Object details
| Designer / Studio | Gwenael Nicolas; team: Nobuyuki Shirai (Curiosity) |
| Client | Shiseido EMEA |
| Studio | Curiosity, Japan |
| Award | EPDA 2026 Winner, Beauty Packaging: Perfume & Fragrances |
A perfume bottle has to suggest something invisible. It gives a scent a shape before anyone has smelled it.
For Shiseido’s Zen Essence, Gwenael Nicolas and Nobuyuki Shirai of the Tokyo studio Curiosity faced an especially abstract brief: to visualise the idea of zen. The vessel was a winner in the perfume and fragrance packaging category at the 2026 European Product Design Award.
Their answer is a vessel made of two pieces. The delicate connection between them creates a sense of tension, like a mobile caught in a moment of perfect balance.
The designers say what matters is not the objects themselves but the energy and dialogue between them. The space and relationship between the parts carry the meaning.
That idea links the bottle to the brand. It embodies the zen concept while expressing Shiseido’s identity.
Zen Essence suggests a moment of suspended time, an object that seems to pause just before it moves.
View Shiseido Zen Essence on the European Product Design Award winner’s page →
Image: Curiosity.
