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| Estee Lauder's Pure Color features heavy-walled glass or plastic packaging for a high-end look that spotlights product color. |
The latest packaging for lip, eye and nail cosmetics is often more than fashionable and functional.
With competition for retail space and consumer attention at all time highs, clever packaging that holds and does more is in demand. The best new package will have great looks, perform very well and incorporate some feature that makes it different from the rest.
Estée Lauder Packaging Sets Fashion Trends
For color cosmetics—lipstick, lip gloss, mascara and nail polish—the package has to present the product, maintain the brand’s image, and must also then provide application in an effective way.
Form and function are completely interconnected, according to John Fling, vice president of package design for the Estée Lauder brand. “If one aspect is compromised, the packaging will not be successful. From a design standpoint, the package design first and foremost has to serve the product,” Fling stressed, adding, “As formulas become more sophisticated, designing methods of application become more challenging and exciting.”
The company makes use of the latest technologies available to stay ahead of the curve. Fling explained, “With Estée Lauder’s in-house computer capabilities, we can now develop highly complex forms in very short time frames and can realize them in functioning models virtually overnight. New informational resources available from our packaging innovation group enable us to incorporate the latest technologies and materials into new projects.”
Lauder’s commitment to innovative packaging put the company out in front of a trend that is now rippling through the industry. “Estée Lauder was the most innovative and impactful in the use of heavy walled materials,” said Fling. The company’s use of crystal clear plastic materials to create highly styled, color evident packaging for its Pure Color line showed how effective the technique can be.
“The Pure Color line actually began with an innovative nail lacquer bottle, which was the inspiration for the other products in the line,” said Fling, adding, “There will definitely be additions to the Pure Color line going forward.”
The latest addition to the collection is Pure Color EyeShadow (see page 34), joining the existing lipstick, gloss and nail lacquer. The product is presented in a clear-cube package, which showcases each color with just a touch of signature Lauder gold. The outside of the cube is just the beginning of a clever, efficient package. It opens to the product, a mini-mirror and a plush applicator.
Estée Lauder will continue its leadership role in trendsetting, as its packaging design explores the possibilities. Fling advised, “New materials are allowing for greater impact of color, such as double-wall molding, and new technologies, such as new magnetic closure systems, are helping to create packages that function more effectively and that allow for more clean, modern designs.” He cautioned, “New technologies are creating both new opportunities and complexities. While the new technologies and materials are very exciting to work with, they are also unfamiliar and untested. Thus, issues such as product compatibilities become much more critical.”
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| Function and form are equally important in Mary Kay's MK Signiture pckaging. |
For Mary Kay, It’s Function First
Before anything else, Mary Kay demands that all packaging must be functional, according to Beth Ludwig, director of Mary Kay global color marketing. She said, “That may seem to be a given, but often it can be overlooked or de-emphasized and the customer is left with a beautiful package that doesn’t perform.”
In the past year, Mary Kay has redesigned its line of color cosmetics, moving away from its dominantly pink theme to a more sophisticated look called MK Signature. It has also created the Velocity line targeted to teens and young adults.
Ludwig explained, “Beyond function, packaging must also engage the consumer. As one part of the mix, packaging should effectively present the brand-generating awareness and deliver on brand attributes. Depending on the brand positioning, this may manifest itself in the form of a flip-top cap for convenience or an inverted fragrance bottle demonstrating the unique, novel or unexpected.”
Mary Kay makes use of the latest technologies because these allow more choice and freedom when designing packaging. Ludwig noted, “Whether it be an aesthetic value for visual appeal or an efficacious value in protecting the formula, new advances in packaging enable our ability to deliver an even better product for the customer.”
This fall Mary Kay’s Velocity line will launch products that offer its customer two products in one package—dual-ended lip glosses or an eye shadow and metallic liquid liner combination.
Ludwig said that when Mary Kay sets out to develop presentation, it references both lifestyle and fashion trends in designing packaging. “This allows us to understand the needs of our customers and then engage them via functional and fashionable packaging. The Velocity brand is built around orange—a color identified through fashion trends but more importantly by our customers, in pre-launch research, who felt it personified the Velocity concept. Similarly, the packaging for MK Signature was designed to communicate a contemporary and fashionable color line. The platinum primary packaging and bright pink secondary packaging reinforces the brand attributes of a classic yet current line.”
The Shape of Things to Come
The latest in cosmetic packaging is “a matter of updating a look,” said Lou Della Pesca, president of 3C, Hawthorne, NJ. He noted that a lot of new design work is going on in the shape of outer containers for lip, eye and nail products, “such as making a square mascara case to go along with a square compact.”
