Yiqing Huang

Shampoo is an essential part of our daily life, but it can be dangerous to the water system. Therefore, in order to save the water system and change the way people wash their hair, I decided to design a set of shampoo bars that are plastic-free and made of natural ingredients.

The brand is named H2O LAB. The goal of the brand is to make fresh cosmetics that have minimal damages to the water system and raise people’s awareness of water pollution.

This shampoo bar collection was inspired by the nature dye experiment with four different water samples from NYC: Gowanus Canal, Prospect Park lake, bottled water, and Newton Creek. Influenced by the pH, each water sample created a different color with red cabbage: purple (pH 5.5), blue (pH 6.5), turquoise (pH 7), and green (pH 8). The experiment visualized the pollution level of different water samples.

I created a cartoon character with each color to represent the water system of that location or source. For bottled water, I created a turquoise gummy bear to indicate the cleanness. For Prospect Park lake, I created a blue earthworm to show the natural environment. For Gowanus Canal and Newton Creek, I created a purple ghost and a green monster to imply the heavy pollution of these two sources. Thus, the products and packagings are more novel and intriguing for customers and can make them rethink the problem of water pollution. Moreover, All the packagings will be made of recycled paper and biodegradable materials. On the other side of the wrapping paper, there will be introduction about this collection, explaining how the colors came from and how they reflected the pollution levels of NYC water sources.