Kao's silent sunscreen mist, designed around the first-use wow, shipped 6.7M units

Kao's Biore brand needed a new entry point in a commoditised sunscreen market. The product team aimed beyond 'don't get sunburnt': something easy to use outdoors, where aerosol hiss and sticky application put people off reapplying.

The product is a non-gas mist with SPF50/PA++++ that transforms into a gel on contact. Package design director Manaka Suzuki and senior manager Miho Nomura built the design around the designers' own first-use reaction — surprise at the watery, refreshing mist and the way it glides on — working out how to convey that feeling visually on shelf.

Launched nationwide in February 2023, it shipped a cumulative 6.7 million units in its first year and hit big during the record heat of summer 2023; Kao credited the product with contributing significantly to Biore brand-wide sales growth and creating the new 'outdoor reapplication' category.

In the summer of 2023 — Japan's record-breaking heatwave, which sent the sunscreen market into rapid expansion — the smash hit was Biore UV Aqua Protect Mist, known as 'Shunkan Mist UV', which Kao had released nationwide in February 2023. It shipped a cumulative 6.7 million units.

The product's core is a new mechanism: a non-gas mist evolved from spray sunscreens. One press mists the lotion over the skin, where it quickly turns to gel and adheres evenly without patchiness, with a high SPF50/PA++++ UV-cut rating. Because the non-gas format makes no spraying sound, it can be used discreetly in front of others — which let Kao create a genuinely new category: the 'reapply while out' sunscreen. The product contributed significantly to sales growth across the whole Biore brand.

The design story starts with the designers' own reaction. Manaka Suzuki, the package design director, recalls being astonished by the non-gas mist's watery, refreshing feel on first trying the prototype: the big theme became how to convey that surprise and delight to customers through the design. Senior manager Miho Nomura adds that the team had aimed from development for something easy to use when out, and the first use convinced them the sensation would widen the usage scene dramatically.

The innovation is a usage occasion, not a formula claim: reapplication in public is a real, unsolved moment in sunscreen.

Removing the aerosol hiss is a small mechanical change that unlocked an entire social context (using it in front of people).

The packaging design process started from the felt experience — the designers' own first-use surprise — rather than from feature bullets.

In a market where every sunscreen claims UV protection, 6.7 million units in a year shows the occasion-first positioning cut through.

When a category has no room left to differentiate, invent a new usage occasion — and design the pack to sell the sensation, not the specification.

The article, part of Nikkei Design's 'behind hit products' series published 26 December 2023, records the product as Biore's driver of brand-wide growth in its launch year; further developments are not covered.