When Function Meets Frill

Packaging suppliers are pulling out the stops and looking to other sectors to meet beauty brands’ quests for innovative ways to stand out on-shelf.

By Jamie Matusow, Editor

Dianne Brill says her packages are designed as small gifts, to please a woman and to give her the luxurious feeling of being pampered and spoiled.

Recently I saw an ad for paint featuring a new type of can. In fact it wasn’t a can at all, but a one-gallon plastic container—complete with a one-handed pour handle and a screw-on top. Its easy-to-grasp, no-drip, no-struggling-to-get-the-lid-on-and-off convenience factors were targeted toward do-it-yourself women, but I can’t imagine anyone now choosing the bulky old metal can instead. The same with an ad I saw for a new type of grout. What can be a daunting process for homeowners who find it difficult to squeeze out just the right amount for a sharp line, just got easier with a new method that releases the grout in strips that can be pressed on for a dependable edge. Then, of course, there’s the Clinique solid fragrance pencil, which offers the no-leak, portable convenience of perfume in an easy-to-apply, chunky and colorful applicator.

While these examples of innovative packaging all seem to fall into the “build a better mousetrap” category, not all packages have to go to such extremes to make an impact.

Innovative packaging describes everything from advances in decorating techniques to miniaturization to sustainability to functionality to plain old fun. But one thing is sure: Adding an innovative element helps to capture the consumers’ eye—and their purse strings, especially during tough economic times when scrutiny rises and demands dictate.

This is particularly true in the beauty industry. According to Mintel Beauty Innovation, a new online service that’s part of the Mintel Global New Products Database, at least 57,000 new beauty products were launched globally this year—which equates to 156 a day! With that kind of competition, it becomes more crucial than ever to stand out on-shelf.

Nica Lewis, head consultant for Mintel’s Beauty Innovation, says that some key trends she has noted in packaging are clever design, dispensing and delivery systems (such as functional, fun, effective, convenient, minis and mono-dose); eco-friendly or use of new materials or technologies (pump dispensing tubes for creams, built-in applicators for hair gel); new ingredients claims (such as more convenient, practical or efficient); evolution of a trend (product that pushes the boundaries or propels a trend forward); and a brand extension into a new category.

Function and shape are also at the top of the list for Peter Prusak, head of packaging, North America, Clariant Masterbatches, Holden, MA, who defines innovation “as [a] best functioning new or improved product that consumers will pay for, with the highest gross margin for the manufacturer.” But he notes that innovation can also be as simple as color. He cites Garnier Fructis as “an overnight success story largely on its brilliant use of fluorescent green color, coupled with new technology product.”

On the other hand, Prusak says color can act as a detriment. “Over my career, I have seen companies change the color of a very successful pearl opaque red to a translucent red, and lose 50% market share due to consumers not being able to find the product on shelves.”

Currently, Prusak says part of the innovation he is noticing in the beauty industry lies in functional bottle design  (enhanced barrier properties through additives in the resins for O2 or CO2 H2O or UV), enhanced barrier properties in PET through multilayer technology (two or more layers), changes in the bottle design shape (handles on a PET container or more intricate shapes or improved ergonomics designed into the mold, such as rough surfaces to help grip a wet bottle in the shower) and color (pearls, high chromatic colors like fluorescents or organic pigments). 

Food for Thought

With a nod toward cross-fertilization of trends in industries other than beauty, Prusak says Clariant is developing a release additive designed and requested by the food packaging industry, to ensure getting every last drop of the product out of the package. Yet to be used for personal care, the same principles would apply to shampoos or creams.  In fact, says Prusak, “It would probably work better for personal care.”

For almost 40 years, Lars Wallentin headed the packaging design team at Nestlé’s headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. He, too, finds parallels across different industries from food packaging to household products to cosmetics. One of his favorite aphorisms, which transcends all segments: “If you are not seen, you cannot be bought.” It’s basic common sense, perhaps, but a goal that’s not always easy to achieve. (Read about more packaging tips from Wallentin at nitesh_bp.rodpub.com.)

