Personal Care Label Trends and Regulations

Ava Caridad, Editor

There was a time when a label could be glued to a beauty product sporting nothing more than an attractive design, classy font and a pretty colored background. In the 21st century, labels have to be so much more—they must emphasize brand identity, indicate government regulations, be tamper-evident, offer instant redeemable coupons and sport tracking devices, all while still attracting the consumer and outshining the competition. They can be shrink sleeve, or high definition prime pressure sensitive labels on paper, plastic, film or foil, using letterpress, flexographic and digital technologies. Whether they be shiny, shimmering, peel-back or piggy-back, bi-lingual or scratch-n-sniff—personal care, cosmetic and fragrance labels continue to communicate with, educate, and above all, lure the consumer.
   
According to the suppliers Beauty Packaging spoke to, trends for 2007 include enhanced sensorial effects, greater brand recognition and printing onto tube laminates. Additionally, there is a big interest in labels as closure systems for wet wipe packs, which initially was seen in baby care, but has now moved to skin and hair care, as well as all other label segment products, according to Alan Hazlewood, purchasing and technical support manager, Skanem AS (Group), Stavanger, Norway.   
   
Overnight Labels, Inc., Deer Park, NY, was recently named the Grand Award Winner in the 2006 PEAK Awards in the category of Labels and Tags (Prime). The winning submission was a pressure-sensitive label with cold foil. 
   
“Pressure-sensitive labels don’t have to be boring,” says Amy E. Brown, marketing manager, Overnight Labels. “With unique designs and specialty print options like rotary silkscreen, cold foil and hot stamping, pressure-sensitive labels are getting new life and added luxury touches. Rotary silkscreen is wonderful for clear labels being applied to clear bottles or colored bottles. It is a great way to achieve maximum opacity and added texture. For high-end cosmetic and personal care products, hot stamping or cold foil can add instant luster.”

Multi-Language: Pourquoi?

According to Logotech Inc., Fairfield, NJ, companies that sell cosmetics into Canada must have multi-language labels in French and English.
   
“We do produce labels for this market,” says Leslie Gurland, vice president, Logotech. “In the United States, you now see many food labels in English and Spanish, although you do not see this as much in the luxury cosmetic brands. However, I have seen it in the mass market. Our company has not been asked to produce cosmetic labels in English and Spanish yet.”
   
But should the request come, Ameri-Seal will be ready.
   
“Since a shrink sleeve offers 360 degree coverage and graphics, this tends to allow additional real estate to print multi-language information,” explains Howard Millstein, president, Ameri-Seal Inc., Chatsworth, CA.

Going Green

Environmentally sound packaging includes labels as well as biodegradable bottles and boxes. Suppliers are aware of this and increasing strides are being made to produce labels that are eco-friendly.
   
“Green packaging is important because the larger companies are requiring proof of present use or movement into this arena, especially in the natural/organic personal care markets,” says Terie Syme, operations manager, Prestige Label Co. (an Atlantic Packaging company), Burgaw, NC. “This is having a trickle down effect to all areas of packaging.”
   
Ameri-Seal has converted to PETG and OPS, which are both recyclable, while flexographic printer Overnight Labels utilizes environmentally friendly printing processes wherever possible.
   
“We are proud to offer water-based inks and coatings, as well as environmentally-friendly substrates such as PLA labels and film, in addition to traditional substrates and coatings,” says Overnight’s Brown. “With the exception of UV coating and rotary silkscreen, all of our standard inks are water-based.”
   
This same specialty, water-based ink is used exclusively for shrink sleeves and neck bands, which means there is no solvent retention and less chance for the ink to migrate into the product. According to Brown, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are not present in flexographic water-based inks. In addition, shrink sleeve material is now available in a variety of materials including PLA (a clear material derived from corn kernels), PETG and OPS, which are considered to be more environmentally friendly and price stable than traditional petroleum-based materials.
   
Motivated to run a more efficient, environmentally friendly company, Overnight Labels worked to reduce the percentage of solid waste produced from its facility throughout 2006. This goal was accomplished by implementing a quality management system (QMS) specifically developed with the intention of becoming ISO compliant and reducing overall production waste, while continually improving the end product.

