more products be added to the Ellie Bianca offering. We continue to work on extending the product line’s packaging. And, if you’re interested, you can read about Ellie Bianca in the news.