The Fragrance Finish Line

B by Boucheron combines four different materials in a four-part cap.

According to The NPD Group, Inc., just over 10 years ago, in 1997, there were 360 women’s fragrance brands on counter, each averaging $5.3 million in sales; in 2007, that number jumped to 1,160 women’s fragrance brands, but each averaged $1.7 million. With the pieces of the global fragrance pie shrinking, brands are going to great lengths to get noticed.

Bormioli Luigi is one glass house that continues to turn out strikingly beautiful flacons for its customers, and while each seems to feature an innovative design element, marketing director Corrado Lusetti says that from a manufacturing viewpoint, beauty merely skims the surface. “For the supplier,” he says, “innovation is something that can be applied to every bottle. Innovation for us is a modification on a process, a way to improve, save money. For the customer, it has a different meaning—a different shape, a different finish…”

Ma Dame, the new fragrance bottle Bormioli Luigi produced for Jean Paul Gaultier, exemplifies Lusetti’s explanation of innovation. Not only is the flacon eye-catching with its familiar female torso—now embedded in a rectangular wall of striking glass—but the sandblasting effect used on the corseted figure and the technology that allowed for the gradated spray of color on the bottle were developed as innovative decorative processes that can be applied to future projects.

Fragrance Gems

The natural stones in the cap of Estée Lauder’s Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia Parfum—including aventurine, yellow, green and white jade, citrine and mustard stones—were sourced from around the world. Because each stone is different, every cap is its own work of art.

Designed to resemble a piece of fine jewelry of the quality offered by world-renowned Place Vendôme jeweler Boucheron, the cap on the signature B by Boucheron fragrance for YSL Beauté, which launched to celebrate the luxe retailer’s 150th anniversary, is a feat of engineering in itself. Topped with a faceted cut, emerald-like stone and a metal engraved seal with the Boucheron Paris signature, the cap of the B bottle encloses a gold-pleating effect of couturier quality.

A spokesperson for Jackel, a producer of the B cap, says the cap essentially broke the production mold in comprising four parts and four materials: a Surlyn overcap with a PCTA green cabuchon, an ABS gold ring for the pleats and a Zamac insert for weight. What’s more, Jackel was able to make the Surlyn cap in just one injection, which the spokesperson adds, is unusual for such a large cap.

Aerin Lauder’s Personal Touch

Zamac also played a role in the cap produced by Qualipac for Estée Lauder’s Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia Parfum, which won the 2008 HBA IPDA for prestige fragrance.

Aerin Lauder, senior vice president, creative director, Estée Lauder, says this cap, too, was created in the tradition of fine jewelry. “The cap of the parfum bottle was inspired by a Josef Hoffmann brooch at the Neue Galerie in New York,” says Lauder. “I love gold with just a touch of blue, cream or pale yellow. I think it looks so rich and modern.”

The Zamac cap is gold-plated, “a technical challenge,” says Qualipac’s vice president of sales Eric Vanin, “because it is the first fragrance cap in which Zamac is combined with semiprecious stones.” 

“Choosing the stones was the most enjoyable part of creating the parfum bottle,” says Humberto Rebolledo, executive director, global package development, Estée Lauder. “Aerin decided on the color palette, which reflects the notes and the mood of the fragrance. We sourced hundreds of semiprecious stones from around the world. We sat in my office with Aerin Lauder and Doug Lloyd of Lloyd & Co., who worked with Aerin on the design concept, to choose which particular stones we would use for the cap.”

Stila takes the guesswork out of cosmetic applications by providing an “onsite” makeup artist.

After they decided on the stones, Rebolledo says it was almost like piecing together a puzzle, figuring out which stones to place where on the cap. The stones are not treated in any way and therefore no two caps are the same. “In this way, Private Collection is very unique,” says Rebolledo. “Each bottle is like a special piece of jewelry.”

