ADF Innovation Awards Spotlight | Kao Salon Colour Wizard

April 3, 2024

In December 2023, our prestigious jury from brands including KAO, Beiersdorf, Unilever and many more came together to judge the ADF Innovation Awards. The finalists and winners were announced, recognised and applauded at Paris Packaging Week 2024.

Concept of the year

Please describe the concept you are entering. What does it do? What problem does it solve? Where are its potential applications?

The complexity in a typical hair salon is huge! Complicated working precedures, chemistry, wide spread product assortments provided by the hair care brands – who can handle this in the daily routine? Who would forgive the stylists a mistake under stress when the final hair style looks not as expected?

The Kao R&D team was requested to provide a convenient smart solution to reduce complexity, and risk of failure. A variety of hydrogen peroxide developer lotions like 2%, 3%, 6%, 9% and 12% can be mixed out of just 2 components – 3%, 12%. So the 1L bottle assortment would be reduced from >7 bottles.

Please describe how the product has been developed and explain why it is a significant innovation.

The beauty of the system is – it’s extremely simple!

It’s an interaction of a touch screen, a dispensing head with three different valves and a weight scale that responds as soon as the desired amount of product was dispensed. No pumps or any kind of servos or engines have been used.

The product supply only works by gravimetric flow, supported by spring loaded holders which slightly apply pressure onto the upside-down positioned pouches – the lotion reservoirs. The system is stable and very reliable!

Has the pack been tested and proven in a production environment? Is it scalable?

We have tested six Colour Wizard machines about three months in real salon environment. The performance of tech machines was great! The excitement even bigger!

What’s the benefit for..

The Salon Owner:

Strengthen salon team colour
Perfect replicability
Save time
Demonstrate sustainability
75% waste avoidance
Space- saving
Reduction of lotion inventory
Smallest quantities mixable
Avoiding potential unused colour mass from the star

The Stylist:

Professionalism of colour mixing
Replicability of colour results
Innovative environment
Mixing routine very easy
Avoiding mistakes

Why do you believe this pack deserves to win an Innovation Award?

There’s nothing like the Colour Wizard known in the market!

The combination of complexity reduction, easy handling, ESG features such as 75% less plastic consumption is remarkable.

The highly convenient performance but still allowing enough flexibility to let the stylist be and remain the creative artist he loves to be – that’s truly unique and deserves the award!

Who did you work with on this project?

Kao Germany GmbH
Indeed Innovation GmbH
MKW GmbH Digital Automation