The Labels of Luxury

Whether mass or prestige, personal care products can have a luxurious look merely by using a rich-looking label. 
   
“Demand for high appeal, sensorial labeling—using combination printing—continues,” states Skanem Group’s Hazlewood. Labels can be clear, white, glossy, matte or soft touch. Inks can be screen, litho or tactile, while varnishes can include pearlescent effects or iridescent overlaminates. Metallics are either vacuum metalized pigmented inks, hot or cold foiling or holographic foils, says Hazlewood.    
   

Ameri-Seal uses metalic inks to make their shrink sleeves shimmer.

According to Millstein, Ameri-Seal was one of the first companies to introduce metallic inks into the cosmetic/shrink sleeve market several years ago. In 2006 they produced four different items for Sally Beauty’s “Silk Elegance” line, using metallic inks that made the cylindrical shape of the container look like a can. Since then they have printed over 50 different item shrink sleeves for the cosmetic market.
   
Gilbreth Packaging, Croydon, PA, introduced an iridescent shrink label with shimmer, used to create special holiday beauty and fragrance packs. As the film interacts with light, it projects a kaleidoscopic pattern of color experiences that provide a unique on-package customer involvement, displaying a continually changing rainbow. Gilbreth iridescent shrink labels are made with PETG and PLA resins—making it an environmentally friendly packaging material, according to the company.
   
High-end trends are moving toward more upscale labels and exhibiting a luxurious, spa-like feeling or motif, explains Gurland. 
   
“Whether it’s a beautiful substrate, rich inks—which get better all the time—or added details like foil, a good label is the first opportunity to deliver the impression of luxury,” she emphasized. “Today, the label industry has the tools to deliver that impression better than ever.”

Labels as Seals

Consumers have grown accustomed to tamper-proof packages, especially in the past 20 years. The technology has progressed, however, and according to Hazlewood, the latest functional trend is tamper evident labels.
   

Logotech labels seal the cap on Yves Rocher’s lip balm, providing tamper protection.

“These are labels that seal to the cap, and to open the product you need to tear it. They are high end looking labels as well,” says Logotech’s Gurland.
   
Flexible packaging is tamper evident, so consumers can be confident that the product they’re using is safe, explains Brown.
   
“We offer a variety of different flexible film substrates including cosmetic web, which is ideal for liquid products like lotion, shampoo and conditioner since it is specially formulated for those products and is scent sealed.”
   
Prestige Labels’ Syme points out that shrink labels offer tamper evidence while performing two functions, marketing and safety, with one product and one application. According to Syme, multiple security printing processes offer protection against counterfeiting, as well.

Extended Labels

Label space on any packaging is limited, but on certain personal care packages, it’s downright tiny. Indeed, the Skanem Group can make Peel-n-Read labels in sizes small enough for the end of a lipstick.
   
Extended labels—those that peel off or unfold—can offer opportunities for expanded amounts of product information that are now deemed necessary. According to Hazlewood, health and safety information provisions in line with European Union Legislation, often in language clusters, means there is now a full need for Peel-n-Read back labels.
   
“We create a lot of extended-content labels for companies in personal care as well as in food, beverage, and other markets,” says Logotech’s Gurland. “There’s a lot of marketing power that comes from adding so much message space—and from engaging the consumer by having her interact with the label. In addition, it gives you more space for information.”
   
Overnight Labels also offers extended text labels such as booklet and peelback labels which not only offer much needed space for ingredient and “how to” verbage, but, according to the company, can reduce packaging costs by diminishing the need for additional packaging (i.e., boxes and inserts required for bottle-in-box offerings, etc.).

Wrap Yourself Around This

The popularity of shrink sleeve labels with their combined full billboard for unique shaped bottles, full 360-degree graphics and tamper evidence offerings continue to grow.    
   

Overnight Labels’ multi-pack shrink sleeve labels make promotions easier.