And like any piece of fine jewelry, it was not an overnight creation. Rebolledo says that it took three years to complete the bottle design (which was produced by Pochet). “The most challenging aspect of this project,” says Rebolledo, “was creating the ‘smile’ on the bottom of the parfum bottle. This proved especially difficult because we were working with thick, heavy glass. The goal was to create a bottle that was truly luxurious. Normally, to create the smile design, you must work with a square bottle. Our bottle is thin and rectangular, the shape that Aerin requested.”

Because each bottle is so delicate, Rebolledo says they performed extensive drop and adhesive tests until they found the right glue. Obviously, a highly personal project, Rebolledo says, “Every bottle of Private Collection is accompanied by a note from Aerin, asking the owner to please treat the bottle as you would a precious piece of jewelry.”

Giving Instruction

While Aerin Lauder addresses consumers with a heartfelt note, Dianne Brill, former runway model, Gaultier muse and ’80s New York party girl, opts for a different personal approach. Brill, who has been quoted as saying, “Who needs to be subtle when you can make an entrance?” takes center stage on YouTube, where she describes the philosophy behind her beauty brand, and provides detailed instruction on how to best apply her makeup.

Brill says her packages are designed as small gifts, to please a woman and to give her the luxurious feeling of being pampered and spoiled.  “I speak to a woman’s other  ‘self,’ ” she says, “the one she likes best, the feminine one; often the one who flirts.”

Take Brill’s newly launched fragrance, for example. The eight-year development process of her namesake juice pays tribute to her attention to holistic design detail from the evolution of the scent to the provocative bottle to the dramatic carton—all with a hint of Havana and the exoticism of fine cigars.

The elaborate, shapely bottle, with two namesake signatures and a cigar band seal with a picture of Dianne Brill, is decorated in what appears to be embroidered fishnet stockings, complete with seams, thanks to an involved technique achieved by Heinz Glas. According to Rudolf Wurm of Heinz, the decorating and metallizing required a three-step process. In the third step, a black coating was applied, then lasering removed the black in certain areas to give the appearance of fishnets. The corresponding perfume box reflects Brill’s ties to Cuban culture (her mother was raised there). It closely resembles a Cuban cigar box, complete with a revenue stamp, and is paper cardboard with some bronzing effects and embossing; images from Brill’s colorful past are used as decoration. The boxes are produced at a real cigar box manufacturer in Europe.

Brill says she wanted to capture fresh luxury, not austere luxury—“and a box so beautiful you would keep your precious jewelry and love notes in it.” She says the greatest compliment she receives is that most women keep the outer packages for a while before throwing them away. “Our customers tell us that they re-wrap their Dianne Brill little gifts (so to speak) so they can open them up again the next morning,” she says.

Brill says the most fun aspects of the product are “the hidden details and secrets [which are like] a wink from me to my customer. It’s personal, as if we were already friends.”

In the Wink of an Eye

Speaking of winks, that’s exactly what the package of Stila’s Smoky Eye Talking Palette does when you first make eye contact with it on the shelf. Not only does the movement of the perfectly made-up hologram eye capture your attention, the makeup artist, housed inside via a battery, “holds your hand” as she guides you through the steps that will produce the same look. A huge hit when launched in January 2007, the audio-visual compact line was expanded this fall to include additional looks for eyes, face and lips.

Jill Tomandl, Stila’s VP of product development and packaging, says there were several steps in the package development process: creating the compact construction and aesthetic, creating the artwork for the lenticular label (nine illustrations were drawn to create the movement, similar to creating a cartoon), writing the script for the voice recording and creating the voice recording in a studio.

Surprisingly, it did not take very long to produce. “I had done research on the lenticular and voice module previously,” says Tomandl, “so the development time was fast.” The original smoky eye palette, she says, took seven months from concept to launch. There was no tooling required with the exception of cutting dies, since the compact is made of paperboard.

