A desktop mixer for skincare without preservatives

Meld, a graduation project by Central Saint Martins graduate Beth Morgan Lundie, assembles skincare at the point of use rather than in a bottle. A digital platform recommends a formulation, the device dispenses each ingredient separately, and the user combines them by hand in a removable mixing lid. It won the PriestmanGoode Rising Star Award at New Designers 2026 and is not commercially available.

The premise is preservatives: with more than 60 per cent of cosmetics said to contain compounds such as parabens, a product mixed immediately does not need to survive months on a shelf. Ingredients arrive in compostable cartridges, and the device itself is made from stainless steel, aluminium, earthenware ceramic and natural rubber, with parts that can be sterilised in a dishwasher. Prototypes hide the hard parts — microbial safety, dosing accuracy, cold chain — but the proposal reframes the packaging debate usefully: the question is not the bottle's material but why its contents must last so long.