Increasingly present in premium skin care packaging, airless packaging protects the product’s content, allowing its formulation to be more natural, while permitting an innovative and practical packaging. This technology has revamped squeezable plastic tubes as well as other pack types, with consumers enjoying the new designs on offer and the new ways of dispensing the product.

As a result, the premiumization of skin care and new packaging technologies such as airless pack types should continue to benefit volume sales of squeezable plastic tubes in the coming five years, with the pack type posting a 4% CAGR between 2015-2020.

See the slideshow above.

Photos: 1. Mio; 2. Philosophy MIracle Worker; 3. Avene; 4. Double Wear Makeup To Go by Estee Lauder; 5. The author, Mylan Nguyen. 

Towards A Premium and Natural Skin Care Offer

Value sales of premium beauty and personal care products continue to increase globally, mainly led by the US market, where consumers continue to shift toward higher quality over quantity, strongly influenced by the South Korean beauty trend, which focuses on quality, health and hydration, as well as more sophisticated packaging.

Across the world, there is also an increase in popularity of natural and nature-inspired skin care, with changes in regulations against animal testing reviving consumers’ interest in this category. Ultimately, the continued demand for more skin-friendly formulations, as well as premium and pharmaceutical brands with natural credentials, alongside a wider availability of these products across retail channels, is also expanding interest in the natural arena.

Airless Packaging

In terms of packaging, one trend emerging from the premiumization of skin care and the demand for more natural products is that more pack types offer airless technology, mainly in squeezable plastic tubes and other rigid plastic containers. The airless technology offers a hygienic solution to dispensing content, preventing air and bacteria to be in contact with the product, therefore allowing the formulation to be more natural and the product to last longer.

The technology is mainly used for skin care products, since the formulation of these products can be more complex and air can cause the degradation of certain active ingredients. As a result, an increasing number of brand owners promoting natural ingredients chose airless packaging instead of the use of preservatives to extend their product’s shelf life.

Examples of products with an airless pack type include the high-end natural skin care set Your Fit Skin for Life Kit, shown above, by Mio Skincare in a rigid plastic container, and the anti-aging lotion miracle worker by philosophy in a squeezable plastic tube.

In 2015, Avène, also shown above, launched its PhysioLift range, including PhysioLift Day Smoothing Emulsion and PhysioLift Precision Wrinkle Filler, both in a rigid plastic container, and the latter, in 15ml pack size, offering precise dispensing thanks to its pen-pipette closure.

Squeezable Plastic Tubes And Rigid Plastic Containers

While the global dynamism of glass packaging highlights the premiumization of skin care products globally, there are good prospects for the airless technology within squeezable plastic tubes and other rigid plastic containers.

The squeezable plastic tube is the most purchased pack type within skin care, accounting for 3.6 billion units in 2015. The pack type is expected to see highest growth in absolute terms between 2015 and 2020, generating an additional 800 million units.

The use of the airless technology in squeezable plastic tubes has grown and is expected to continue to expand within that pack type, reflecting higher demand in premium and natural skin care. Other rigid plastic containers will benefit from the premiumization trend too, albeit to a lesser extent, with the pack type forecast to rise by a CAGR of 2% over 2015-2020.

Beyond Skin Care

While airless was originally an answer to a technical need, to keep the formulation safe, it also offers a revamp to pack types with airless technology, creating new beauty moments, such as on-the-go touch-ups.

This is particularly the case for products such as BB and CC cushion compacts, now increasingly using airless technology. An example of this is Double Wear Makeup To Go by Estée Lauder, shown above, launched in 2015, marketed to be mess-free and to allow consumers to control the amount of makeup they want to apply more easily, while on-the-go.

With airless offering many advantages, it has rapidly expanded to a number of beauty categories. And as the technology can be applied to many pack types, including metal aerosol cans and stand-up pouches, it could refresh these packaging categories and offer consumers new ways of dispensing beauty products.

Airless is therefore a technology to be followed closely by brand owners and packaging manufacturers in the beauty and personal care industry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mylan Nguyen, is a packaging analyst at Euromonitor International.