While speedy, there were a few challenges, admits Tomandl. “The voice module and speaker are located in the compact platform. When the first samples arrived, the sound was muffled.” Vents were added to the base to improve the clarity of the recording and the volume.

Tomandl says the concept for the visual element of the design came from a video lenticular sample of a girl dancing. “The sample,” she says, “was given to me by Scott Morell from Jamb Packaging. I had the sample on my desk and was waiting to use it for the right project.”

That project surfaced when Sephora challenged brands to create innovative products that represented “cosmetics in the future.” Tomandl says Stila answered the call by having a virtual, professional makeup artist help the consumer apply makeup wherever she goes.

The visual was developed to demonstrate the placement of the base, lid, contour and liner eye shadow shades, and the eye winks to communicate the Stila brand message “artistry with a wink.” The inspiration for the audio element came from a promotional key chain that played a song to promote a new record release. The same technology is used in greeting cards.

Tomandl says the most exciting part of the project has been expanding the franchise into different artistry techniques. A multi-language palette was created for international markets; instructions were recorded in English, French and Greek for the European market and a specific palette with a Korean recording was created for Korea.

Paint by Number

Alcan Packaging Beauty has expanded its turnkey cosmetics solutions with innovative—and intuitive—makeup offerings, such as this Quadrilogy compact with a 4-in-1 applicator.

New color cosmetic compacts from Alcan Packaging Beauty’s Makeup Workshop Line also provide consumers with instructions for foolproof makeup application, but transcend language with the use of numbers, illustrations and cleverly designed applicators.

Michel Limongi, Alcan Packaging Beauty creative director, has developed Trilogy and Quadrilogy, two original compacts, offering a 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 combination with multiple options in terms of colors, brushes and formulations for lips or eyes. From bristles to flock to rounded tip, there’s an applicator for every formulation.

Material options range from glossy or creamy bulks for the lips to powder blushers and concealers for the eyes. The correct brush shape can be obtained by sliding the applicator between your index and middle fingers. 

Compact Workshop guides the user through her makeup application with a clever combination of brushes, bulks, zones and stages. This original system is based on a new concept of a snap-on handle and three brushes that correspond to three matching colors. The stylish, ergonomic, long handle ensures an optimum grip for each applicator, essential for accurate makeup. For the perfect application, the consumer needs only to follow the sequence of three numbers that appear on both the compact and the mirror, thanks to an adhesive image below the glass.

The company’s new Fan Brush Compact is a dual formulation that comes with a brush designed especially to hug the shape of the cheekbone. The blusher is comprised of two colors: a light hue to brighten the area above the cheekbone and a darker shade to bring out the hollow. A fan brush with two bristle lengths for each shade ensures a smooth, natural effect—every time.

Also in the group are a Two-Step Concealer Compact and a Paper & Powder Compact, which features a special section for blotting paper so the consumer can handily remove any skin oils prior to powder application.

A Prestige Look Is Worth It

L’Oréal’s Skin Genesis brought a prestige look to mass.

While Alcan’s compacts use numbers to help consumers apply products, L’Oréal, with its hugely successful Skin Genesis line, which captured this year’s HBA IPDA for Skin Care Mass as well as Package of the Year, relies on color—and the growing trend to dress mass market items in more prestige packaging. Launched globally in 2007, the package is a custom airless pump, which protects each innovative formula. It combines modern aesthetic qualities with high functionality. According to Anne Talley, senior vice president, marketing, L’Oréal Paris, although there are many pumps used in skin care today, this custom bottle was designed to have customizable colors for different products. The package is very premium, which is part of what makes L’Oréal stand apart in a mass market environment. The beauty of the package embodies the core equity of the brand while the delivery system answers women’s needs (clean dispensing, ease of use, travel friendly with locking mechanism).

Talley says it took approximately two years from original concept to the first molded sample. The Skin Genesis carton was specifically designed to showcase the custom bottle and highlight the unique silver collar and custom actuator at the top, as well as the “test tube” bottle at the bottom. The design on the carton also incorporates aesthetic features to convey the premium quality such as embossed graphics, gold and silver hot stamping and a white matte varnish.

