For the baby boomers and late-generation millennials who are reading this story, they might recall that hydration has always been the cornerstone of Shiseido’s cosmetics when it comes to each step of the way. Skin and hair are perfectly primed when it is hydrated which makes Shiseido Professional’s SUBLIMIC Wonder Shield’s limited-edition design one fluid move.
Designed by famed calligrapher and type designer MIKITYPE (his works include t-shirt graphics for Comme des Garçons, installations for Cartier, and 3D typography for the Los Angeles City Hall), the bottle pays tribute to the element of water: the elixir of life that recharges as it refreshes.
The second limited edition designed by MIKITYPE, the artwork was designed “with the wish to express the dynamic beauty of water through 100 years and continuing on into the future.” which in turn, reflects the company’s name in a stroke of design genius (Shiseido means the virtue of the earth) and the promised efficacy of the product itself. One of the Japanese brand’s bestsellers worldwide, the SUBLIMIC Wonder Shield, is crystal clear about what it does.
Happy hair is strong hair and with strength, comes defences against the urban or the unorthodox things we put it through. At its simplest, the SUBLIMIC Wonder Shield can be thought of as a protective shield against heat, chlorine, humidity and environmental pollutants and at its most complicated, it pleasingly aids wet hair in drying quickly (twice fold, if one has access to a good hair dryer) to the silky-smooth finish that comes with the finesse of a salon blowout.
Continuing the support of Water Aid — an international NGO aiming to allow people everywhere in the globe access to clean water, toilets, and proper hygiene — each purchase of SUBLIMIC Wonder Shield will have a portion allocated to the NGO and the numbers of the product look promising.
26 countries will benefit from each sale, 2021 saw 1,700 people having access to clean water (the number is expected to go up, of course), and the size of the product itself will make a wonderful stocking stuffer: it measures a third of one from classic Christmas stores.