As a society, we all have some agreed-upon conventions to help us get along better. For example, we wear clothes, chew with our mouths closed, and maintain a modicum of personal hygiene so we don’t stink.

Balancing our desire to live more sustainably, enjoy life, and be part of the group can be difficult. Take deodorant, for example. Most of us want to avoid body odor for self-esteem and the benefit of others. Yet, most deodorants are packaged in single-use plastics and are more utilitarian and boring. They’re designed for functionality and rarely spark joy.

Rollr is a deodorant for people who want to wear something sustainably minded while truly enjoying the experience. The brand rethinks deodorant as something with potential beyond utility. From the scents to the applier, it strives to live up to the notion of “conscious hedonism.”

“The original inspiration for Rollr came as I traveled to New Zealand,” said Milo Pinckney, founder of Rollr.

“I was blown away by the beauty of the landscape and the respect people had for each other and the environment,” he continued. “I realized we’re as much a part of nature as the seas and the trees. And so why do we overprescribe using chemicals and plastic? Often, natural problems have natural solutions. We just can’t see them because of all the noise. So I came back to this idea of a natural refillable deodorant, because we all use it daily. Still, we all use chemicals that are terrible for our bodies, and they’re all filled in canisters or plastic, which is almost entirely impossible to recycle. But no one had touched it because it’s such a boring category.”

Instead of a single-use applicator, Rollr is reusable and refillable. The body of the applicator is made from sculpted glass and is connected to sphere-shaped gemstones held in place with a locking mechanism made from polyethylene (PE) plastic, which is composed of 30% recycled material. Similarly, the rounded lid is also made of PE plastic. The gemstones are either rose quartz, green aventurine, or blue dumortierite and are ethically sourced from Brazil.

Rollr’s conscious hedonism ethos can be traced to the applicator itself. It’s visually stimulating and designed to be seen, and the shape and size provide tactile pleasure for the user. Instead of a smooth surface, the glass body has a series of facets that give the applicator a look reminiscent of fancy perfume bottles. The applicator has enough heft to feel good when holding it and survive drops and bag travel. According to Milo, he dropped the Rollr applicator from eye-level (he’s 6’3″) onto concrete, and it didn’t break. 

Not that you should try to recreate any kind of breakage experiment, but the bottle is sturdy enough.

“The idea of Rollr being refillable inspired us,” said Joanna Tuleg, creative director at Mother. “We’re all highly aware that traditional sustainability cues are starting to feel tired now. Mother started with a deeper dive into the deodorant industry. We found that some of the new innovators coming through were big on being quite sporty looking, and bottles feel like tech devices or gadgets, and are quite plasticky, brightly colored, and very smooth and pebble-like. We wanted to find our niche within the sustainability sector and discovered an untapped area around permanence, the most sustainable idea. Yes, reuse and recycling are important, but if we think of longevity, that’s really, really important in sustainability.” 

“If we kept one thing forever, that’s one of the most effective things we could do,” Tuleg added.

Mother looked beyond the deodorant category, and certainly the “sustainable” submarket, to give Rollr a more unique presentation. This approach is evident in the applicator design and the typography, which features sumptuous, curvy, ribbon-like strokes.

“Where are the industries where we see more of a sense of permanence, longevity, and desirability? Because if you’re going to keep something forever, it needs to be desirable,” Tuleg said. “So we started to think about the perfume industry. It’s not uncommon for us to keep our beautiful fragrance bottles long after the fragrances run out, because they’re so beautiful. Then we started getting excited about the idea of permanence, desirability, and longevity. What if we created a really beautiful and stunning deodorant that you keep forever, and it’s the actual product that transforms, that you mix yourself, and changes every few months?”

Rollr’s refills also come in powdered form, which is also ideal, as the brand isn’t shipping around water. To fill, the user separates the top gemstone piece from the glass body, pours in the powder, and mixes with water. The refill powders are enough for about two months, and the sachets, made from TG-188 laminate made by Tungate in the UK, are curbside recyclable and can go in your usual paper stream.

Rollr’s attractiveness lends a sense of connectedness and pride. It is enough to be kept and refilled, even displayed. Mother’s design elevates a humble product like deodorant, typically considered pragmatic and kept in a drawer, into something special. The packaging and branding design puts desire and pleasure at the forefront, with sustainability closely behind, fulfilling the conscious hedonism that Rollr and Mother set out to create.