To arrive at the colors, L’Oréal tested color variations with women. White, silver, pink and blue were seen as clean, modern and feminine.

David Prague, VP packaging, corporate operations NA, consumer products division (CPD), L’Oréal USA, says that its global partner, Rexam, provided all of the technologies (pump engines and plastic injection molding) for the package.  The inner bottle is PP; the outer bottle is SAN, which provides the crisp clean clarity that allows the beauty of the inner bottle to show through.  The most challenging aspect of the package design, says Prague, was establishing the proper fit (SPEC) between the bottle and the pump.

Of course, in the end, Skin Genesis kept with the beauty company’s pledge to make women feel that they are truly “worth it” every day. Not only did L’Oréal design something new that, according to Talley, redefines what is expected in the mass environment, its consumers consistently comment on how much they appreciate the quality of this package and how it looks like something you’d find in department stores, which, Talley says, proves it accomplished its goals.

No Frills Approach

With plastic going great guns as a packaging material of choice, Skin Genesis is a fine example of what can be done at the higher end. With its versatility, however, plastic can also be extremely cost effective and simple. The Italian company Stropol has developed a simple, logical, ecological, cost-cutting approach to plastic packaging using PET preforms and snap-on caps. Once again, the idea originated in another industry.

Stropol made the most of common PET bottles with its innovative new toiletries cap range that cuts packaging and logistics costs.

“The idea of caps working on PET is older than me,” jokes Luca Onestini, general manager Stropol, “but nobody was thinking of mixing  food and toiletries packaging.”

Stropol’s one-piece caps are designed to snap onto the neck of a standard PET preform—the type of preform, according to Onestini, that is produced every year by the billions for mineral water and soft drinks. PET preforms with PCO, BPF and BPF light neck forms have become commodity items and are available from numerous suppliers. Yet they can be used to blow almost any shape of bottle. By using the patented Stropol cap, toiletries manufacturers can use a standard preform to blow a custom bottle in-house, right next to the filling machine, as and when required, saving on material costs, storage space and internal logistics. On the packaging line, the cap simply snaps onto the standard neck-form, making an excellent leak-proof seal. Until now, the only commercially available caps to fit standard PCO and BPF preforms were ordinary-looking screw caps designed for beverages, says Onestini. Stropol’s current range includes six hinged caps; two bi-injected caps are also available.

It’s All in the Presentation

Making the most of another basic form, Chicago Creative Agency, Burgopak LLC, took a simple paperboard box and turned it into a compelling, attention-grabbing design with an elegant structure. The company’s pioneering “sliding box,” which merges pop-up book style functions with standard packaging concepts, was recognized with an HBA IPDA for Personal Care–Prestige, for its use with Gillette & The Art of Shaving Fusion Chrome Collection by The Art of Shaving.

“Our sliding pack is entirely customizable and can be constructed of nearly any material; thus far, we’ve used wood, leather-wrapped rigid board, aluminum and plastic,” says Nathan Peters, creative director for Burgopak USA. “Our designers are capable of building a structurally sound package out of nearly any material.”

Designs range from a standard flip-top box to a premium, sliding package.

Peters says the company works to ensure that its designs are efficient and concise, with packages designed to be as compact as possible, as less wasted space reduces the amount of excess material.  Another advantage: Reducing materials also decreases production, shipping and labor costs.

Burgopak has also developed a sliding cosmetic compact design, soon to be released.

POP Rocks with High Tech

Zorbit Resources helped Rock & Republic rock the cosmetic counter with this point of purchase display, which features an LCD screen playing a runway show to tie in the brand’s reputation as a fashion trendsetter.

Just as Burgopak gave a new slant to a paper box, Zorbit Resources put a new spin on cosmetic counter testers in department stores, by using glowing graphics and an LCD screen.

