Cartons for beauty products have come a long way from “plain vanilla.”

Cartons and their more ornate cousins, set-up boxes, are the proverbial canvases onto which subtle cosmetic, personal care and fragrance product stories are painted. They are often the first point of contact for consumers, drawing their attention and capturing their curiosity. They are also charged with the vital task of creatively delivering the first impressions of a brand, whether it’s clean and understated or boldly embellished.

“Today’s innovations in folding cartons are driven by fine decoration techniques, usually to do with touch and feel,” comments Jinesh Mehta, executive director, Utility Printpack, Mumbai, India. “Today’s consumer wants to interact with the pack, and print finishing techniques play a vital role.

“We also see a growing interest in using green materials, and brand owners are getting more and more conscious about the environmental factors,” says Mehta. “As for set-up boxes there is an increasing pressure on innovating formats that can be shipped flat, thereby saving freight cost and reducing carbon footprint.”

According to the Paperboard Packaging Council’s (PPC) Spring 2013 Industry Overview, the paperboard industry is worth $8.8 billion.

While more than 60% of all paperboard packaging is destined for food product segments, the balance services other critical consumer goods segments such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and personal care products, soaps and household maintenance products, toys and sporting goods.

In step with the increased demand for paperboard packaging has been the demand for sustainability and environmental responsibility—a scenario that PPC described as the “greatest challenge to our industry in the coming years.”

“We must do a better job of educating the public on what our industry has known for generations—that paperboard packaging, unlike fossil-fuel based plastic packaging, is made from a renewable resource, is recyclable and the best choice for the environmentally conscious consumer,” the PPC wrote in its Industry Overview report.

Iggesund Paperboard recently announced that it would roll out an upgraded incarnation of its Incada brand folding box board this coming fall. The new board will be whiter and lighter and will also have a number of improved properties affecting printability. Robin Lewis, the technical product manager for Incada, said the improvements would enable users to reduce their packaging weights while keeping the same protection for the package contents.

As important as the upgrades to the Incada paperboard were the environmentally conscious upgrades Iggesund made to produce it. The company’s Workington, England, spring mill changed its energy source from fossil natural gas to biomass, which is burned in a new high-tech power plant. Overnight, the mill eliminated its fossil carbon emissions from more than 190,000 tons a year to zero. The reduction is the equivalent of taking more than 65,000 cars off the road every year.

“This adds even more power to our sales message. Paperboard is widely seen as a very sustainable packaging material,” says Lewis. “By changing our energy source and upgrading Incada, we are now at the top of the folding box board market in terms of both product properties and sustainability.”

This increasing, industry-wide environmental sensibility, coupled with the seemingly endless manufacturing and design potential of paperboard, are undoubtedly important driving factors behind the many ongoing paperboard packaging innovations created in the beauty and fragrance sectors.

Bert-Co’s Fiori carton stands out thanks to sculpturedembossing, a mix of gloss and dull coatings, and metallic details.

Interpreting Current Trends

Subtlety is an art form when it comes to designing decorative packaging. When expertly executed, clean, minimalistic packaging designs can deliver the same visual wow factor as bold colors and graphics but on a more intimate level, given that the consumer must hold the box in their hands to obtain the best appreciation of the design.

Suzan Kerston, executive vice president, Bert-Co, Los Angeles, CA, proclaimed texture—the more tactile, the better—to be among the biggest trends in beauty and fragrance cartons and set-up box packaging. “When a shopper is enticed to pick up the package to feel the texture and is delighted, we think the package is halfway home to making the sale,” she said. “The number of patterns or textures that can be incorporated are absolutely endless.”

Christine Takacs, owner/creative director at Rapt Creative, and design and marketing consultant at ITW Foils of Chicago, IL, concurred. “ ‘Touch-me’ appeal is a growing consideration for brands because there is substantial evidence that when a consumer stops to pick up a package the likelihood of purchase is greatly increased,” she said. “Not only is there a strong connection between touch and the purchase impulse, but the experiential aspect of design that stimulates the senses has growing appeal to consumers.”

Utility Printpack’s gift box for Yardley features a clear PET window and a decorated fifth panel flap that provides space for the consumer to write a personal message to he gift recipient.

Utility Printpack enabled consumer interaction with the foldable Valentine’s Day gift box it manufactured for Yardley. The box featured a clear PET window and a decorated fifth panel flap that provided space for the consumer to write a personal message to the gift recipient.

Another trend that is equally subtle yet quietly contributes to a more cohesive package is colored carton edges. “Refined edges can help the package get noticed by making the edges stand out, or by receding so that a brilliant design doesn’t get interrupted by white edges,” notes Kerston.

Bert-Co delivered two uniquely distinct forms of subtle elegance in the cartons it produced for Parlux Fragrance brands Ivanka Trump and Fiori.

“The Ivanka Trump cartons for Parlux are wrapped in a deep embossed all-over texture,” Kerston explains. “Texture really gives a feeling of luxury [and] coupled with hot stamping, it really makes a statement on shelf.”

Equally stunning, the Fiori carton stands out thanks to sculptured embossing, a mix of gloss and dull coatings, and metallic details.

Takacs says that from a design perspective, other trendy elements that add to a carton or set-up box’s visual appeal include holographic effects, surface variety, embossing and reflective metallic surfaces, which she says, “not only increase shelf visibility in crowded retail environments but when executed well, communicate a brand promise that increases purchase intent.”