According to Syme, expansion of the shrink sleeve market has allowed for the marketing and packaging of some very impressive and eye catching custom shaped bottles that also offer functionality. Mixing and matching specialty substrates, inks and combination printing can also offer dramatic results, such as matte finishes with foil stamping for a very look.
   
The concept of multi- or promotional packaging (more than one product can be packaged together using a single shrink sleeve) has been extremely popular with shrink sleeves, notes Brown, Overnight Labels.
   
“We recently produced a multi-pack shrink sleeve that wrapped around a color enhancing shampoo and conditioner,” she explains. “The front, top two inches of the sleeve read ‘Free Conditioner-$7.99 Value With Purchase of Shampoo’ and the back lower portion displayed a new barcode for the promotion. This type of ‘buy one, get one’ is a popular formula for promotional packaging. It is a great way to sample new or existing products or dispense of inventory that is not moving quickly enough. This concept can also be applied to unlabeled items—by packaging them together using one shrink sleeve instead of multiple sleeves or labels.”
   
Over three years ago Ameri-Seal initiated a contract sleeving division.
   
“We felt being able to offer the application of the shrink sleeves as an added service would be very beneficial,” says Millstein. “We shrink the sleeves directly on to our customers’ products for them, as well as supply the material.  This saves them time and money, as well as shortens lead times.”
   
Ameri-Seal also offers digital sample shrink sleeves, wherein using the digital process they are able to print the customer’s exact graphics on the exact material that they would use in a full production mode and show them how it would look on their container without having to print thousands of sleeves. They use a special ink jet printing process that allows them to print single mock up samples for customers free of charge.

The Scent of a Label

Not many consumers can resist the scratch-n-sniff label, and in recent years the traditional favorite has expanded to all-around scented labels. In fact, Ameri-Seal currently offers limited fragrances for their PVC, PETG and OPS heat shrinkable seals, sleeves and labels such as lemon, lime, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
   

Scratch-n-sniff labels from Logotech

Logotech has been producing scented labels for five years, and according to Leslie Gurland, they are common for perfume samples.
   
“Scented labels remain a novelty for promotional items,” explains Alan Hazlewood. “They are always of high interest, but are a problem child in terms of manufacture, use and cost.” 

Regulatory Concerns

Beauty Packaging asked suppliers about the latest regulatory trends in personal care labels, and some of the legal requirements involved.
   
Logotech explained that label suppliers are seeing new regulations in Canada requiring a full ingredient list, as well as warnings if any known or suspected carcinogens are contained in the products. 
   
“U.S. companies that sell into Canada, of course, need to keep that in mind,” Gurland stated. “Obviously, the new rules will require more space and careful design—especially on many personal care products that are packaged in shaped or ornamental bottles.  Add to that the Canadian demand for information in both English and French and you have a pretty packed label.  I think we’ll see extended-content labels increasingly called upon to help deliver all that information in an attractive and functional way.”
    
The next potentially regulatory issue in the U.S. really hasn’t fully emerged yet, and that’s nanotechnology. According to Gurland, there’s much discussion about the use of nanoparticles in personal care products.
   
“Right now, there’s a lot of focus on sunscreens—and a lot of interest by the public.  It could be that the FDA decides that products containing nanoparticles need to be labeled.”
   
Even if they don’t, manufacturers may very well voluntarily highlight the presence of nanoparticles in their products as a way to promote their benefits. 
   
“Either way, I think we’ll see more demand for labels with lots of information. We may also find label designers searching for ways to visually communicate the sense of nano-sized particles, high-tech formulations, etc.,” she observed.
“Those demands usually create exciting opportunities to use new inks and substrates.” 

Sidebar

Braille Labels On Perfume Packaging…

According to Business Source Premier, there are an estimated 10 million visually impaired people living in the U.S. alone. L’Occitane en Provence’s founder Olivier Baussan has 650 stores worldwide, and, as an advocate of the visually impaired, almost all of OlivierBaussan’s perfumes have labels containing braille. Additionally, the company runs a summer perfume school for visually impaired teenagers near its headquarters in Manosque, France. Experts estimate that adding braille labels costs L’Occitane four to six cents per package.