When L.A. fashion trendsetter Rock & Republic asked Zorbit to design and manufacture a countertop tester unit and display for its new cosmetic line, Zorbit felt the products needed more than a “static display,” says Scott Kestenbaum, senior account manager-principal. The challenge was Rock & Republic’s wide array of product SKUs.  “We were constricted by the amount of space department store retail allows for countertop display units,” says Kestenbaum. “It was difficult to get it all on there, and still achieve all the aesthetic goals required by R&R’s marketing team.”

The display Zorbit created is fabricated from acrylic sheet and features custom molded details. Its sleek black exterior is punctuated by an internally lit parting line, and graphics that glow. Topping it off is an adjustable LCD screen, showcasing R&R’s latest runway show.

The LCD screen, says Kestenbaum, was the perfect instrument to communicate the latest fashion styles of R&R, and also serves as an effective educational medium to convey product information to the consumer.

“The cosmetic department of any department store is a jungle of brands, all trying to be king,” says Kestenbaum.  “R&R wanted to make a major statement to the market with its display. The under-lit LED lights provide an immediate point of difference and help attract the consumer to the display.” 

Future of Innovation

Zorbit expects that its innovative approach will take off and be copied, bringing a new high-tech look to cosmetic counters everywhere. Tech gadgetry, too, will continue to influence beauty products,” says Mintel’s Lewis, “with packaging that looks like MP3 players and mobile phones.

Most of all,” says Lewis, “packaging will become vital in regard to sustainability.” She says precyclers (preventive recyclers) will continue to address the problem at source, as they are keen to cut down on waste that needs to be recycled; they carry bags with them, buy refillable products, and avoid products with excess packaging. “The beauty business,” says Lewis, “needs to be aware of its approach and incorporate into packaging, where possible, reusable materials for primary and secondary packaging and/or eliminate unnecessary packaging.”

And as if that’s not enough pressure on suppliers and brands, Clariant’s Prusak says, “The major change I’m seeing with innovation is the speed which is needed to compete.” Some companies, he says, are reducing the time to market from 36 weeks to 12. The budgets for R&D are increasing at the companies that have always been more innovative. “Our companies,” he says “are relying on their vendors to bring them innovations in order to grow their business. –

The display Zorbit created is fabricated from acrylic sheet and features custom molded details. Its sleek black exterior is punctuated by an internally lit parting line, and graphics that glow. Topping off this showstopper is a fully functioning adjustable LCD screen, showcasing R&R’s latest runway show.

The LCD screen, says Kestenbaum, was the perfect instrument to communicate both the latest fashion styles of R&R, but also serves as an effective educational medium to convey product information to the consumer.

“The cosmetic department of any department store is a jungle of brands, all trying to be king,” says Kestenbaum.  “R&R wanted to make a major statement to the market with its display. The under-lit LED lights provide an immediate point of difference and help attract the consumer to the display.” 

The Future of Innovation

Zorbit expects that their innovative approach will take off and be copied, bringing a new high-tech look to cosmetic counters everywhere. Tech gadgetry, too, will continue to influence beauty products,” says Mintel’s Lewis, “with packaging that looks like MP3 players and mobile phones.

“Most of all,” says Lewis, “packaging will become ‘Vital!!!’ in regard to sustainability.” She says precyclers (preventive recyclers) will continue to address the problem at source, as they are keen to cut down on waste that needs to be recycled; they carry bags with them, buy refillable products, and avoid products with excess packaging. “The beauty business,” says Lewis, “needs to be aware of its approach and incorporate into packaging, where possible, reusable materials for primary and secondary packaging and/or eliminate unnecessary packaging.”

And as if that’s not enough pressure on suppliers and brands, Clariant’s Prusak says, “The major change I am seeing with innovation is the speed which is needed to compete.” Some companies, he says, are reducing the time to market from 36 weeks to 12. The budgets for R&D are increasing at the companies that have always been more innovative. “Our companies,” he says “are relying on their vendors to bring them innovations in order to grow their business.”