She says that within markets that typically utilize metallic and holographic treatments, brands are now able to leverage more creativity than ever due to fast and accurate proofing technologies and prototyping. “For example,” she says, “ITW Foils works with brands to create custom holographic paperboards to enhance their brand packaging. The differentiation provided by these innovative decorative surfaces becomes a key strategic component of new product launches and offers a significant competitive advantage. It is not only larger brands finding success with customization, but independent startup brands find a significant return on investment with the shelf cache afforded by custom decorative treatments.”

Takacs points to holography as another growing trend within the beauty packaging industry. A solution to the troublesome seam in holographic film, seamless holography creates visually perfect holographic surfaces. “Seamless paperboards make holography viable in new markets and applications,” she says. “They offer endless possibilities for designers who are unrestricted by size, layout logistics, or decorating limitations. They offer visual consistency for brands, and overall efficiency improvements for printers. Faster speeds and waste reduction are key operational advantages to using seamless foil and films, as is the fact that seamless products require no costly eye mark equipment for registration. For designers and brand owners, truly seamless substrates offer superior visual quality with consistent color and surface integrity along with greater creative latitude.”

ITW Foils also offers metallic and holographic decorating solutions for brands that are in a hurry to get on-shelf. ITW Cold Foil, EcoShine is known for enhanced performance in a high-speed application of foil on press. The printable foil is able to hold fine details and halftones in light-to-full coverage. In addition, ITW EcoCast offers inline holographic effects to brand packaging. Also known as Cast & Cure, the inline decorative process creates high gloss holographic effects on a variety of substrates in both sheet fed and web environments.

Also on the innovations front, Bert-Co has continued to create technologies that encourage package designs to push the bounds of their creativity. The company recently unveiled a new closure system called “Sher-loc” that clicks gift set boxes closed without the use of magnets or other added fasteners. Kerston notes that while the company regularly introduces new packaging structures and technologies that, for instance, deliver texture via an in-line coating (Vista Texture), it also recently debuted new paperboard coatings to its repertoire. One is an ultra dull raised black coating referred to as “tire tread,” and another is called “pearl waves” and has a soft suede feeling with a hint of a holographic look.

“Every customer is looking for their packaging to stand out in one way or another,” says Francine Carlino, account manager, Elegant Packaging, Chicago, IL. “We see trends leaning toward complex box constructions; multiple decorating techniques (foil, silk screen, and de-bossing all on one package); intricate inserts in boxes (multiple compartments with clean rolled edges); and additional accents such as ribbon pulls, custom cutouts and magnet closures.

Carlino says that in the spring of 2012, Elegant completed a run of 1.5 million two-piece set-up boxes during a five-week period for a customer. “Specifications and attributes of this box program were that these were two-piece set-up boxes of various sizes, wrapped with multiple title printed wraps,” she says. “Some of the wraps had artwork that needed extremely tight tolerances of closeness to the edge of the box lid or lining up on the box sides. Most all of the boxes required the placement of a SBS mask onto a customer supplied vacuum formed tray and insertion of that tray into the base.”

As an illustration of the reach of the iPhone design aesthetic, Carlino notes that another trend in cartons and set boxes echoes the crisp corners characteristic of the iconic iPhone box. “We are researching this and have found that depending on how we route the chip-board and what type of routing blade is used, this can be achieved in our U.S. production versus going overseas,” she says. “Stay tape is a necessary ingredient in our production but sometimes customers don’t want to see it. We…have found a way to conceal the stay tape by overlapping the wrap ends completely. In addition to this solution, we are currently experimenting with different types of stay tape which would have a ‘low profile’ look on the packages.”

In a project completed for a “high-profile luxury fragrance” company, Elegant delivered a box that incorporated a 10pt SBS shell wrapped to the outside of the chip-board before wrapping with the final box wrap material. “We offer this type of additional construction when a customer is looking for an extremely smooth surface beyond the standard chip-board smoothness and [it] helps to create crisp corners,” Carlino explains. “This box project…includes a wrapped pad on the inside cover with artwork text that needs to be centered, a silver foil-lined SBS insert in the tray that requires intricate hand folding assembly creating four angled walls of the insert, a ribbon tie closure to hold the product in, and a concealed magnet closure.”

Just as package designers are driven to conceptualize and create innovative, exciting packages, packaging suppliers are driven to facilitate design needs with manufacturing concept advancements. “One of our recent cutting edge advancements includes being able to run corrugated e-flute in our machines (just like chip-board) and creating a turned-edge corrugated box,” says Carlino.

“Designers really have more freedom to design packages with so many elements of design, vivid color, crisp graphics, unique shapes, unusual materials, gloss and dull finishes, refined edges, metallic details and texture,” notes Bert-Co’s Kerston. “It’s truly amazing that there are so many possibilities to develop a design that tells the brand’s story and connects with the consumer.”

Arcade Color Optics (a division of Arcade Marketing) gives consumers the chance tosniff a packaged fragrance without having to take it out of its carton. Cartons with Scent Appeal A new innovation from Rockaway, NJ-based Arcade Color Optics (a division of Arcade Marketing) is giving consumers the chance to sniff a packaged fragrance without having to take it out of its carton. The technology, called Pre-Scent, takes fragrance sampling to a whole new level. “We have just finished production on a gift set in which we incorporated the scent of the fragrance directly on the carton,” explains Joe Cicci, the company’s president. “This gives the consumer the ability to trial the fragrance at the point of purchase without leaving any paper or label behind.” He went on to add that the fragrance can be put anywhere on the carton and the scents are exact and consistent. “We have worked hard on materials which do not interfere with the product so the creative graphics and designs can be accommodated,” he adds.

More Feature Articles from Beauty Packaging’s July/August 2013 issue