There is also a trend to slimmer cases for all kinds of cosmetic products, according to Maureen Colton, director of sales for Topline Products, based in Wayne, NJ. The company’s patented Slimline, Dial Up lipstick offers the fashion of a thinner, longer container combined with a mechanism that allows the user to dial up the lipstick with one hand. Colton said it can be made as a plastic package or metal or any combination of the two.
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| Lancome's new Flextencils mascara features an asymetrical curved barrel and cap. |
The Lisse Gloss, Smoothing lip gloss from Yves Saint Laurent, combines two of today’s leading trends for its packaging. The barrel and cap are squared. The cap has a metallic look accented with the YSL signature logo. The barrel is heavy-walled, clear plastic for a magnified view of the product color.
Lancôme charts a new direction for its latest mascara Flextencils with an asymmetrical curved barrel and cap, which is said to reflect the curve of a woman’s body.
Surface Appeal
Color and shape are noticed simultaneously by shoppers, so the color and surface of a package are key. In lipstick packaging, there are several new finishing techniques that Risdon-AMS is offering to give products a distinctive look, according to Stephen T. Pearlman, company president. Soft touch finishes, various spray lacquers and metallic treatments are all now available. Based in Watertown, CT, Risdon-AMS can provide a soft touch spray that creates a velvet-like finish, while maintaining the color of the basic substrate. A bonus to the “feel good” effect is that the product is given more slip resistance.
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| The cap of Revlon's colorstay mascara has a soft touch finish for an element of difference. |
Popular metallic looks can be created in any color, but right now are in demand in golds, silvers and champagne shades, according to Gary Fagan, Risdon-AMS’ director of sales and marketing for color. Fagan added that a “flip” lacquer finish, which creates an iridescent effect, is also increasing in popularity. “When the object is moved, the color seems to change with different angles,” he said. “And all the UV sprays have the added advantage that they are more durable than air-dried finishes.”
What Color is that Lipstick?
Developing a way for a consumer to see the color of a lipstick without opening the package has long been a marketer goal. In the past year, first prestige and now mass products have found a good way to do just that.
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| Liphoria by BeComing has a color-evident window in the base. |
Estée Lauder launched Pure Color lipstick in 2001 with a clear section at the base that appears to provide a window into the actual product. It is, in fact, a color button that is molded to precisely match the color of each lipstick shade. The button is then over-molded with two layers of clear material to produce a terrific, shining, magnified effect. Pure Color gloss is held in a heavy-walled, crystal clear rectangular barrel that shows the product, topped off with a gold cap and accented with the gold EC logo.
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| YSL's Lisse Gloss has a clear, squared barrel and metallic cap. |
YSL has also developed a lipstick container for its rouge Pur Transparent that incorporates a colored section in the base that shows off the product shade to the shopper as it makes a dramatic fashion statement.
Eastman Chemical is delighted that marketers want packaging that allows the product to shine through. Eastman’s Suj Rawal, market development manager for cosmetics, agreed that there is a trend in both the prestige and mass markets to create a lipstick package that shows the shopper the color without having to open the tube.
Both Revlon’s Absolutely Fabulous and Almay’s Lip Vitality lipsticks feature a clear section in the bottom of the case that has a colored insert that matches the lipstick. “The color piece is molded and then clear, glass-like copolyester is molded over it,” Rawal explained. “At retail, the products are displayed upside down to show the colors.”
For both lipsticks and lip gloss packages, the trend is to replace glass with chemical-resistant materials such as Eastman’s Eastar copolyesters, according to Rawal, who said, “Since 1998, Eastman’s copolyester has been making inroads into cosmetic packaging. Its key features of clarity and chemical resistance have made it a successful substitute for glass. It is also a dense material so it has a glass-like feel and heft.”
There’s More to a Lipstick Than Color
While the outside features of the package provide enhanced esthetics, the engineering of color cosmetic containers is becoming more demanding and sophisticated. “Consumers like to hear a ‘click’ when they snap a lipstick closed to assure a snug, sure fit. We are achieving that with a high level of precision tooling,” said Risdon’s Fagan. He added that the internal structure of lipstick containers is also changing. Because the pomade formulas are often soft for smoother application, the company is working on an enhanced “cup” which will hold the bullet more securely.
Applicators Do a Better Job
When it comes to lip gloss and mascara packages, the same basic barrel has traditionally served for both. With a change of color and labeling, the basic barrel can still do the job, but applicators are becoming much more individual and sophisticated.
3C’s Della Pesca noted that there is a larger assortment of mascara brushes available than ever. “The brushes are thinner or longer, have curves or not,” he stated, “any element of difference in order to be original or special in some way.”
