For a Post-Plastic World: Unveiling the Active Principle Behind All Our Choices
March 24, 2024 · · One minute read
At this edition of Cosmoprof 2024, we've sown the seed of agricosmetica® everywhere the ground was fertile, shining a spotlight so that our sector too reflects on the future of the ecosystem. Immersed – yet distanced – in the world of cosmetic products, we chose to showcase what's dearest to us: our roots.
At the heart of Oway's identity is a conscious and constant desire to question ourselves.
This need sparked everything; from a sense of productive responsibility began many small yet significant revolutions that, in essence, haven't taken us far from where we've always drawn inspiration: the Earth.
Cosmoprof is an international fair, probably the most prestigious and well-known in the cosmetic sector. Each year it welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors, testing the capacity of Bologna (coincidentally the resourceful city where we live, innovate, and produce).
Among those wishing to display their interpretation of being producers, we stand out as unconventional, occasionally dissonant, disturbing, and provocative. After all, that's precisely why we're here: to demonstrate that the highest levels of quality in haircare and skincare can be offered to professionals – especially by reducing our environmental impact.
Exhibiting to tell our story: the experiential journey of our booths
To guide people into our world, words are not the only tool available.
And if it's true that Oway is a universe of communicating values that gain strength and coherence as soon as their actual concreteness is observed, what better way could we choose than to build a multisensory, immersive, and visually stimulating path?
Firstly, we designed the box. In the first case, a large mirrored structure, a wooden house as spacious as it is distant from the homogenization of the internal pavilions, reflecting Oway's message to the outside immediately.
For a post-plastic world, our choices for a world beyond plastic.
And then? Well, we filled our rooms with meaning, furnishing them with our values.
For the skincare universe, instead, an independent satellite from the hosting pavilion, a visual and olfactory wellness oasis filled with plants and aromas to transport people into our biodynamic elsewhere and our idea of conscious consumption.
In the frenzy of BolognaFiere, the calm and call of our Ortofficina
If we asked you which environment seems most counter-trend to the chaos of a fair, what would you answer? We thought that an agricultural field perched on the hills of Bologna, disturbed only by the sound of nature, would be the best break to dedicate to our visitors but, most importantly, the true first direct experience to enjoy to understand our agricosmetica.
From Ortofficina come our rich and concentrated plant extracts, cultivated using biodynamic methods. On its ground live our animals, contributing to the soil's health and fertility. There dominate the pure and natural fragrances of our essential oils, the only scent allowed in Oway formulas. Agricultural waste there transforms into a new resource for creating paper: our plants at the beginning of their second life.
All this made an appearance in the stand.
How? Through visual projections, viewers, material installations, and interactive corners where one could test their sense of smell by guessing the aromas contained in the vials.
From denunciation to solution: packaging according to Oway
The second step of our journey in the stand: the packaging room.
The realm of awareness of numbers, the awakening for those who operate in the professional cosmetic sector, but also the perfect scenery to photograph – and be photographed – in the company of our main allies.
Glass and aluminum: the ambassadors of the Oway project, the natural and infinitely recyclable materials that since 2013 we've used to make 100% of our containers avoiding plastic and reversing the polluting course of its passage
On one hand, the bottomless well of plastic presence in the environment, even more impressive when magnified on a global scale.
On the other, the boundless possibilities given by natural resources destined to biodegrade and return to their natural habitat.
Indeed, glass is born from silicon (sand for those less versed) and aluminum from bauxite (sedimentary rock). They do not pollute and – as if that weren't enough – protect the richness of our formulas with their inertness and resistance.
Have you ever consumed oil or wine from plastic bottles? Probably not, and the reason is simple: if naturalness is real, it must be preserved. Glass and aluminum are the key to doing so.
Last but not least: the recovery craftsmanship that closes the circle
Crossing the bridge of endless materials and passing the shaped threshold of our Artigiano manufacturing lab (Cosmoprof Edition), upcycling becomes the watchword again.
Here, the first impact is with the total recovery of Oway bottles that, for some reason, exit our packaging chain: whether due to aesthetic defects or small non-conformities that prevent their commercialization... in short, glass is a precious resource and, although recyclable, can also assume a new and greater utility.
At Artigiano, it is cut, ground, and transformed into Sorso, our amber glass. The neck resulting from manual processing is crushed into glass powder. From these fragments originates another design object, the soap dish Forma.
In front of them stood many other furnishings we make by hand: we conceive them to facilitate the work in the salon but also to enrich domestic and professional environments.
And finally, the contact with the material.
Inside the room, we challenged our visitors' tactile perception by inviting them to touch materials without seeing them, trying to recognize them.
Small memory drawers that have brought people closer to one of the five senses.
And that helped us convey to them the importance that Oway places on craftsmanship, recovery, the choice of natural materials like wood, glass, metal, and terracotta.
This concludes the journey through our values. Who knows, after the hustle and bustle of fleeting experiences, a deeper acquaintance might begin between us and those who share our same goals...
We hope so: for the sake of the planet and the benefit of the people who inhabit it.