Pushing the Color Envelope

Color cosmetics brands are moving beyond basic black-and-white packaging and drawing inspiration from unconventional outlets.

By Lindsay Elkins, Contributing Editor

Subtle black packaging will never be passé, but cosmetic companies are increasingly opting for bold colors and textures to up consumer interest. Fashion runways, art and music are just a few of the unconventional outlets from which brands are drawing inspiration.
  
It’s so important to differentiate yourself,” says Jeanine Recckio, “beauty futurologist” for Mirror Mirror Imagination Group. “We’re seeing more textures that you would normally see in fashion pop up in color cosmetics packaging, such as polished leather and metallics and colors such as purple and turquoise.”
  
Recckio cites tarte cosmetics as a brand that takes inspiration from the fashion runways. The company’s fall 2008 collection, dubbed Health Couture, utilizes purple and metallic finishes to set it apart from the sea of black and white on the market. Take its Eye Couture Day to Night Eye Palette, for example. tarte combined a rich, purple metallic shade with a quilted, leather-like texture to resemble a chic evening clutch. Adorned with a gold-toned lock and key, the case houses 10 eyeshadow shades. The company’s Lip Couture T5 Super Fruit Infused Lipstick Set, a set of four lipsticks and a lipliner, is housed in a case that features the same luxe, quilted metallic purple packaging.
  
“You just look at a brand like tarte and it looks so chic and different,” says Recckio. “You sometimes walk into Sephora and wonder why everything is in a black package. Hopefully we will see a turnaround in the trend, and more brands will be inspired by fashion.”
  
Recckio also finds Too Faced Cosmetics to be a brand that is beginning to break out and make a name for itself with playful packaging that is in line with its lighthearted and cheeky vibe. For example, its Bronzed and Beautiful palette features three bronzers and a kabuki applicator brush in bronze-toned packaging which, when opened, reveals images that resonate with the beach, including sand, starfish and sunglasses.

Point of Differentiation

Chanel, Bobbi Brown and Nars, on the other hand, are all names that resonate with chic, understated, basic black-and-white packaging. HCT Packaging’s Rebecca Goswell, who works with such fashion-forward cosmetics brands as Urban Decay and Lancôme, is sure that the black-and-white motif was no accident on the part of these luxe cosmetic giants. “Black and white is the ultimate statement of chic and class,” she says.
  

Urban Decay’s signature dagger, molded in gun metal Zamac captures the spirit of the brand.

While not straying too far from a color scheme can be a great way to build brand identity and achieve iconic status, Mirror Mirror’s Recckio warns that there can be drawbacks to housing every new product launch in the exact same package and color scheme.
  
If every piece in the line looks exactly the same, the consumer must take the time to
differentiate products, and opportunities could be missed. “If a certain brand makes five
different lipstick formulas all housed in the same exact black tube, the consumer must flip over the tube to read the bottom in order to find out which formula they are looking at,” says Recckio. “If the customer is in a hurry, that brand may have lost a sales opportunity.”
  
While Recckio cites that cohesion is important to any brand, it is no longer a requirement that everything look identical to maintain brand integrity. “Gone is the day that everything has
to be matchy matchy,” she says.
  
HCT Packaging’s Goswell says that in contrast to brands such as Chanel, others—such as Laura Mercier, with metallic brown and silver themes and Urban Decay with metallic purple—have made a point of focusing on a brand color and then utilizing it across the majority of its product range.
  
“The difference between the two is that when you have a generic color as part of your brand, the packaging needs to work extra hard to differentiate itself from other brands,” says Goswell. While certain brands have very strict packaging guidelines, when it comes to graphics and  package design, brands like Urban Decay can have a more eclectic mix of products in their collection. But by utilizing their signature purple, the brand succeeds in unifying its proposition.
  
For example, Urban Decay recently extended its color collection with the August introduction of Urban Decay Lipstick, a 21-shade lipstick line. The package is comprised of a high gloss vacuum, metallic-finish mechanism and base that snap fits into a thick-walled PCTA outer shell.
  
The lipstick can be removed from its case by pulling the signature Urban Decay Dagger, a fun and playful element that is molded in gun metal Zamac and captures the spirit of the brand by creating heightened drama. HCT Packaging also employed innovative decorative screening techniques to fully execute a dramatic, three-dimensional quality to the tube, putting a unique and modern spin on the cult Urban Decay twisted vines, skull and flowers artwork.
  
Another cosmetics company that, season after season, is able to keep its packaging fresh while still keeping brand integrity in tact is Givenchy, and the company’s fall 2008 collection, 19th Century Dandies, is no exception. The brand maintains its iconic identity with the four G logo so it is easily recognizable to the consumer, yet manages to give the collection an update with the use of bright blues, polka dots and a lipgloss case designed to look like a delicately etched men’s pocket watch. According to Mirror Mirror’s Recckio, this is a perfect example of how to incorporate the colors and textures that are happening in fashion into cosmetics packaging, without losing sight of the brand’s point of view.
  
“Givenchy really does clever packaging,” says Recckio. “That’s what we have to look up to. If you don’t look unique it’s easy for another brand to cannibalize sales. Brands need to look to fashion in order to inject more personality into their packaging offerings.”

Green Meets Fashion

What once conjured up images of granola and Birkenstocks, the green movement is spilling into every aspect of consumers’ lives, and according to HCT’s Goswell, shades and textures used in cosmetics packaging is no exception. HCT Packaging has found that all of the companies it works with—both large and small—are eager to demonstrate to their customers that they are embracing the eco-friendly side of cosmetics. “Given the current enthusiasm for all things green and sustainable, I predict a surge in popularity in natural, earthy colors, textures and raw materials,” she says.
  
HCT has developed a bamboo-themed compact for Urban Decay, and is looking into various nature-inspired effects such as soy ink, laser decoration, plastic wood and natural paper pulps.
  
On the flip side, Goswell also sees the return of vintage, quirky colors and designs and metal finishes. The trend began with the introduction of the Urban Decay Poison Ring, a silver-plated ring with interchangeable lipgloss plates, in 2004 and has continued to remain strong with the recent launch of Lancôme Lotus Splendor, a fold-out metal finish kit styled to resemble an Indian lotus flower that houses eyeshadow, lipgloss and applicators.

The Next Step

So what is the logical step for a company that’s ready to break its packaging mold, but isn’t sure how far to push the envelope? Mirror Mirror’s Recckio recommends implementing an intensive situation analysis. “Line up products and think like a consumer. The consumer today is the chooser; she carries all the power.” Looking at the product from every stage—in vehicle, carton and case, to really see the line as a whole is a great place to start.
  
“So many brands don’t line up their products all together as a family or look at things from the consumer’s perspective,” says Recckio. “They don’t ask ‘will this look good in the case at the department store?’ or ‘can you read the writing on the packaging in the light?’ ”
  
Recckio recommends that brands begin to think outside of the box in terms of both colors and materials used in packaging. “We need to push ourselves from a packaging point of view to be creative, while not deviating from brand —we don’t want orphans,” she says.
  
In other words, a brand shouldn’t create a package for a particular item that doesn’t fit in with the rest of the line just for the sake of keeping up with trends in fashion. Recckio relays the analogy of brothers and sisters when thinking about packaging. “In a family, you are able to tell that two siblings are related, but they don’t have to be identical twins.”
  
So what’s the bottom line? Even small changes can make a big impact and add excitement to run-of-the-mill cosmetics packaging. Brands should always be willing to take a risk and find inspiration from unconventional outlets such as music and fashion for an update with impact.