What used to be a mascara brush is now a “delivery system” according to Pearlman of Risdon-AMS. “The outside of the container is the esthetic and the delivery system is how it gets the product onto the eye lashes,” he said. “We are now being asked by our customers (the brand marketers) to engineer a delivery system to fulfill a specific need.”
Mascara formulas are now so varied—adding bulk, length, curl, some combination of attributes, or simple shine and/or tint—that there are many variables to be considered. Antonio Montoli, vice president of engineering for Risdon-AMS’ eye care division, explained that the brush itself has a stainless steel wire core that is fitted, in all manner of combinations, with nylon or polyester filaments. “A brush can vary by the shape and size of the filaments, by the number of filaments to every turn (they are placed in spirals around the core), as well as whether it is straight or curved.”
It’s no wonder then that there are hundreds of patents across the cosmetic industry for different mascara brushes. The most recent mascara trend that Montoli has noticed is to a relatively liquid formula. “It’s a tint rather than the usual heavier product and requires a different delivery system,” Montoli explained. Revlon’s new Lash Tint is a prime example of this new type of mascara.
Lip gloss applicators too are becoming more involved, according to Della Pesca. He explained, “A major change has been the applicator, a doe-foot pad that is now being made more plush so that more gloss can be applied with one stroke.”
Montoli agreed, saying, “Depending on the bulk type (of the gloss), we engineer the applicator to do the best job. When we develop new things now, we work on the deliver system first and then design the outside of the package.”
Double Duty Packaging
Major marketers are also putting lip gloss in square pans as part of a total presentation in a compact that might also hold eye shadow, more than one lip gloss or a blush. Such double and multi-product containers are popular, said Della Pesca, and are sometimes offered with a brush rather than a doe-foot applicator.
Other lipstick containers will now have a mini-container holding a different color or a gloss product on the bottom.
YSL’s Fards À Paupières Quatuor No. 2 is presented in a square compact with mirror that holds four pans of eye shadow as well as a double-ended applicator. The compact is finished in the same metallic bronze its other Fall ’02 introductions.
Niche Marketers Get Creative
At the high end, designer lines are incorporating special features. Cat Cosmetics, established by Catherine Hickland, an actress on television’s One Life to Live, has a lipstick case featuring a mirror that flips up from the side of the case when it is released as the top cap is removed.
Cat Cosmetics has been featured on QVC, and is sold online at www.catcosmetics.com, as well as at the brand’s boutique on Madison Ave. in New York City. Along with clever names such as Six Kitten (a compact holding lip glosses, blushes and eye shadows) and Meowscara (in a sleek, brushed metallic tube), Cat Cosmetics’ line is marked by clean, contemporary packaging.
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| Solaris from DieterBakic is a customizable compact new this season. |
The Modern Look
Clean, modern styling is available in stock lines from companies like DieterBakicEnterprises.
Peter Smorscek, spokesman for the company said Solaris, which will be introduced at fall 2002 shows, is a small customizable compact that is best suited for eye shadow, blush or lip gloss. The compact is topped by a slightly curving lid with a raised edge to make it easy to open and to hold.
Naomi is a color cosmetic range from DieterBakic, consisting of lipstick, mascara and nail varnish. The slim, graceful shapes are ergonomic as well as attractive. The Vis-a-Vis duo case is a packaging solution for two-in-one make-up applications like lip color and lip gloss, mascara and eyeshadow or eyeliner. The package consists of two 4-ml containers connected by an anodized aluminium collar.
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| The Lippmann Collection has innovative packaging. |
Nail Polish Bottles—Smaller, More Decorative
Estée Lauder’s Pure Color nail lacquer shows off each shade in the line with a heavy-walled glass bottle that magnifies the color with a jewel-like glow as does the YSL line Vernis Laque Pur.
The Lippmann Collection is a new line of nail lacquers and treatments that also uses innovative packaging to show off its products. The nail lacquer bottles are pretty, little squared packages with a clear heavy-walled pedestal and silver cap.
Packaging for The Stripper, Lippmann’s nail polish remover, was created to solve a problem that founder Deborah Lippmann had encountered with more traditional containers. As a manicurist who takes her work on the road, she needed a bottle that wouldn’t leak or spill. The container features a twist-lock cap as well as a pump mechanism that delivers the right amount of remover to a small reservoir at the top. While salon products often have such a pump, it is an added bonus for consumers, who now can have the same one-handed function.
Topline’s Colton said there is a trend to smaller nail lacquer bottles and/or more decorative bottles. Topline’s patented “clean-neck” feature is used by many products to remove excess product before application. Colton explained that the company will partner with a bottle manufacturer that want to use its patent for a nail polish bottle.
